- Bree and Nathan
- the planning conversation with the guys in the team 👌👌
- funny
- I'm experiencing frustration with Bree. She's so stubborn. But I get it.
- Lilly is entertaining. The little glimpse of her relationship with Doug is great
- the laundry room was very sweet
- friends references are always fun
- I really like the guys on the team
- very sweet
- the ending 👌
- it really wasn't what I was expecting but I liked it.
Author did a great job of portraying panic attacks and being sensitive to them. Also, the love and care the best friends have for each other in sigh worthy and will absolutely make you smile contentedly as you read. I recommend!

Hands down one of my top reads for 2021! I have never laughed out loud so much when reading a book. There was some great chemistry between the main characters and the banter was fantastic! This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I cannot wait to read more!

THIS. BOOK. Wow. Over the past year, Sarah Adams has quickly become my favorite author of contemporary romance novels. She writes clean and closed-door romances (a rarity today) and her stories feature quirky and lovable characters that you don't forget the second you close the book. The Cheat Sheet is by far her best offering yet! In the story, Nathan and Bree are longtime friends. Nathan is a professional football player and Bree teaches ballet to young kids. They're in love with one another, yet each is unwilling to voice their feelings because they're worried about ruining their friendship. But when Nathan's management team wants him to have a fake relationship with Bree, and she agrees to play the role of his girlfriend, Nathan and his teammates come up with a "cheat sheet" that he will follow in the hopes of finally turning their fake romance into a real one.

I fell in love with these characters right out of the gate. They are both flawed and relatable, and you're rooting for them to admit their love from page one. Also, I rarely cry when reading books, but this one had me bawling like a baby. Finally, I loved how Sarah Adams included a copy of the cheat sheet itself at the end of the book. Super cute touch! This is one of my most enjoyable reads of the year so far!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a great book! Sarah Adams nails it again with another amazing book. This book is so funny and will have you staying up all night long just to finish it. I found myself rereading certain parts because they were so funny. I absolutely love the two main characters and all supporting characters as well. Everything flows so nicely and immediately grabs your attention. There are a few profanities that could’ve gone without and it gets a bit steamy in some parts but all-in-all, I can see myself rereading this book and it never getting old. Can’t wait for her next book!

REVIEW: The Cheat Sheet by @authorsarahadams 🏈💕🩰

It’s no secret that friends to lovers is my favorite trope, so when Sarah made arcs available, I knew I had to drop everything and read it right away 😍 thank you Sarah & @netgalley for the arc! 😘

BLURB: Bree, a ballet dancer, and Nathan, a professional football player, have been best friends since high school. They grew apart for a while and reconnected later. On a drunken night at a bar, Bree makes a confession, and a reporter records her and releases the video to the media. Bree and Nathan then grapple with the question of “What if?” which then turns into Nathan and his friends developing a cheat sheet for how to win over Bree’s heart.

What I loved ❤️
-Sarah Adams’ trademark humor! It makes me giggle every time ☺️
-Nathan 😍😍😍 he’s one of my new favorite book boyfriends. He was strong, sweet, and sensitive, all qualities I love in a guy 💕
-Nathan’s teammates reminded me of the Bromance Book Club guys. They were so funny and gave the best advice! 😂
-the conversations around mental health were great to see and were written in a sensitive way
-how Nathan wasn’t into having sex just for the sake of having sex. He never pushed Bree into anything. This is a viewpoint that you don’t see in many romance books and it was so refreshing to see here.

What I didn’t love:
Nothing! 😀

This is my favorite Sarah Adams book so far 🥰 it was sweet, sexy, smart, and sensitive all wrapped up with a big bow. A definite must read if you are a friends to lovers fanatic like me!

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
TW: anxiety, panic attacks

#thecheatsheet #sarahadams #sportsromance #kindleunlimited #kindlebooks #closeddoorromance #romancebooks #romancereadersofinstagram #bookthoughts #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookworm #bookstagram #bookish #booklover

** spoiler alert ** *ARC provided by NetGalley - thank you!!!*

I was DESPERATE to get my hands on The Cheat Sheet ASAP because truly anything Sarah Adams writes is just pure gold. I truly believe she is the clean/closed-door romcom queen.

