This book. THIS BOOK!! 🤩

The tension. The chemistry.
The HISTORY!! I was totally hooked.

📖 The Rule Book
📝 Sarah Adams
🗓️ 4/2/2024
🏈 contemporary sports romance
📱 read on kindle (arc)
📚 same world/sequel to the Cheat Sheet

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️
😂😂😂

💭 overall thoughts:
This is my new favorite Sarah Adams. I still LOVE the Cheat Sheet but this was just a little bit more.

🌼🏈 MCs:
Nora is one of my favorite fmcs of all time. She’s absolutely hilarious in the dorky quirky way I love, I love her jokes I was constantly laughing aloud.

Derek. Derek FREAKIN Pender.
THIS MAN! The way he loves her EXACTLY for who she is, and has never stopped 🥹

📖 story:
Often times I’d find myself about to cry and then Nora would pull out a one-liner and they’d be tears of laughter instead.

I LOVED them torturing each other - the tension made for the most delicious slow burn.

🤍side characters:
Having the boys back & scheming again was perfection. And Bree! The sweetest.
I also loved Nicole (Nora’s fellow agent) - what a perfect balance of badass & kind.

Sarah - did you really have to marry everyone off so we couldn’t have more books in this world? 🤣

tropes + topics:
2️⃣ second chance
🏈 pro football player + agent
💍 accidental marriage
🌦️ grumpy/sunshine
🛏️ only one bed
🔗 forced proximity
🏝️ vacation
🐢 slow burn
💞 dual 1st person POV

🫶🏼 books with similar vibes:
•Forget Me Not by Julie Soto (second chance, forced proximity by working together, grumpy sunshine)
•Charlie, Love & Cliches by Ella Maise (second chance, forced proximity, banter, slow burn)

Thank you to NetGalley & Headline Eternal for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

As with all of Sarah's books, I felt like a giggling schoolgirl reading The Rule Book 🥰 This is a second chance romance with the perfect amount of pining, banter & swoon mixed in, and I was so happy for Derek & Nora to get their happy ending! It really is a hug in a book.

Nora is a ray of overly organised sunshine - she definitely has her quirks, but I absolutely adored her - she was so endearing and made me laugh a lot. I loved her drive to succeed in a male-dominated world, and her ability to bat the negativity away so easily ☀️

Sarah writes the best men, and Derek is definitely up there with Will & Noah 🫶🏼 Whilst Nora thinks the hotshot NFL player has forgotten all about her, she couldn't be more wrong 🥲 Derek is very much still in love and pining, and when he jumps in to save Nora's career we see how much he cares 🥹

I'm not usually a fan of an accidental marriage, but I thought it actually worked well here! Plus I loved the honeymoon it led to - forced proximity (& only one bed 👀) at its best 🤌🏼

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜’𝗱 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 🥲

Really really cute! I've read four other books by sarah adams, two i loved, two i hated. This one position itself in the middle. Derek was really adorable and my fav character of the book. Can't wait to read other books by this author.

Thanks to Netgalley and Headline Eternal for providing an eARC of The Rule Book.

I need to preface this review by saying that I LOVE Sarah Adams, The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect were two of my favourite books from last year. Second chance romances are also one of my top three favourite tropes so when I found out Sarah was writing a second chance romance, my expectations were astronomical.

Overall, I liked this book but I didn't love it? I think I was a victim of my own making due to the aforementioned reasons.

Things I enjoyed:
- Nora. She was so cute and quirky
- No third act breakup
- The chemistry between Derek and Nora
- The initial breakup was not just a miscommunication and a genuine reason

Things that I didn't enjoy so much:
- No real conflict between the characters after they worked through the reasons for the initial break up. This meant that the second half of the book felt a bit anticlimactic. I kept waiting for something to happen.
- Nora had already done most of her work prior to us meeting her in this story so apart from some insecurity at jumping into a new relationship, there was very little room for her to grow.
- Derek's anxiety was just brushed over, I felt like we could've delved into this a bit deeper.

