The Rule Book by Sarah Adams [ARC Review]

 

*I’d like to thank NetGalley, Headline Eternal and Sarah Adams for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

“The Rule Book” by Sarah Adams did surprise me in the best ways possible. When Sarah announced a sequel to “The Cheat Sheet” featuring a marriage of convenience with “open door” scenes, I was already over the moon, but reading it sent me somewhere far far away in the galaxy. I absolutely loved it! 

Nora and Derek used to date in college, but broke up before Derek’s career took off. Almost a decade later, they met again. As agent and client.

A drunken night led to them waking up married and their trashy wedding picture splattered all over the Internet. It’s time for damage control. They decide to pretend the wedding was intentional and that they are indeed in love. They get sent off to a romantic honeymoon in Cancun. 

In their luggage, hidden among color coordinated socks is their rule book with 20 rules not to break while working together. 

The only problem? Nora wants to follow the rules, and Derek wants to break them. 

Guess who wins?

I barely find the words to describe how much I love Nora and Derek. Especially Nora. You’d expect her to be that cold-hearted, black pantsuits wearing career woman, but she is not! (She is also not punching down on the stereotype!) Nora is girly, more than friendly and has the taste buds of a seven-year-old, but also ambitious, smart and calculating. She’s like the Elle Woods of sports management. I absolutely adore her. 

Derek, or Dere-Bear, is also a true book boyfriend. He starts off all grumpy, but defrosts in Cancun. The golden retriever energy in this one is off the charts. He protects her, supports her and simply loves her as she is. When it’s revealed what he has kept in his bedside table, I almost cried! He is too cute!

Nora and Derek’s relationship was the heart of this book. The reason they broke up during college, appeared silly at first, but when they have their first big conversation about it, puzzle pieces fall into place and it makes sense. Nora’s fears, Derek’s immaturity. They simply met the right person at the wrong time. But when they got thrown at each other again almost a decade later, the time was finally right. Though Derek didn’t make it easy for Nora and Nora clearly had her walls up, they slowly but surely found their way back into each other’s arms, and this time they stayed.

I also loved to meet the Shark Crew again! Nathan and Bee being happily married, the others also off the market and with babies on the way. But still the same old silly bunch who’d do anything for their friends. The ultimate found family!

“The Rule Book” felt a lot more mature than “The Cheat Sheet”, not just because of the spice, but also because of the themes. Derek battling his late diagnosis of dyslexia as well as his injury that put him off the field were definitely hardships to overcome. Nora’s battle against sexism at the workplace and family issues that felt resolved, but clearly lingered in her adult life, put rocks in not only her development as a person, but also her relationship with Derek. The story is still very light-hearted, fun and littered with humorous banter, but the themes discussed go beyond “Argh, I love my best friend!”. 

And while I’m already talking about maturity, let’s go quickly into the spice level of this book as this is Sarah’s first open door romance. It was one scene, a couple of pages and beautifully written. It almost made me sad that we didn’t get that with Annie and Will. I’d sell my left kidney for a spicy chapter for those two! I hope Sarah includes open door scenes in her future works (not all of them, but some). Spice-level wise I put it somewhere with Ali Hazelwood’s “The Love Hypothesis”. It’s there, but it’s not over the top or too mature for a teenage reader (16+).

Overall, I loved it so much. It was funny, cute, and had a lot of heart. And I will get a physical copy once it hits the stores, because having the ARC on my kindle is not enough.