Ten Rules For Faking It by Sophie Sullivan Book Review

Ten Rules For Faking It Rating: 3.25/5

Ten Rules For Faking It Synopsis: Everly Dean doesn’t have good birthdays. Her thirtieth is no different when she walks in on her boyfriend with someone else and then gets aired across the radio waves when her best friend and coworker, Stacey, leaves a hot mic. When the whole ordeal blows up on their social media and with the owner looking to make cuts, Everly becomes 96.2’s bachelorette. The only down side? She has severe social anxiety. Oh, and her boss is incredible attractive and attentive.

Review:

I was really in love with this book until about 70% done. The last 30% of the book is what got me. The first 70% is sweet as hell and makes you feel all soft and warm inside. The plot isn’t the most original, but the depth of the characters is what keeps you involved. I loved peaking inside of their lives. Everly, Chris, and Stacey were all phenomenal characters that I wish I got a little more from with wrapping things up! The last 30% is where my feelings for the novel change. All of a sudden there are issues that aren’t brought up before and feels really really weird. Everly starts to just make problems where there aren’t any and Chris just loses drive. I was set on giving this a 4.5/5 until then. Ugh. I’m not saying it was a bad read, rather it just disappointed me at the end.

Likes:

• Everly’s Anxiety: It was great seeing a character dealing with social anxiety in a way that felt very real. My sister has social anxiety and the depiction of it in the novel rang true to what I experience with her. It’s not always easy and is often tiring. I liked that it took so long for Everly to open up with things and would turn away from events. It made for a longer, more drawn out read but it felt right.
• The First 70%: So many freaking cute moments!!! I cannot tell you how many times I had to put down the book and giggle just because it was so cute. I loved how Sullivan approached each character and gave them so much depth. You really feel for Everly and just how hard it is for her and how much she wants to try, especially for her parents. It’s not a fast paced book, but it fits with Everly’s anxiety.
• Chris: First, Chris is the most caring and understanding boss ever. Please let me have him! He accepts that Everly deals with these issues on her own timeline and it doesn’t always match up to everyone else. He constantly double checks and makes sure that she is comfortable and asks questions that don’t make her the problem. This is huge. I loved reading from his side of the story. It was insightful. My major question was how did he know to approach Everly like he did? It wasn’t ever shown and it’s not something that you just know to do.

Dislikes:

• The Last 30%: I don’t even want to write this part. The book up to this point was so cute and sweet and then it all falls apart. Everly starts making big problems out of nothing and becomes a very weak character (but don’t worry, that changes yet again in the next chapter????). Chris loses his pizazz and Stacey is the only good thing. That’s basically all I’ve got. The story falls apart and the characters lose their development. It comes back around but not before I lose respect for the book.
• Everly’s Parents: They felt like caricatures. They went between lovers and fighters more than anything else and were completely ignorant to their daughter. I know that parents often overlook mental issues, but how in the world did they over look this? What was her school life like? How did they seem to ignore her avoidance of things? I just have so many questions! And none of them are answered. The character development for them was lacking.
• Simon: This is the cheating boyfriend. And honestly he’s in my dislike list solely because he’s just awkwardly there. He’s in the beginning and then there for a minute in the middle, but it was weird. Like you don’t even care about his presence. He doesn’t really add anything to the story; if anything he detracts from it.

Long Story Short

Do I recommend Ten Rules For Faking It? Yeah I do. I would recommend borrowing it from a friend or from the library because I doubt that it’d be one that you’d go back to again. It did its job as a romance novel. It gave me a HEA and entertained me for a couple of hours. I wasn’t incredibly pissed at it, just annoyed with the stupid last 30%. But it is a good, slow-burn without anything but a little bit of making out. Enjoy.

I purchased my own copy from the local bookstore.

Here is the Amazon Link (I am NOT affiliated with Amazon)

Have you read Ten Rules For Faking It? What did you think of it? Am I being too harsh on it?

All opinions are of my own are not reflective of anyone else. I buy/loan all of the books I review unless specified and I only give my 100% true opinion on them.

If you like this book, I recommend reading Beach Read by Emily Henry. It is such a great read and I LOVED it. It’s so freaking good. Here’s my review here!