I really liked Ten Rules for Faking It.

As damage control for an extremely embarrassing on-air rant after walking in on her boyfriend's infidelity, the boss at the radio station where Everly works come up with a Bachelorette style promotion to take advantage of listener sympathy for Everly. I was drawn to this story by the promise of a series of blind dates - for some reason I like this trope and like both good and bad date stories. What really made this story for me though was Everly, she is very likable and very brave trying to manage her life even though she struggles with severe social anxiety. Her boss Chris is also wonderful, he is very understanding and compassionate with her, even as he tries to fight his 'inappropriate' desire to 'fraternize'. I like relationships like this that develop slowly, with friendship and trust that turns into more.

This had a lot of cute moments and a satisfying HEA. I would definitely be on board with returning to this world to read more about Everly's completely outgoing friend Stacey or a story with Chris's older brother Nick in the lead.

ARC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. released date 12/29/2020

This was a sweet story with all the feels!
I really liked Everly and Chris together and individually, an office romance set at a radio station..so cute
Everly is such a strong woman and I liked this book approach to the anxiety.
The characters were so endearing and had their hearts in the right place, namely Stacey and Everly's friendship. I hope this turns into series, the ending chapters were quite good and fun to read.

*𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕. 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏'𝒔 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑵𝒆𝒕𝒈𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏 𝑨𝑹𝑪 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 *

I think the biggest reason that I liked this book so much, is because I am literally Everly. Yes her anxiety is worse than mine & my parents are actually divorced, but aside from that, we have a lot in common.

I’m really glad that I was able to read this book right now because I’m going through something similar at work & now it’s got me second guessing. Also, this book did a good job of showing me that maybe I should be taking more chances & putting myself out there more.

As far as birthdays go radio producer Everly has never had a good one. Although she thinks they can never get worse, this years birthday blows the rest out of the water. After finding her boyfriend cheating on her, Everly walks into work not realizing her BFF/ radio host had the mic on while she poured out the details of her morning. Though at first Everly is horrified and her boss is upset about the mishap, they soon realize this slip up may have actually created an opportunity for the perfect segment. Everly will now go on dates with men the radio audience suggests creating the stations own mini bachelorette. One small problem, she can’t keep her eyes off her boss.

This book is a cute romcom and is a super easy and quick read. The characters were likable although somewhat predictable and the story line was quirky yet a bit of a slow burn.

While I loved the anxiety rep, I didn't like the writing style and found it difficult to connect with either main character.

Not much to say here. I liked the premise of the book, but think that things got fouled up when Sullivan switched from Everly's point of view, to Chris's. I just didn't care what he had to say or think throughout the book. And honestly there is a lot that was dismissed concerned Everly's social anxiety that I think should have been delved into much better than this book allowed. This is honestly reminding me of a book I read last year (blanking on the name) where the heroine had severe anxiety problems but it's glossed over when she falls in love. Never mind that her first marriage ended over the same issue.

"Ten Rules for Faking It" follows Everly a producer of a radio morning show. Everly never has the best birthdays, and this year is among the worst when she walks in on her boyfriend with someone else. And the icing on the cake is when she reveals on air to her best friend, and the show's DJ, Stacey, that she caught her boyfriend with someone else. Everly gets sent home, but the station's owner's son Chris, thinks he may have a way to save Everly's show if she agrees to go on some dates and talks about it on the air. Everly agrees since she doesn't see a way out of the show getting cancelled.

The book could have been cute, but I think that Sullivan just glossed over things with regards to Everly too much. And it didn't make any sense that Everly seemed to just get a crush on Chris out of nowhere. As I mentioned, we know that Everly has severe social anxiety, so reading about her going on dates that she hates wasn't fun at all. I think if Sullivan wanted this to be a easy breezy chick lit read she could have made the dates more fun and just had readers laughing. Instead I was annoyed with Chris and his deal that got Everly into something she really didn't want to do. Also Everly is extremely judgmental of pretty much everything. I just got tired of reading about her after a while.