I did enjoy the book overall, I just expectations for this book to wow me which I didn't get unfortunately!

In "The Rule Book" by Sarah Adams, Nora Mackenzie's career hinges on managing her ex, NFL star Derek Pender.
Their college romance ended messily, but now, as agent and client, they're thrust back together. A wild Vegas night results in a marriage, forcing them into damage control mode. Pretending their nuptials were intentional, they embark on a romantic Cancun honeymoon with a secret rule book in tow. Nora is ambitious and wants to play by the rules, but Derek is all about living life and breaking them. A perfect combination if you ask me. They really balanced each other in so many scenes.
Their journey explores themes of maturity, battling dyslexia, and overcoming sexism, all while maintaining a light-hearted tone.
With delightful banter and a heartwarming romance, "The Rule Book" is a captivating read that balances humor and depth flawlessly.

Very grateful to the publisher @ for this copy , opinions are my own

<strong>♥️ “When you smile at me, my world feels whole” ♥️</strong>

Derek is the absolute pinnacle of book boyfriends. He’s a football player and Nora’s ex college boyfriend (who she dumped rather abruptly). She’s landed her dream job as a sports agent and is finally getting her first client. Obviously it’s none other than the gorgeous Derek, currently planning his return to football following a nasty injury. Cue some pretty solid hazing on his part and some wicked banter and pranks on hers. It becomes clear pretty quickly that neither of the two have moved on as much as they thought and a wild night in vegas leads to a pretty significant ring shaped complication.

Tropes;
🏈 Football romance
🏈 Second chance
🏈 He falls hard
🏈 LD representation
🏈 One bed
🏈 Fake marriage
🏈 Dual POV
🏈 Open door spice (one chapter that can be skipped)
🏈 The sunniest of sunshine’s and a grumpy guy

I loved this book. I read the cheat sheet on a whim after picking it up for a really low price and when I saw the ARCs for this go up couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to meet more of the sharks. I adored Nora; from her eccentric outfits to her rainbow organised everything she’s the sunshiny optimist I wish I could be.

Derek is the golden retriever to end all golden retrievers. He loves Nora so much and his bedside table 😍 Eugh. No other guy will compare.

I usually read much darker books but this lighthearted tale was everything I didn’t know I needed. I highly recommend this book for lovers of sports and contemporary romance alike. Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC ♥️

If you like Ali Hazelwood, you’ll like this book. It’s the EXACT same writing style minus the STEM aspect of it. It’s very lighthearted and silly, not a book you read seriously or think too much on because otherwise you realize it was actually pretty mediocre. YES WE GET IT HE’S BIG AND MASSIVE AND TALL AND HEAVY, no need to remind us everything 5 lines. The characters were fine, it’s just that a lot was told but not much was showed regarding their personalities. Nora was slightly annoying too, WE GET IT SHE’S QUIRKY AND SHE LIKES TO COLOR COORDINATE THINGS. I feel like she herself was self aware of that a little but it was very much annoying, at least to me. Derek (how do you even pronounce that?) was ok I suppose save for the beginning where he was a massive d!ck but he got his character growth I guess. Overall this book is a great palette cleanser and I definitely read it at the right time (sick in my bed) but it’s not a literary masterpiece by any means. However it would make a great beach/flight/train book I think. 3⭐️

It was no surprise to me that I loved another book by Sarah Adams honestly but these characters were just perfection! They were cute and witty and just everything you want in a rom com. Nora had me laughing so hard I nearly had tea coming out of my nose 😂 this was a book I never wanted to end I loved it from start to finish

Thanks the NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of the arc

Love!!
Love Sarah Adam's writing she is an auto-buy author for me!
I adored the The Cheat Sheet so it was only natural how excited I was for The Rule Book! It did not disappoint this book was a sold 4 stars for me!
The main female character, Nora, was super sweet and quirky; some may argue too quirky, but for me I didn't mind it! Derek definitely wasn't my favourite at first but that quickly changed when I realised how loveable he actually was!
There were moments of banter that made me kick my feet and giggle, but there were also moments that pulled on my heartstrings!

