Thanks to Partner NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC of Sophie Sullivan’s Ten Rules for Faking It in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on Tuesday, December 29.

Sophie Sullivan’s Ten Rules for Faking It is an excellent contemporary romance with a great, complex protagonist. Everly Dean has a history of bad birthdays dating back to her childhood, but THIS birthday (her 30th) is the worst yet. First, she finds her boyfriend cheating on her, and then when her best friend Stacey, a radio host, tries to give Everly an on-the-air birthday surprise, she accidentally broadcasts Everly’s outburst about the horror and humiliation of this birthday.

Everly, the producer of Stacey’s show, just wants to forget about the whole thing. She’s an introvert who hates surprises, hates being the center of attention, doesn’t love strangers, and craves rules and order to help manage her anxiety. So she’s surprised to agree to a clever idea from the owner of the radio station, Chris Jansen. He proposes that they should capitalize on the attention and sympathy Everly’s embarrassment has garnered and launch a dating show to find love for Everly.

Here’s what I loved about this book: Sullivan does a great job portraying Everly’s anxiety and introversion. As someone who shares those traits, I appreciated the way that she showed Everly working through her feelings and seeking solutions to the problems they sometimes cause. But Sullivan doesn’t imply that Everly needs to do a complete turnaround or change herself: instead, it’s more of a gradual willingness to try new things.

Everly and Stacey’s friendship is fabulous. Stacey is an extrovert, and watching the push and pull of their relationship is a lot of fun. They also love Veronica Mars (a win for me!), support each other both in and out of work, and push each other to be just a little bit better, a little bit braver. Oh, and they do that with a list of rules that Everly creates for herself . . . and I do love a checklist.

Everly’s parents are a big part of her backstory, and Sullivan beautifully addresses both the ways that they support and love Everly AND the way they’ve contributed to her anxiety.

I also appreciated Chris, who is sensitive to Everly’s anxiety. While he encourages her to do the dating show, he also supports her as she works her way through the experience, making small changes to each date that will make her more comfortable. He pays attention to her (another win for me!). He’s sweet and sexy and has his own issues and backstory to deal with. (The novel’s perspective alternates between Everly and Chris.)

There are a couple of secrets that run through the book that cause some conflict at the end, and that’s not my favorite trope. Others in the @lovearctually chat were, however, just fine with it, so I think that’s a me thing.

I really enjoyed the added nuance of Sullivan’s writing—the complexities she gave the characters made Ten Rules for Faking It a joy to read and discuss.

Ten Rules for Faking It is inspiring, romantic, quirky, and funny. I thought it was a realistic portrayal of dating in your 30s- realizing the impact of your parents’ relationships on your own, baggage each person brings from their previous relationships, and still not having all of the answers. I appreciated the portrayal of a character with social anxiety. It was respectful and truthful for how someone’s brain works in certain situations. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would absolutely read another book by Sophie Sullivan.

Thank you to Sophie Sullivan, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In Sophie Sullivan’s debut novel, a woman who just turned 30 has to face her fears. The 30 year old character, Everly, is a radio producer at a local station. When her best friend/djay drops a bomb on the air, Everly has a lot to face, including dating men hand selected from the station. Does she fall in love with one of the hand selected friends? Or, is her prince charming right in front of her face? You’ll have to read the novel when it is published at the end of the month to find out.

This book is a romantic fiction novel set in present day. Everly is relatable to a T and I enjoyed laughing and taking dating adventures with her. I was definitely rooting for her to find her true love. However, the story had a slow start. I wish the story would just dive in where Everly is at and what was going to happen without the unnecessary details. The ending does make up for this slowness, luckily. Once I hit page 100, I couldn’t put the book down and crave more from Sophie Sullivan.

I recommend this novel to anyone believing in love, characters with anxiety, and the Bachelor fans out there. I could easily imagine this story being one I pick up again when I need a good laugh and smile.