And Chris...yikes. He just comes of nowhere and we see how into Everly he is, once again out of nowhere. Also the way he and his brothers' spoke about his sister started to rub me the wrong way. Also, Chris is Everly's boss and the power imbalance in the relationship should not have been glossed over the way it was in this book. I swear, you would think in the aftermath of #metoo more authors would not write relationships with boss/workers and act like it's cool.

The writing was so-so and the flow was just bad since it jumped around between Everly and Chris.

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan, published by St. Martin's Griffin, is a stand-alone romance comedy.
Every Dean is a radio producer and she's the talk of the town. Her mouth runs away with her often, sometimes annoyingly often. She's hilarious, and bad luck is following her fiercely.
Chris is her boss, her bosses' son and he onlky bids his time for better things. When there wouldn't be this radio producer he can't stay away from.
TRfFI is an ok read. I was entertained by the story and liked the characters and the writing.

I requested to read and review this book from St. Martin Publishing Company. This book has a lot of sass, heartache, happiness, romance, mystery and understanding. The setting is in gorgeous California. Stacey is a hoot, Everly you will cheer her on, Chris needs to be himself. And the rest of the broadcasting crew are great work friends. Anxiety doesn't make you weak it makes you strong which this book will definitely teach you that. This is a book for any type of reader and can be read anytime!!

After Everly walks in on her boyfriend cheating, and then accidentally reveals the fiasco live on air, she finds herself whisked into a radio-style bachelorette in an attempt to save her job. This sounds like fun for most, but Everly suffers from social anxiety and this is pretty much her worst nightmare.

I absolutely loved the representation of anxiety in this book. It’s real, and honest, and paints an accurate picture of what it can be like to suffer from debilitating anxiety and how it can get in the way of simple, everyday things that someone else might never even think about (like the simple act of attending your own birthday party, or going on a first date) Everly’s story and her relationship with her best friend Stacey redeems the whole book. Unfortunately, there is little to no chemistry between her and her love interest, Chris, who is also her grumpy boss. The few moments we get with them interacting are sweet and wholesome, but we simply don’t get much of them together. Overall, I loved the story of Everly learning how to live her best life with anxiety, and I love that she celebrates success in even the smallest accomplishments in her life. It’s inspiring to all of us who may let anxiety hold us back from living our happiest moments.

Thank you netgalley and St Martin’s Griffin for my advanced copy! :)

This was such a sweet story about a woman with crippling social anxiety. Everly has no confidence in herself, but she’s resolved to try to step out her comfort zone. And having her rant about her cheating boyfriend broadcast on the small radio station where she works turns out to be a turning point. Her hunky boss turns out to be a good friend who helps her set up a Bachelorette type dating experience that goes viral.

As we experience life through Everly’s eyes, I felt that I had a better understanding of what it must be like for someone to live with such severe social anxiety.

You’ll cheer her on as she makes her journey toward being able to embrace new experiences and people. And you’ll cheer on Chris’s attempts to leave his father’s crushing relationship to embrace his true feelings about Everly.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

Though the book was an absolute slow burn (and there’s nothing wrong with slow burns), the story was fun and had some comical scenes as well. Everly Dean is a radio producer who catches his boyfriend cheating. Chris, the station’s manager, uses this an opportunity for a Bachelor type of segment where Everly dates guys to find her perfect match. It’s a great premise really coz of course Chris has a thing for Everly and she soon finds out that she does, too. Again - good storyline. However, I feel that the book could have been condensed. Like a lot. I’m thinking 5-6 chapters. Some of the Everly and Chris’s thoughts were repetitive and could have easily been cut out and we’d still get the point: “I’m drawn to you but I have my doubts.” For me, I would have liked to have read more scenes between the two. I think what Sophie Sullivan’s strong points in the writing here were the moments Everly and Chris shared. There was definite angst and chemistry, but so little of it.

I appreciated the handling of Everly’s anxiety. I’m writing this at a time where anxiety is much more rampant, and I think that topic was approached well.

My recommendation to the writer? Write about Chris’ brother, Noah. This guy definitely has some potential for a story. I would aim to have an explosive meet cute, more angst, and more compact chapters with Noah and the heroine. Draw me in and keep me there.