Like Sarah’s other heroines, Bree was quirky and relatable, and from page one I wanted to be her friend. Nathan’s was protective, yet not overbearing, and full of care for others. Their banter was fun and goofy, and they truly had such amazing chemistry. I was dying for them to finally admit their feelings to one another!

There were two parts of The Cheat Sheet that were especially beautiful and important. 1 - I loved how Bree and Nathan truly spoke words of life and value into one another. And 2 - You don’t see this a lot in romance novels, but it was neat to see the sacredness of marriage for these two characters.

Sooo overall, The Cheat Sheet was truly amazing and I read it in one sitting. And now I’m going to reread it in a day because I just loved it that much. 5/5 would always read again! 🌟💓👏🏼

🏈The Cheat Sheet by @authorsarahadams 🏈

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou @netgalley for gifting me this arc! It’s the best one I’ve received yet and Sarah is one of my favourite authors! I literally screamed with joy when I got accepted😚

Where do I start? Sarah Adams is an absolute goddess when it comes to rom-coms. I’ve read all the 4 rom-coms from her and goodness! She just keeps getting better!🤧💜

Bree is the sweetest, softest, cutest little thing out there. She’s witty, funny, beautiful and kind. A very loveable character!💜

And Nathan! He’s the absolute dream! He’s sweet, kind, funny, sexy and hot, and the biggest softie. A cinnamon roll 🌸🥰

There’s unbreakable chemistry between these two and the fact that they’re best friends adds to my love for this book! Friends to lovers is my favourite trope and this book absolutely rocked it!!!!!

The feels of this book hit you at just the right spot and if you have someone to relate to for this book then it absolutely kills you😚🤧🌸

LOVED ITTTTT!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Check my Instagram (_booklipse0401) for a detailed review.

Mini Book Review Time

📕: The Cheat Sheet
✍️: Sarah Adams
🌟: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

📝Synopsis:
Bree and Nathan have been best friends since that one Tuesday in highschool when their paths crossed. Nathan has always been the football jock, and Bree the dancer with big dreams. Bree has also been in love with Nathan from day one. So what will happen when they are forced into a fake relationship due to Nathan’s career? Will Bree manage pretending to be Nathan’s girlfriend when all she wants is to actually be his?

✅📚Check Out This Book if you like:
•Romantic Comedies
•Sports Romance
•Big squishy cinnamon roll boys
•Friends to Lovers trope
•White Board planning meetings
•Closed door romance with some 🔥

💁🏻‍♀️💬 My Thoughts:
I mean. I never turn down a Sarah Adams book. Never. I found her thanks to bookstagram and I’m seriously a forever fan. The dialogue in the heroines head always has me rolling and Bree is just so wholesome and funny, and I wish I could be her real life friend. I also love getting the POV from Nathan in this book! I think it adds another layer to a good romcom when you know what both people are thinking! This book is filled with laughs, sweet heart warming moments, a romance cheet sheat, and gosh the ending 😍 *swoon* I seriously think the only thing that would make it better is if Sarah decided to not make it a standalone 😂 because I need more Bree and Nathan of course, but those other football boys need to find love too and I’m invested in them already 😍

Thank you so much Sarah for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! Now to wait until I can buy my physical copy, because I most certainly will!

This book was absolutely adorable and I couldn’t put it down!! I will admit I’ve even re-read some of my favorite chapters!

Sarah Adams does it again with lovable characters, going from best friends to lovers. Bree and Nathan’s friendship feels so authentic and their path to becoming more than friends is perfection!
Adams touches on mental health issues as well, which is done so well.
This is easily my favorite book by her!

Could I be in love with this book anymore than I am? This book is my lobster. It’s the reason I live for a friends-to-more trope. The author wrote everything I love about a romance book and packaged it all into this amazing book. I can pinpoint the exact moment when I fell in love with this book, last paragraph on page four. That’s it… hook, line, and sinker, I was done for.