This book did a good job at shedding the light on social anxieties and the realities that many people face. However, the story itself was simply okay for me. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, but that's okay! I think the biggest struggle for me was that I felt like I could have used a few more chapters before the story actually started. We were immediately thrust into Chris and Everly's story, which I think as a reader confused me a bit. There was no real build-up to the feelings that I had anticipated and expected, which threw me a bit off guard. Because of this, I think I found it hard to root for the characters because the stakes didn't seem as high.

Ten Rules for Faking It is a contemporary romance novel which I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It is always tricky to rate a romance novel. I tend to give them a star rating based on my level of enjoyment and if there were any particular aspects in the plot that I really liked. Ten Rules for Faking It ended up being a 3 star book for me. Here are the things that I really liked:

The main character Everly has a severe social anxiety. I thought the author did an amazing job describing Everly's panic attacks and her struggles with anxiety. I don't think I've ever encountered such vivid descriptions in any other book. I also really enjoyed Everly's relationship with her friend Stacey. Finally, the hero and the main love interest Chris is a truly swoon worthy character. His ability to understand Everly's anxiety and read her mood is uncanny. Obviously, romance novels rarely have realistic heroes. Chris is young, rich, understanding and completely in love with Everly. She on the other hand, does act quite unreasonably on several occasions towards him in second half of the book, and his patience and loyalty were truly astonishing to me.

In terms of the shortcomings, I think this book could benefit from some editing. I think at least 50 to 75 pages could be edited out. The author gets way into too much detail on what the characters think or feel and gets overly repetitive on some points. I think she might lose some of the readers who read a lot of romance because they will simply get bored with unnecessary descriptions.

Finally, I would like to note that this is a clean romance. There are no explicit sex scenes and the entire relationship is quite slow developing and angsty. Overall, I did like the book and as I already mentioned the anxiety representation was outstanding.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sophie Sullivan and St Martin's Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This one was really fun! Right from the beginning I was invested in the main characters life and the awkward things that she has to go through. I think we can all relate to some of the problems these characters have, especially the anxiety. It was portrayed so appropriately throughout the entire novel and it was nice to see someone battle with real life problems. I really adored most of the characters and I definitely enjoyed the radio dating idea! I would definitely recommend.

I’m obsessed with this book. That’s the first and most important thing. The second is how thankful I am to NETGALLEY and the publisher for granting me an early copy. This was absolutely phenomenal. I have never related more to a heroine. She deals with severe anxiety (as do I) but it was the way she dealt with it that really resonated with me. It was like my thoughts were written on paper. The best is, she has friends who look out for her! It was so fun to see that. The first chapter of the book it was clear how much her friend cared for her. Even if it was a little embarrassing. There are some complicated relationships in this but I loved them anyway. I loved the big grump, also known as Chris who turned out to be the cutest muffin for Everley. Even though he has his own struggles, with family and his feelings for Everley, I still loved him. From the beginning. This is all about sticking through the hard times and using the peopl who want to help you and coming to terms with your feelings. A new favourite of mine!

I liked this book. The romantic story was cute, slightly predicable but it was surprisingly clean, which I thought was nice. I enjoyed the realistic viewpoint of a person with anxiety and how real it seemed to me as a reader. I have anxiety as well and I liked how it portrayed and the support system Everly had. The squishy cat was awesome too. It was a cute story overall. It had good character growth with the main two leads and some of the supporting characters. Now I want to hear about Chris's brothers.

I really wanted to love this book, especially after getting to meet the author last night over zoom who is just a delightful person, but I just didn’t. I found the main character grating. I appreciate the representation of someone with anxiety, but Everly just seemed so focused on herself for the whole book. Chris and her best friend kept telling her that she was an amazing person, but I didn’t see any evidence to back up those claims and I was left feeling like Chris’s attraction to her, which I think was supposed to feel very real, just felt superficial. Mostly he talked about how she looked.