Overall this book was cute, quick to read and well written! If you're looking for a pallet cleanser I can't recommend this one enough! <3

My first wish granted on NetGalley! Thank you so much for this ARC!
The first book I read by Sarah Adams was When in Rome which I thoroughly enjoyed so when I saw her new 2024 release, The Rule Book, I thought I should read the companion novel first, The Cheat Sheet, which was published in 2021. Unfortunately I didn't overall enjoy The Cheat Sheet but I still wanted to try out The Rule Book, being a newer release. There are cameos from the characters of The Cheat Sheet, Nathan and "Bree Cheese", so if you enjoyed this couple more than I did I'm sure you'll like this aspect of the book.
If you love tropes in romance, The Rule Book is full of them! There is "one bed", "fake marriage", "second chance romance", etc. and these all worked for me, especially the "fake marriage" which I loved. I also loved the career discussion, both Derek's and Nora's, and the representation of dyslexia in the narrative.
However, I just don't know why this book didn't keep my attention, it took me so long to get through and I just wasn't into this book as much as I hoped. I really see an improvement in Sarah Adams' writing since The Cheat Sheet but it didn't quite live up to When in Rome for me.
Also worth noting is that The Rule Book is more "open door" when it comes to sexual/explicit scenes than previous books by this author, something which is addressed in the Author's Note & Content Warning at the beginning of the book. Chapter 34 is where you'll want to skip if you want to keep the reading experience "closed door".
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Headline and Sarah Adams for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Review posted to Goodreads and publication day information posted to Instagram Stories.

This was such a cute read! It’s one of those feel good, quick to read books which I really enjoyed.

Derek was a total sweetheart but also quite possessive. Even though they’ve spent years apart from each other he remembers every little detail about Nora which was so sweet. Also I thought Dereks dyslexia representation was done so well, the fact the he listens to audio books because he struggles with his reading - he just deserves a big hug.

Nora was adorable, quirky and so awkward! She was always coming out with awkward but hilarious phrases and she knew how much it would get under Dereks skin. I found her so relatable with her love of organising everything!

The side characters, the plot, the banter and tension were all spot on! I personally enjoyed this one much better than The Cheat Sheet.

If you’re looking for a light hearted feel good rom com then this might be the book for you!


Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for this Arc in exchange for an honest review.

I adored this one - OMG!!!! I really wanted to read this book and i'm so happy I was able to do it.

I loved Nora's sense of humor - SHE WAS AMAZING anad I loved everything about the main relationship.

Everything about it was amazing and I can't wait to see everyone talking about this one.

The Rule Book delivers a captivating second chance romance between Nora and Derek, former flames reigniting sparks amidst professional turmoil.
Sarah Adams crafts characters with depth, Nora's quirky charm contrasting Derek's brooding past. While Derek's initial bitterness feels exaggerated, his evolution redeems him. The narrative's focus on their rekindled relationship overshadows potential agent-player dynamics.
Nevertheless, Adams' engaging storytelling and Nora's resilience make this a delightful read. With vibrant characters and a dash of Vegas spontaneity, The Rule Book reaffirms Adams' status as a romance maestro, earning its place in the hearts of genre enthusiasts.

I LOOOOVED THIS!!

I liked this better than the first book, The Cheat Sheet. Nora wasn’t nowhere near as frustrating and annoying to me as Bree was, thankfully. However, I did grow frustrated at how often Dereks size was remarked on. Both he and Nora kept saying how “massive” and “muscley” he was and how he stood out in a crowd, and it ended up forming a really dodgy shape of him in my head which I don’t think was the aim.