The writing style felt more like a conversation with Nathan and Bree rather than a story being told. Her sarcastic inner monologue broke up the intense tension and brought a light hearted side of the story that made Bree and Nathan playful and flirtatious. What I enjoyed most is that as the reader, there is a relatability to the dialogue of each character. Each has a unique voice, but the author made them accessible and approachable.

There's something so delicious about two friends who are harboring feelings for one another but haven’t crossed that line. Having been a product of this specific trope, this author captured perfectly what it’s truly like to have these intense feelings while refusing to act on them. She was able to capture perfectly the familiarity and comfortability Bree and Nathan have with one another, but also show their vulnerability while exploring aspects of their relationship. There’s so much chemistry and angst that radiates between Bree and Nathan, that I forget this is a closed door romance. The simple act of holding hands has never felt so loaded and laced with so much sexual tension that it made my heart physically ache.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Sarah Adams is a brilliant writer. It’s rare for me to fall hard with every book one author puts out. Just when I think this book couldn’t possibly be better than the last, she tops her previous one. This was the perfect compilation of endearing characters, enchanting writing, and a story that will suck you in from the moment you open the book. Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for this ARC.

First off, huge thank you to Sarah adams for the ARC ( through NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review! Available August 17th! Paperbacks will be available for pre-order the 10th

Let me tell you right now… if you like Friends to Lovers trope. Stop what you are doing right now and go pre-order. That is all the encouragement you should need, trust me! But if not, I’m about to convince you why.

I could literally scream from the rooftops how much I love this book. This gem has made it’s way up to my all time favorites, right next to The Hating Game.

It’s got:
Banter
Playful friendship
The comfortability between two people who have known each other forever.
The soul searching needed for that character growth and it’s SO satisfying when it happens!
Dual POV so we can see Nathan’s side of things and how he felt through the last years of their friendship.
And not to mention all the warm and fuzzies, some major squeals of excitement, as well as an outstanding group of side characters! The Sharks football team is comparable to the bromance book club in my opinion (sub The Cheat Sheet instead of Books)

Bree aka Bree Cheese
How could you not love her?! I feel like she is a little bit of all of us. Entirely loveable, a little wacky when under pressure or uncomfortable, and a heart of gold. Her insecurities about Nathan got me. I felt so much tenderness for her and wanted to cheer her on and give her the confidence she needed!

Nathan. Nathan. Nathan.
Oh man. The perfect best friend, always the gentleman when it comes to Bree. He is a NFL hottie with a body and plastered all over magazines and commercials. I don’t blame Bree’s obsession one bit. He was the perfect man, except secretly harboring his love for her. If only these two had just communicated their feelings for each other they could have had so much more time! But, then this book wouldn’t exits and we cannot have that!

All I can say is I needed this book and I never even knew it!

TW: Injury, depression (mentioned briefly but not in depth), Panic Attacks.

Our girl Bree is in love with her best friend Nathan and has been for YEARS. The problem is so is a lot of America because he is a star quarterback in the NFL and she feels like she'll never get out of the friend zone. One night while hanging out with him and his friends she gets drunk and accidentally lets her secret slip to a reporter. They become an overnight sensation and a whole lot of adorableness ensues as they have to play being a couple for the media.

This book has two of my favorite tropes (fake dating and best friends) so I was all in from the beginning. While I wish Nathan's friends had bigger roles their friendships reminded me of the guys from Lyssa Kay Adams' Bromance series. The anxiety rep in this book is also done so well and I really appreciated it as it has been something I've dealt with most of my life.

If you are looking for a fun, clean romance that will make you laugh far too loud then pick this book up when it releases on August 17, 2021. Thank you Sarah for sending this advanced copy to my kindle.