Ohmygosh. This book was the sweetest!

My heart is filled to bursting with the most delicious sweetness of it all. I adored Chris and Everly’s story so much!

Perhaps best of all? I don’t remember the last time I read a heroine who was so perfectly relatable. I mean, your mileage may vary. But if anxiety is your jam the way that anxiety is my jam? You’re gonna get her. That doesn’t mean she didn’t occasionally drive me crazy (I mean, let’s be real – I occasionally drive myself crazy), but I got her. I related and I empathized and I genuinely liked her.

That being the case, it wasn’t exactly difficult to root for her! And it definitely wasn’t hard to root for Chris as the hero. I loved how delicately their relationship was written. It was filled with these small, achingly tender moments that felt so enormous in my heart. Sometimes my skin felt buzzy from their chemistry which simmered at a slow burn for most of the story. They made me smile so big – and so often – I was just completely charmed, and totally smitten with them!

I will admit that there were moments where I found myself skimming a bit. I’m not certain whether the pacing slowed for me, or if there was maybe too much detail about things that I didn’t feel moved the story (or, specifically, the romance) forward? Perhaps it was just my greedy heart wanting more of the “good stuff”, faster? In any case, it didn’t deter my love for Chris and Everly, or take away from all the good that I found here.

And there was so much good! There’s a richness to the story – the romance bolstered by a rewarding character arc, a heartwarming and genuine best-friendship, and some complicated family dynamics. Ultimately, Ten Rules for Faking It was the whole package. I laughed out loud, my heart fluttered like crazy, and I absolutely reveled in the adorableness of it all. Chris and Everly’s happily ever after was an absolute delight, 100% worth the journey !

Ten Rules for Faking It! Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the opportunity to read and review this one!

Synopsis: What happens when your love life becomes the talk of the town?

As birthdays go, this year’s for radio producer Everly Dean hit rock-bottom.

Worse than the “tonsillectomy birthday.” Worse than the birthday her parents decided to split (the first time). But catching your boyfriend cheating on you with his assistant?

Even clichés sting.

But this is Everly’s year! She won’t let her anxiety hold her back. She’ll pitch her podcast idea to her boss.

There’s just one problem.

Her boss, Chris, is very cute. (Of course). Also, he's extremely distant (which means he hates her, right? Or is that the anxiety talking)?

And, Stacey the DJ didn’t mute the mic during Everly’s rant about Simon the Snake (syn: Cheating Ex).

That’s three problems.

Suddenly, people are lining up to date her, Bachelorette-style, fans are voting (Reminder: never leave house again), and her interest in Chris might be a two-way street. It’s a lot for a woman who could gold medal in people-avoidance. She’s going to have to fake it ‘till she makes it to get through all of this.

Perhaps she’ll make a list: The Ten Rules for Faking It.

Because sometimes making the rules can find you happiness when you least expect it.

Review: really liked this one and the realities of dating! Also loved the characters, how everything was set up, and the vibes of the book. It’s a modern day romance without being overly cheesy or overly dramatic. Really enjoyed!

Out December 29!!

This book sounded really promising with its Bachelorette-style plot, but in the end, I was not a fan of Ten Rules For Faking It. If you are looking for a very long slow burn romance, than this is the book for you. There was too much going on in this book between Everly’s dates, job and anxiety, which I applaud the author for how her anxiety was displayed throughout the book. The inner dialog of Everly and Chris on almost every single page got on my nerves after the first few chapters and with 41 chapters in the book, it was a lot to get through. The chemistry between Everly and Chris to me was not believeable and made it hard for me to root for them. I was actually rooting more for Everly to choose herself with the growth she had in the final few chapters.

This book starts off great and then slows down. Everly catches her boyfriend cheating on her 30th birthday. At her radio producing job she hilariously vents to her best friend and on air talent Stacey. Unfortunately, the mike is hot and they are live on the radio. What may cost them their jobs turns into an opportunity to have Everly do a mini Bachelorette experience dating two men a week with input from radio listeners narrowing to a winner. Station manager Chris pitches the idea and Everly reluctantly agrees. Chris is running the station as the last hoop of many that his millionaire father has him jumping through before getting reigns in the family business. He's been attracted to Everly for months but hasn't made moves since he doesn't plan to stay in California.