I really love how this was a second chance romance, and how we got to see both characters grow. Unexpectedly there was some great feminist talk from Nora’s mother, who reminded her that being independent and strong doesn’t mean you have to be alone (which Nora had ended up thinking).

I loved how we had cameos of all the characters from the first book, and I loved how the cheat sheet itself was mentioned and Derek got his revenge for the wink.

This was really funny, surprisingly emotional at times, and a great read. Excited for what Sarah Adam’s has next.

3.5 ⭐️

This book was so freaking cute!!

Derek was such an amazing book boyfriend! He was attentive, sweet, caring, sacrificial and always put Nora first. It was always Nora for him, and I loved reading his POV when she thought he hated her, but he was trying to hide how much he loved her 🥹

Nora was pure sunshine ☀️ She was funny, sweet, just pure light and joy! She was such a fun character because she spoke literally every thought that went through her head and she entertained me to no end 😂

This was such a sweet second chance romance, throw in a not-so-fake-marriage, only one bed, a bit of football and of course grumpy x sunshine, and I was SOLD! I loved the found family vibes with Derek’s friends, and seeing all the familiar faces again! (And a special shoutout to the infamous whiteboard, IYKYK 😉)

Thank you NetGalley and Sarah Adams for granting my wish and sending me this absolute gem of a book!

Tropes:
- Football Romance
- Marriage of Convenience
- Second Chance
- One Bed
- Grumpy X Sunshine
- Forced Proximity
- Football Player X Sports Agent
- It was always you
- Found Family

the girl who feels like she’s too much meets the boy who feels like he’s not enough 🥹

✔️ second chance🫂
✔️ athlete x agent 🏟️
✔️ college lovers to ex-lovers to idiots to lovers 🤪
✔️ vegas marriage 💍
✔️ no third act 🥰
✔️ no owd/omd(mentions of other people in the past)😋

i have to admit that i didn’t like him at first. he was acting like a petulant child, throwing tantrums and making everyone around him miserable😔 after Nora and his friends put some sense in his head he became such a lover boy🥰

i love that both kept loving each other all those years but also they tried moving on. they didn’t know if they would see the other one ever again so i’m glad both of them tried to move on🤗

their love was so strong🥹 he tattooed her initial on his arm after they broke up to remember her always😭 he found a charity for her&her mom, kept something for her on his bedside table🥹, and she watched all of his matches, bought all of his team jerseys😭😭😭😭😭😭 they just kept waiting and watching the other from afar💔💔💔

I'm convinced Nora is ADHD coded. (She is not intentionally written as ADHD, I checked with the author. But it still feels like ADHD, at least in the way how it looks in me!)
I love an organised colourcoded Queen who struggles to keep friends because she is seen as 'too much'!

Derek has dyslexia and was diagnosed later in life. He has not been treated well as a child and has a big sense of failure. The journey he goes on was truly beautiful and I felt so seen as a neurodivergent reader. The feeling of not being enough, how you try your hardest and still you 'fail' in the eyes of society. The way this was talked about and handled was done very very well.

Nora is often seen as too much. And she is learning and growing to become fully herself and not feel sorry about it. She is super badass and very good at what she does as an agent. And I loved the relationship between her an Nicole (her boss and mentor). The way both women are going about the powerimbalance in the workplace. I loved how much of an example Nicole was to her!

But most of all I loved the emotional vulnerability between Nora & Derek. The way they are growing and learning to love and be open again. I was rooting for them from the very start. The sweet moments + the banter had me kicking my feet many times!

Also, the scenes with the other LA Shark boys were absolutely hilarious but also heartfelt.

Sarah Adams is an amazing author and truly has a gift for creating a safe and loving space for readers to feel seen and loved and valued. To feel validated and supported. I hope she writes many many more stories! ✨️💕

It’s been almost a year since the last time I read a Sarah Adams book and omg I’d almost forgotten how much I love them!