This is such an ooey, gooey sweet story. Nathan is book boyfriend goals and an absolute dream. This book is much less silly than Sarah Adams previous works, but still maintains the quirky charm we all love. It’s full of heart and banter and friends-to-lovers goodness. I like the way Sarah Adams writes such relatable main characters with deep and complex emotions. I also like how lighthearted her writing is. This is a closed door romance but it’s still very sexy! Secretly-in-love best friends for the past decade equals so much tension! The plot has a very Bromance Bookclub feel to it. I’ve enjoyed all of Sarah Adam’s books and this is another great addition to the collection.

Review published to goodreads & instagram 07/22/21

”Well, magic eight ball, what do you think? Should I tell my best friend I love her?”
⁣
🏈❤️🩰⁣

The Cheat Sheet
⁣➖release date: August 17ᵗʰ⁣
➖rating: ★★★★ ½⁣
⁣
friends to lovers is already one of my all time favorite tropes, but throw in some fake dating, mutual pining, and that signature sarah adams humor and I was absolutely sold on this book! ⁣
⁣
what I loved: ⁣
➖bree & nathan — you can’t help but instantly fall in love with these two! bree is truly adorkable and nathan is just a giant gooey marshmallow ♡ ⁣
➖the side characters — nathan’s teammates brought their shenanigans and humor into every single one of their scenes (chapter 12!!!) and I loved that they each had such distinctive/well developed personalities⁣
➖the push and pull romance — I mean that slow burn tension?? 🔥🔥⁣
➖the mental health rep — nathan’s anxiety was handled with such care and raw honesty and as someone who also struggles with anxiety, I really appreciated that!⁣
⁣
overall, this book was just so sweet and soft and exactly what I needed when I read it! do yourself a favor and pre-order it asap! ♡⁣
⁣
thank you to @netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

What happens when long time best friends are now both single at the same time for the first time? It doesn't help that there is an entire hashtag dedicated to them getting together... Nathan and Bree are two of my new favorite lead characters. I loved their friendship and their backgrounds. Both of them are just so likeable (which is hard to find sometimes). I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to everyone! Sarah Adams writes some of my favorite books, and this is now at the top of my list.

I was so excited to get approved for this friends to lovers romance!

This was your pretty basic friends to lovers. They didn't seem to hide their feelings as well as they though they did. And I wanted to shake them sometimes for not just talking to each other and letting the other know how they felt.

It was obvious to every single person except them. I get being anxious to change the relationship, but how could they think the other didn't feel the same way? The way Bree was with Nathan's girlfriends? And teammates. IF I was Bree's sister I would have yelled at her too!

One thing I did really enjoy was that Nathan was celibate because he didn't want anyone as much as he wanted Bree. I feel like in these kind of stories the guy is SUCH a manwhore and that's my pet peeve. It was nice for the guy to see that behavior was dumb.

I also enjoy when a story shows dealing with mental health and anxiety and normalizes it. It is okay to seek treatment and talk to people. I love it!

4/5 stars

Just when I think I’ve read my favorite Sarah Adams book, another releases and it’s immediately my new favorite! 😍

The Cheat Sheet is the sweetest story of friendship, opening up and letting down your guard, working through anxiety, learning to have hope and dreams again. I loved that both Bree and Nathan were able to help each other in unexpected ways.

I loved loved loved the relationship between Bree and Nathan. The love and loyalty they share in their friendship is so admirable. While this is a closed door romance, their chemistry is definitely hot and steamy! 😉

Just like all of the other Sarah Adams books I have read, this had me laughing out loud throughout the whole book. She has a way of writing the perfect feel good romance that brings all your emotions to the surface.

⭐️ rating: 4
📖 genre: romantic comedy
🍾 pub date: August 17, 2021
📖 Read this if you like: Sophie Sullivan, Alexa Martin, friends-to-lovers, mutual pining, fake dating
⛔️ trigger warning: anxiety, panic attacks

THE STORY:
Bree has been in love with her best friend Nate since high school, but Nate’s the star quarterback of the Sharks and the crush of the country, and Bree knows Nate will never see her as more than a friend. One day, one too many tequilas make Bree spill the tea about how she really feels about Nate, and then next thing Bree knows, they need to fake a relationship for a publicity stunt… but it feels a bit too real.

