ARC Review: The Rule Book by Sarah Adams
10:00
Series: None
Author: Sarah Adams
Published April 2nd 2024 by Dell/Headline Eternal
Goodreads Synopsis
College sweethearts meet again years later, in this highly anticipated romance and companion story to the viral TikTok sensation The Cheat Sheet.
Nora Mackenzie’s entire career lies in the hands of famous NFL tight end Derek Pender who also happens to be her extremely hot college ex-boyfriend. Nora didn’t end things as gracefully as she could have back then, and now it’s come back to haunt her. Derek is her first client as an official full-time sports agent and he’s holding a grudge.
Derek has set his sights on a little friendly revenge. If Nora Mackenzie, the first girl to ever break his heart, wants to be his agent, oh he’ll let her be his agent. The plan is make Nora’s life absolutely miserable. But if Derek knows anything about the woman he once loved—she won’t quit easily.
Instead of giving in, Nora starts a scheme of her own. But then a wild night in Vegas leads to Nora and Derek in bed the next morning married. With their rule book out the window, could this new relationship be the thing to save their careers?
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Nora Mackenzie's day goes from bad to worse when she realises that her first client as a sports agent just happens to be the one man she ever loved, and whose heart she broke all those years ago. Derek Pender may be one of the NFL's best tight ends, but his accident last season has left him worried about his future. Maybe a new agent would be good for him, but not the woman he planned on marrying. Nora convinces him to give her a chance, but he's not going to make it easy for her, no matter how much he still loves her.
I loved The Cheat Sheet when I read it a few months ago, and when I heard that there would be a companion novel released, I knew I needed to get a hold of a copy, so was buzzing when Headline approved my review copy. From the first chapter, I was hooked. Nora was a wonderful FMC, one of only two women working at her agency, in a very much male dominated world. She had worked her way to becoming an agent with grunt work, and was now given her first solo client. The fact it was her ex was just a minor stumbling block. She wanted to clear the air straight away, but Derek wasn't ready for that, and they created a "rule book" of what they wouldn't do. Obviously, these were all broken at some point in the book.
The action really picked up after Nora was sick of Derek's shit, and forced him to go to Vegas for a photo shoot, with a new endorsement deal in the cards. They grew closer on the set, and after a few drinks, found themselves married, with an Instagram post telling the world. Rather than denying it and ruining both their careers, they decide to make a go of it, using their connections to pretend to be happily married. But now the lines between fake and real start to blur, and Derek realises he wants to make a real go of it, and he wants to give Nora the engagement ring he's been hiding for all these years. The guys on the team were as great as they had been in The Cheat Sheet, and seeing Bree and Nathan so happy was great. Sarah is definitely an author on my auto-read list, and The Rule Book just cemented that!
Dates Read:
April 13, 2024
Rating
4 Stars
Dates Read:
April 13, 2024
Rating
4 Stars
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