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bookstolivewith's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.5
Ten Rules For Faking It by Sophie Sullivan is a fun, light read that is great for a Saturday afternoon at home with college football, your favorite TV show or Christmas movies on in the background.
Synopsis: Everly Dean has never had the best luck with birthdays. But her 30th might just take the case. Not only did she break up with her boyfriend, she also manages to accidentally air all her dirty laundry about said break-up on the radio. So, she makes a list — 10 ways to make it through her thirties — and this time, she’s determined to stick to it. If only there wasn’t a very cute radio station manager throwing her off track.
Everly is a lovable and highly relatable character, and I appreciated how Sullivan depicted facets of Everly’s severe social anxiety and her coping mechanisms, some of which are similar to my own. I felt that her anxiety was given all due respect and I loved that her friends, family and romantic interest didn’t view it as an issue at all.
That being said, I didn’t ever feel overly attached or invested in the characters, and I don’t really think I ever got 100% in their heads, which I like to do when I read a romance story. This book has alternating points of view between Everly and her romantic lead, Chris, which I normally like, but I felt the transitions between the two could’ve been done more smoothly.
I also felt the book became somewhat repetitive toward the end, which I think was supposed to be a byproduct of Everly’s anxiety — all the going back and forth of her mind and emotions — but actually just served to annoy me in large part. I wanted to be invested in the ending but all the back and forth left me somewhat exhausted.
This is a pretty PG romance so if you’re not into steam, this is a good option! I wish it’d given me a few more butterflies but I think so much focus was given to Everly’s strength and character building (which was great, don’t get me wrong) that sometimes I felt like the romance portion fell by the wayside.
Synopsis: Everly Dean has never had the best luck with birthdays. But her 30th might just take the case. Not only did she break up with her boyfriend, she also manages to accidentally air all her dirty laundry about said break-up on the radio. So, she makes a list — 10 ways to make it through her thirties — and this time, she’s determined to stick to it. If only there wasn’t a very cute radio station manager throwing her off track.
Everly is a lovable and highly relatable character, and I appreciated how Sullivan depicted facets of Everly’s severe social anxiety and her coping mechanisms, some of which are similar to my own. I felt that her anxiety was given all due respect and I loved that her friends, family and romantic interest didn’t view it as an issue at all.
That being said, I didn’t ever feel overly attached or invested in the characters, and I don’t really think I ever got 100% in their heads, which I like to do when I read a romance story. This book has alternating points of view between Everly and her romantic lead, Chris, which I normally like, but I felt the transitions between the two could’ve been done more smoothly.
I also felt the book became somewhat repetitive toward the end, which I think was supposed to be a byproduct of Everly’s anxiety — all the going back and forth of her mind and emotions — but actually just served to annoy me in large part. I wanted to be invested in the ending but all the back and forth left me somewhat exhausted.
This is a pretty PG romance so if you’re not into steam, this is a good option! I wish it’d given me a few more butterflies but I think so much focus was given to Everly’s strength and character building (which was great, don’t get me wrong) that sometimes I felt like the romance portion fell by the wayside.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
danimgill's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
1.5
Oof. I wanted to like this one because the premise sounded unique and fun but this was an absolute slog for me. Points for good anxiety rep with Every but no points for anything else. Her chemistry with Chris was nonexistent, and I just couldn't bring myself to care about either of their personal outside-the-romance issues (of which there were too many, in my opinion, and none of them super compelling). Also, are we really not going to be a little more explicit about the ethics of the boss/employee thing in 2020? A couple "oh we shouldn't"s and "we have a policy against fraternizing"s don't really cut it for me these days with power imbalances.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
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