WHAT I LOVED:
This was a great surprise! I requested this book for two main reasons: first, it’s a trope I don’t usually do well with - I just don’t understand the idea of being best friends with someone, harboring deeper feelings for them, and never saying anything about that. Why would you that to yourself? Second reason, and most important: Sarah Adams is a new (indie) author for me - I didn’t know what to expect, but consider me impressed!
Though the protagonist clearly is Bree, we get 2 POVs. Without revealing too much about the plot, let’s say there’s pining on both sides, and that was both heartwarming and unnerving to watch, but reading Nate’s side of the story was DELICIOUS. Nate’s such a big teddy bear and his care and concern towards Bree will melt your heart. One of the MCs also experiences anxiety and panic attacks and you know that’s always a trigger for me, but it was handled so well here (since, sadly, the author has anxiety herself).

IN A NUTSHELL:
A fast, easy read with lovable characters and a fun supporting cast. For me it fell a bit short on steam (closed door romance), but it was still very enjoyable! Definitely recommended if you’re into sports romances and friends-to-lovers is your jam!

I can not say enough good things about Sarah Adams books! Her writing is absolutely fantastic and completely hooks you from the start of the book until you finish the last page and leaves you wanting more of her writing so you never have to stop!

I was unreasonably excited and simultaneously nervous to start 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏 by Sarah Adams

You see I fell deep into the Sarah Adams RomCom rabbit hole sometime after Covid hit, yup totally smitten by her work but especially her writing style. When I heard her new book would be available as an eARC I immediately signed up not thinking I would have even the slightest chance of being selected as I wouldn’t exactly call myself a bookstagrammer though I shamelessly recommend her books to just about everyone. So imagine my surprise when a copy of 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏 dropped on my shelf.

You may be wondering why I’d be nervous to start this book. Have you ever discovered an author who writes such amazing and well-rounded characters you do not want the book to come to an end because you need to follow their story past the last page? That for me is Sarah Adams and even before I laid eyes on the first page I knew I it would be break me to let these characters go.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏 is a perfectly balanced tightrope between the friends-to-lovers and fake-dating tropes. It is obvious from the very first page that Bree Camden has is bad for her best friend since HS Nathan Donelson ... only one slight problem, so does just about every other woman in the country. You see Nathan is the starting QB for the LA Sharks who are in the run for the Super Bowl. It doesn't help that he is sculpted like a Greek god either. Oh and she's pretty sure he views their relationship as completely platonic in a brother/sister kind of way. Yeah so no chance of that happening.

"𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦, 𝘶𝘮𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰, 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘰𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴' 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘴" - Bree Camden

Just as Sarah's other RomComs 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏 is a dual perspective book and it doesn't take long before it is revealed Nathan would move heaven and earth for Bree. She is the rock he can always count on while his career has taken on a life of its own and requires him to stretch himself to the limit if not further. He grew up in a home where success wasn't an option it was a requirement so he tends to overwork himself and carry more than his fair share of the load. Bree however sees Nathan for who is really is - generous, kind, reliable and drop-dead-gorgeous. Yet somehow they are stuck in the dreaded 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥-𝘻𝘰𝘯𝘦, Nathan enlists his team mates to come up with a plan to show Bree he is ready to risk it all for a chance to be with her.

"𝘐 [...] 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘦. 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘪𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬? 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵." - Nathan Donelson

I love that Sarah isn't afraid to be quirky, goofy and downright embarrass her characters. you can always count on a few laugh-out-loud moments from Sarah's books and 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏 is no exception. Another layer to this book was addressing mental health. I loved seeing that representation in this book and felt Sarah dealt with it beautifully. It can be messy, it can be scary and it was wonderful to see our MCs setting an example of how to care for one another.

This was such a fun, easy read. I loved the tug and pull between our characters as they tested their feelings under the guise of a fake relationship. This is definitely one of my favourite Summer 2021 reads and I cannot wait to add the paperback to my collection when it release August 17, 2021. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you Sarah Adams, Netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the opportunity to read this book.