Author: Sophie Sullivan
Publication Date: 29 December 2020
Publisher: Griffin
Page Count: 384
Reading Method: Physical Book
Synopsis:
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:
Another contemporary where the leading lady makes a list she must stick to until she meets the love interest and decides to break them all? Yeeeep. That’s who I am now. I only read books with this story line. I made a list of them and I must stick to it – see what I did there?
This story starts off with a bang! Poor Everly’s birthday is a disaster and she accidently spills all the deets on the morning radio show she works for. From this catastrophy, a dating game is born. I was really hooked on the idea of a twist on the standard Bachelorette style dating, but I really could have used quite a bit more from the book in this aspect. We get little glimpses at the radio show dating, but not nearly enough! Instead, we must watch Chris and Everly dance around each other for entirely too long.
I had a hard time enjoying these characters. They seemed too cookie-cutter and didn’t really have anything that set them apart from the dozens of other standard romance characters you might find. This is the slowest of burns, which sometimes I enjoy. Unfortunately there wasn’t much that kept me going or rooting for the two to get together. There were moments of tension and heat that I enjoyed but they were few and far between. Otherwise, the chemistry fell a little flat for me. There was nothing inherently wrong with this story, it just didn’t really stand out. A month later and I can hardly remember anything about it.
I will say this was a very easy, quick, light read that had some very enjoyable moments. Overall, it just didn’t work for me.
