I wanted to like this so bad. I love the premise of the sports agent and player being exes, but I just could not connect to the characters. There were definitely laugh out loud moments, but they were overshadowed by repetitive elements and weird word choices that threw me for a loop. I thought the plot and the pacing were good, but overall just didn’t enjoy reading it.

4.25/5⭐️

This had just about everything in it that I love. A second chance romance, accidental marriage/marriage of comvenice, there isn’t much more that I would need to fall in love with a book. I think this n was super cute. It was too quirky in a couple of areas but not too much that it took away from my reading experience. But both the books in this world were absolutely adorable and definitely recommend for everyone to read!

“boring, yawning, sloppy, lazy” - abby lee miller and me when i think about this book.

it was doing so well until the 60% mark where it just fell flat for me

This book had me screaming with glee. I loved it. Mutual pining, second chance romance, fake marriage literally my three favorites highly recommend

My first by Sarah Adams and it was really fun! The second chance wasn’t even all that angsty, she does a great job writing on the side of lighthearted which is definitely fun to read sometimes. I also love a second chance that feels like the original break up was necessary and it wasn’t really lost time, they both needed to come back together at just the right time. The friend group was genuinely funny, some of my favorite parts were their found family aspect of the time and pranks on each other, etc. I also loved how they were not afraid to call the MMC out when he was taking it too far at first.

My reason for 4 stars: as much as I loved how affected he was by seeing her again after 6 years (love a man who pines), the way he takes it out on her as his agent was just immature and a little weird to me. So she has to work day and night and do errands, clean, etc and I’m just supposed to forgive him because 1 he eventually apologies and 2 makes sure to give her water. Like I’m reaaally trying to like this man!! And I eventually do I just felt like the first 30% wasn’t really necessary. I also strongly disliked the societal construct of virginity. At one point when they first meet up again he reminds her “I took your virginity”, well I would like to leave it up to the person who had the sexual encounter to decide how they feel and what phrasing they would like to use because some people (like myself) don’t feel like there’s anything especially for a man to take. It just felt soo old school and gave me the ick on the MMC. And this is coming from a book where feminism is referenced by name and there are amazing moments by the FMC where she refuses to dress masculine in order to be taken seriously, etc so yes my standards will then be higher when it comes to this kind of thing. It’s just a bit incongruous with the rest of the book.

The last 50% especially after the Vegas shenanigans was wonderful. They are so sweet together and their careful moves and mutual pining all the while hoping the other reciprocates, I just loved.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine for this eARC! I was really excited to try my first by this author.

𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 / sarah adams

a quirky queen with ocd and an nfl player who carries around an iou from college?! say less because this book was literal perfection!!

i am a huge fan of sarah adams and her writing, she’s literally the most adorbs human ever 🥹 i loved when in rome & practice makes perfect and i knew if she wrote a spicy romance it would be elite and the rule book did not disappoint!

nora is quite possibly the most badass and relatable fmc i have ever read and i want to be best friends with her irl 🫶🏼 she works in a male driven industry and has to literally prove herself at every point, especially when her first client is her college ex boyfriend who has his sights set on revenge.

derek freaking pender 😮‍💨 if someone flirted with me the way derek flirted with nora i’d be a puddle on the floor. i couldn’t help but literally smirk and giggle while reading their interactions especially the way they tried to rile each other up.

tropes featured in this book:

🏈 marriage of convenience

🏈 second chance romance

🏈 enemies to lovers

🏈 forced proximity

thank you sarah for writing a book that is such a beautiful reminder that we are all enough and deserve to be loved 💗💗

thank you to netgalley and hachette for providing an e-arc of the rule book in exchange for an honest review.