I also thought the book was strangely long. We didn’t see all the dates Everly went on, but there were multiple re-hashings of her not letting people in that didn’t really move the story forward. I found the level of judgement she put on Chris after finding out he’d been divorced really horrible after he’d been so understanding with her, but at the same time I found his constant suggestions that she “breathe” a little offensive instead of endearing.
I wished that Everly had gotten some kind of help with her anxiety instead of her big breakthrough being that she was strong enough to adopt cats. I also wish we’d seen more of her other dates and heard Simon’s side of the cheating story. In the book we learn that he’s going to do an on-air tell all with another station, but then we never hear anything about it.

I really appreciate the opportunity to read this one, and I do think the intention of showing a character with anxiety was a good one, but this one didn’t resonate with me.

I really enjoyed this book! This is a feel-good story with great characters that come to life on the page. Everly is relatable and sweet; I was rooting for her throughout the book. The depiction of her social anxiety is well done, poignant and realistic. I felt engaged in her journey as she faced her fears and worries, pushing herself to find happiness but also accepting herself for the great person that she is. The slow-burn romance between Everly and Chris is lovely and I liked how it evolved over the course of the book. I could see this being turned into a movie, one I'd definitely like to watch. A lovely book and highly recommended! Thank you very much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC.

This book deals with a lot of issues. The most pressing being anxiety. Everley has a really horrible case anxiety but luckily she has friends who look out for her. There is also a lot of dysfunctional relationships that are present. Chris is struggling with his father and doesn’t know how to deal with his feelings for Everley. The story is a lot to take in but it is about friendship and sticking through the rough spots through for the long haul and the good that comes in the end.

This book took me by surprise. I thought it was going to be a YA novel, but it follows thirty year olds through their own kinds of challenges. Beyond that, it began slowly and I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy it, but the moment it picked up I could no longer put it down.

A genuine portrayal of social anxiety, chasing your dreams, 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 your dreams, and figuring out what you want from life even if it’s not what you had originally dreamed of … this book captures it all. Coming to terms with who you are and who you want to be is something just about everyone will relate to. And then of course, there’s the love story.

This was the most adorable book that I have read about romance and a main character suffering with anxiety. I love how the author dug into the what the Everly felt like when she went through the panic attacks . She portrays this character with such real thoughts and feeling I truly fell in love with her kindness and how she tried to make everything right. I also love how Chris character talks about his feeling but not wanting to open up, so many people are like that today and this book gives you a close look at how relationships are today. I laughed, cried and just loved this story. I would love to see a movie about this book , and def more stories about these characters.

thanks to #netgalley and to #stmartinpress

Everly Dean has a history of really bad birthdays, but when she decides to surprise her boyfriend on the morning of her thirtieth birthday, she's the one who receives the surprise--she catches him en flagrante with his assistant. To make things worse, she spills the tale to her best work friend, DJ Stacey, unaware that they're on air.

Everly, with Stacey's help, decides she needs to make some changes in her life and comes up with a list of goals, renamed "Ten Rules for Faking It." When station manager Chris comes to Everly with a plan to save both hers and Stacey's jobs, Everly grudgingly decides to step out of her comfort zone. She agrees to a sort of Bachelorette game, where she goes out on very public dates with guys who apply, then chooses which one she wants to see. The only problem is, she finds herself falling for the one guy who hasn't applied to date her.

TEN RULES FOR FAKING IT is an amusing, feel-good story with a happy ending. Like nearly all books, it was written at a time when people dated, went to bars, had parties--it all seems so dangerous now. But it was an entertaining distraction and a reminder of what life is usually like. #TenRulesForFakingIt #NetGalley

Everly is turning 30 and has decided she needs to grow up. She makes a list of rules of things that she needs to work on. I enjoyed the banter between her and her eventual love interest. Although predictable like most romantic comedies are, this one touches on anxiety and covers what it feels like to have a panic attack. Everly has a good support system in her best friend and boss and they handle her anxiety well. It was nice to see a book have mental illness that didn't just magically get better or pushed under the rug.,