An unusual choice is having Everly suffer from social anxiety. So many people have anxiety issues that it was interesting to see her thoughts and reactions in dealing with co-workers, having a surprise party and going on blind dates. The author spends a lot of time on the issue and the sensitivity of her friends that could see it and help her deal with situations.

The book is a slow burn which I don't mind. But it is slowed down by a lot of characters and storylines that aren't needed. For example Rob the gym owner, Noah the brother of Chris. Both are great guys but the time used on them doesn't progress the romance or the anxiety storyline. Everly's relationship with her parent's is important and I like that Everly is brave enough to speak up about how their behavior impacts her life yet another slowdown. For me the romance payoff was more like a firecracker and not fireworks. It wasn't that exciting after such a long build.

Overall this is cute and well written but has too many characters with depth. I appreciate it is a contemporary romance that is clean for steaminess and uses only mild language.

Thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press and the author for a ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Everly Dean is the poster child for social anxiety. She lives a carefully constructed world to keep people out and her emotions in until a series of unfortunate events throw her life into a wild ride. First, she finds her boyfriend inflagrante delicto with his assistant. If that is not bad enough, it is Everly’s birthday so she goes on a rant that ends up on the air of the radio station where she works. The DJ, who also happens to be Everly’s best friend, Stacey, opens the mike to sing happy birthday unbeknownst to her normally very shy producer. Everly is mortified in part because she thinks her boss, Chris, whom she has a secret crush on, hates her already. Disaster becomes the dating game when the station turns the reluctant Everly into a Bachelorette contestant after the station receives a huge ratings boost. This is Everly’s worse nightmare being in such a spotlight. She has so many hang-ups largely because of her wacky parents who continually break-up at inopportune times like her 7th birthday and then makeup with Everly always in the middle of their chaos.

The station manager Chris has his own familial issues being the youngest son of a business mogul who seems to love nothing better than to jerk his progeny around. Chris is very attracted to Everly; however, company policy states no fraternizing with employees. Chris has also kept the fact that his family owns the stations a secret. Chris’s adversarial relationship with his bully of a father keeps things tense because he knows the station could be sold at any time.

While the contest is in play, Everly and Chris spend a lot of time together both of them trying to subvert their mutual attraction. Chris has to stand by and watch Everly date eligible men all the while longing for her. This is a very slow burn romance and while they characters are in their thirties, they seem rather immature. Chris seems to have no backbone when it comes to his overbearing father or his feelings for Everly. Everly needs to grow up and get out of her parents’ emotional clutches and get a handle on her neurotic tendencies. There are some entertaining moments, but on the whole the story lacks the Rom-Com light heartedness feel seeming quite tedious and protracted at times.

Netter, unterhaltsamer Liebesroman

"Ten rules for faking it" ist einer dieser unterhaltsamen, teils wirklich komischen, Liebesromane, die einem beim Lesen viel Spaß machen, die man danach aber auch wieder schnell vergisst. Das muss nichts negatives sein, manchmal will man ja nur eine lockere Lektüre lesen, die einen aus dem Alltagstrott rausholt und für ein paar Stunden in eine andere Welt versetzt.

Everly war mir als Charakter von Beginn an sympathisch. Sie hat mit ihren Geburtstagen in der Vergangenheit und auch dieses Jahr (das Buch startet an ihrem Geburtstag) nicht viel Glück gehabt. Dieses Jahr hat sie ihren Freund beim Seitensprung überrascht und ihr reicht es. Als sie sich darüber gerade bei einer Kollegin auslässt, ahnt sie nicht, das alles im Radio übertragen wird (nicht aus Absicht!). Das setzt eine Flut an Entwicklungen in gang und wie Everly damit umgeht, war sehr unterhaltsam.

Da ich das Buch gerne gelesen habe, es mich gut unterhalten hat, ich es nach dem Lesen aber wieder schnell vergessen habe, gebe ich dem Buch 3,5 Sterne.