I had THE BEST time reading this book. Literally couldn’t put it down once I started it.

Second chance is one of my favourite tropes and Sarah did it flawlessly in her new book. I loved Derek and Nora and how in love with each other they were. Seeing them spend more time together and getting to know these new versions of themselves was lovely and I also really enjoyed the fact that they were very open with each other about what happened between them in the past and ended up realizing that as much as it hurt then, it was the right thing and they probably wouldn’t have worked back then.

Another one of my favourite things about this book was Nora and her bubbly personality! She was such a ray of sunshine and her goofy phrases were adorable but underneath all of that, she was incredibly hardworking and fought to make the world a better place. It was great to see her achieve her career goals, stand up for herself and find her place in a male-dominated industry. Derek’s support through all this was great and I loved the he was her biggest supporter. His personal growth journey was also great to witness and I loved the way he went from thinking football was all he had and that he would be nothing and have no one if his career ended to someone who knew he was a lot more than that and knew his friends and Nora would never leave him because they truly loved him for who he was, not because of his job.

I really enjoyed the dyslexia rep and learning more about it as Derek opened up to Nora about his struggles and the hurt he still felt from his school years and the way the people around him treated him when he was trying his absolute hardest to succeed.

In short, I’m obsessed with this book and have found a new comfort read.

Thank you to Headline Eternal for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I need to begin my saying this is my first read by this author, and I absolutely love the way she did her author’s note and content warning. I love that it lets us readers know exactly what we are dealing with and lets us know where to skip if sexy time makes us uncomfortable. This will for sure not be my last book by this author.

Second chance romance is one of my favorite tropes (I must admit I’m a big trope girly). There are so many tropes in this book that are done to perfection. I think all of my favorites were included and not in a cheesy way.

I enjoyed reading from Nora and Derek’s points of view, it always makes the story more emotion filled to me. Nora is so quirky it’s easy to connect to, and they both get so petty it’s hilarious. I loved their banter and their connection in general.

I can’t wait to read this authors back log. Her writing style made it so easy to fly through and enjoy the story and characters. It was such a fluffy read with a bit of seriousness thrown in, I couldn’t help but love it.

I have the biggest smile on my face from reading this book. It is so cute and made my heart happy. I recently read [book:The Cheat Sheet|58100280] and was introduced to the group of friends and teammates of Nathan and Bree and I found that Derek was a great addition to the guy group. I'm happy that the second book of the series was his story.
Oh, the love between Derek and Nora...I could feel it from day one.
Here is a quick run-down of the story:
Derek is currently on the injured list and hasn't been playing football for a while. He is nursing his ankle back to playing capacity but is scared his position on the team is in jeopardy. His current agent is stepping away from work for personal reasons so Derek is assigned to a new agent, a brand new agent and he is her first client. She also happens to be his ex-girlfriend and the love of his life, the one that broke his heart into a million pieces.
Nora is a woman working in a man's world and she is trying to carve a career for herself. Her first client is her ex-boyfriend, the one that she broke up with despite being in love with him. She now has the difficult task of getting him to trust her enough to want to work with her and is trying to survive all the hurdles he is putting in her way.
However, it's obvious that they both still have feelings for each other. One drunk night in Vegas and these two end up married. To save Nora's career and reputation (because, apparently some men think women can only succeed in a career if they sleep their way to the top), Derek and Nora continue with the charade of the marriage. Time together makes them face their true feelings for each other and come clean about their past.
It's a HEA story with loving and caring characters. We continue to see the found family and friendships that were presented in [book:The Cheat Sheet|58100280] and see how they continue to grow.
There was a bit more spice to [book:The Rule Book|182484354] than in [book:The Cheat Sheet|58100280] but it's still very mild.
I can't wait for the rest of the stories of this series to be released.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for granting my wish and allowing me to pre-read this book. I'm really becoming a fan of Sarah Adams.