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for a copy to read and review. If you like Hallmark movies, you need this book! It could literally be a Hallmark movie. I had to recommend it to my best friend for that reason alone. 🙂
Everly is a producer for a radio show which stars her best friend Stacey. On her birthday, Everly mistakenly shares her rant about her now ex boyfriend when she doesn’t realize Stacey’s mic is on. Suddenly everyone wants to date Everly, except her very cute boss Chris. Chris and Everly end up planning out a dating competition to see who will win Everly’s heart bachelorette style. What happens when Chris and Everly have to fight a growing attraction.
This one was a slow burn (Hallmark style)! I loved all the characters, I can relate to Everly’a anxiety problems and Chris was the best. If you are in the market for a sweet read with likable characters, this is for you! Comes out December 29!

When Everly starts her thirtieth birthday by finding her boyfriend in bed with another woman, she decides to make a list of rules to help guide her life. Her best friend, Stacey, titles it, "Ten Rules for Faking It," and they make a plan to help her live by the rules they came up with. Everly is soon presented by her boss, Chris, with the opportunity to help out the broadcasting company she works for by being involved in a dating game, where she gets to go out with men she is matched with. The thought of putting herself out there like that terrifies Everly, but because of her rules, she goes through with it anyway. Although she isn't sure she will meet "the one" by doing this, she wants to help raise the station's viewing numbers and get out of her comfort zone. The farther along she gets in the game, however, the more she realizes that the person she truly wants may be closer than she thought.

Ten Rules for Faking It was such an enjoyable read! I loved the discussions of anxiety and family dynamics and appreciated how deep the author was willing to dive into these topics that aren't always seriously addressed in romances. However, I personally felt the story was lacking in the actual romance department. I kept waiting and waiting for the build-up, and although we see and feel the tension rising between Everly and Chris, I guess I just felt that the ending was anticlimactic and left me wanting so much more. Because the story ended at the very beginning of their relationship, we didn't get to see what they actually looked like as a couple, which I would have loved!

Regardless, this was a sweet read that addressed so many solid themes. I loved watching Everly grow through her anxiety, and watching Chris want to help her rather than push her way because of her "problems" was heartwarming. Would I recommend this book? Yes. It had me screaming into my sweatshirt at times because of the tension that I could literally feel rising off my screen. Just be prepared for that very slow burn that may become frustrating at times, but don't glaze over the important themes in the book!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for providing an ARC of Ten Rules for Faking It! This book is set to be published on 12/29/2020.

3 1/2 stars. This was my first book by Sophie Sullivan. Overall I liked the book. I particularly liked that the location was centered around a radio station. My only negative, at it might just be a personal preference, is that I don't like miscommunication or conflict that can be so easily resolved if the couple would just talk to each other. Other than that I enjoyed the hero and heroine and found it a fun and satisfying read. I do look forward to reading more from this author.

Everly has anxiety issues and hates being the center of attention. On her birthday she stopped off to bring bagels and coffee to her boyfriend only to find him in bed with his assistant. When arriving at work as a producer for a radio program, she did not realize they were broadcasting when she shared her morning with her best friend. To ease the tension and bring listeners to the program, her boss, Chris, decides to have men submit their bios for dates with Everly. This is hard for Chris because he has been interested in Everly since he signed on as station manager but dared not seek out a relationship. Everly finds a special spark when she is with Chris but dares not consider him as a suitor since he is her boss. This is an empathetic look into anxiety issues, friendship, and love. People change, relationships are worth pursuing, and true friends will help you through the hard times. Great book with wonderful characters and funny happenings are mixed in with the serious moments. Very cleaver and creative.

This book reminded me of another book that I read this year, "The Love Study" in that it is involving one character going through a dating competition, but instead falling in love with one of the people in the competition, someone else catches their eye.

I enjoyed the main characters Everly and Chris and liked how the book alternated between the two characters as it helped to share both of their stories. I also liked the conflict between Chris and his dad and the interesting element that it added to the story.

However there was almost too much miscommunication between the two main characters and that I didn't like.

Overall this was a cute story and I love how it all ended up.