One thing I will say is that I put too much weight on my expectation of getting a fun rom-com book. When it became evident that fun, sort of silly or even laugh out loud moments we get from other rom-coms was not going to be in this book, I was really disappointed.

I was also disappointed to know exactly how this book was going to end by the time I read the first sentence of the second chapter. The second chapter was in the POV of the (real) love interest and how he started his chapter, it became obvious where this story would go. And yes, romances tend to make it fairly easy, so I’m trying to hold it against this book a lot.

It terms of the actual romance, it’s a slow burn, HUGE emphasis on the slow. And I’m not talking just the romance. The whole book felt way too slow and unnecessarily dragged out.

And there wasn’t any realistic drama that created obstacles to keep the story going. I thought the whole bachelorette radio style plot was going to be fun. However, the author used it as a way to showcase our MC Everly’s constant battle with major anxiety.

Which is great! I love the anxiety rep in this book. I’ve dealt with anxiety in the past and still have very mild social anxiety from time to time even now. And I know I’m not alone, so seeing this kind of rep is great. However, after a while, it felt like the author was just using Everly’s anxiety has a plot device to keep the story going. Time after time, Everly always used her anxiety and her fears to push people away or simply not let them in. It really comes down to her having a fear of trusting people.

But there were many times where Everly came off bitchy; she throws several things back into her main love interest’s face even when the internal thoughts we get from Everly show her acknowledging that she’s being unfair to the other person. I got frustrated because, while there are small developments in Everly (besides moments like above), nothing really major happens until the last 15-20% of the book.

It isn’t it until towards the end that Everly’s best friend finally has a conversation with her that even with Everly’s anxiety and whatever else, Stacey isn’t leaving and wishes Everly would let her in. Honestly, Stacey was my favorite character. I wish the author had Everly make some of the changes she made all right at the end over time in the book, I think it would have more realistic.

What also wasn’t very realistic was the romance. I didn’t see any chemistry and Everly was written to act like so many heroines that have thoughts like “he has a great, he’s so handsome .. wait, why I am suddenly thinking this”. Things like this in romance stories have become irritating to me. It would have been more believable if she objectively saw that he was handsome, but left it at that. I will say that I really liked the love interest’s response to her anxiety, I thought that that was well done.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of "Ten Rules for Faking It" by Sophie Sullivan. This book was so lovely, I'm not over it. I just love Chris and Everly as characters and they fit together so perfectly. Chris's adoration of Everly was heart-melting and their professional relationship keeping them apart was heart-rending and the slow burn of this novel nearly killed me. But it was gooood. I also really related to Everly's anxiety, even if I don't experience it in exactly the same way, I still understood her and her struggles and neuroses and how she has to fight past them everyday. The part where her and Chris were arguing about whether people should ever get a divorce is a conversation I had almost word for word with my husband when we were dating and it just hit me, it was so real. I love it when a book can do that, just get right at the heart of what we all worry about, what makes every relationship scary. This book was so enjoyable from start to finish while also being so emotionally real. Go read it everyone!

3 stars, it was an alright book but nothing particularly great. This book is lighthearted and fun but I found it to be just ok and it didn't stand out to me in a sea of romance novels. In Ten Rules for Faking It the main character Everly is struggling in her love life so the radio station she works at decides to hold a Bachelorette style contest for her to find the one. But Everly is secretly crushing on her boss and the book shows how this all plays out.

The description of this book sounded like something I would really enjoy but I found this book to be a slow burn romance and it was too slow for me. I thought this book could be shorter or spend less time working up to the romance. In parts I was getting bored and kept reading just to see when Everly and her boss would finally get together, it seemed to take forever. The characters were likeable and it was a cute book but I think I'll forget it quickly. It's a perfectly good book but there are so many great romance novels coming out all the time that this one is easily forgettable and didn't really stand out for me.

Overall, it's a cute romance but wasn't for me. Just too slow but I could see anyone who loves a slow burn romance enjoying this. If that's your favourite trope give this book a read!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.