Book Review: The Rule Book

Last year I read The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams and I really liked it, but I wasn’t obsessed with it like many other people are. It didn’t quite live up to the hype for me though I did like it. So when I heard that Sarah Adams was writing a book about side character, Derek Pender, and that it would be her first open door romance I was intrigued. I was intrigued because I liked Derek’s character and I wanted to see if her including some spice would make me love the book more. So I read The Rule Book last week and loved it ore than The Cheat Sheet!

This second chance romance romcom follows Derek Pender and Nora Mackenzie. Derek and Nora were in a relationship in college and in love, but Nora suddenly broke up with Nora before graduation and Derek never knew why. We learn early on in the book that Nora has always regretted breaking up with Derek and that she did it because she saw herself getting so wrapped up in him and their relationship that her grades and goals of becoming a sports agent were starting to suffer.

Fast forward years and Derek is one of the to tight ends in the NFL and recovering from an injury. Nora is a sports agent at a prominent agency after working her way up over the years. Professionally, she goes by Mac because people respond to her more positively if they think the sports agent communicating with them via email is a man. So when Nora’s boss says she has a new client, Derek Pender, he has no idea that Mac is Nora.

Nora needs Derek to accept her as his new agent or her whole career could get derailed. Derek doesn’t want to have anything to do with Nora because he’s still heartbroken over the breakup. He comes up with a list of rules that they have to follow to keep things professional and he goes out of his way to try to make her job miserable so she’ll quit. But, on a business trip to Vegas the two get drunk and truths start to come out about their past and they wake up, hung over, and…married. In order to save Nora’s career, the two decide to stay married for now. Will their real feelings for one another come out and make their fake marriage turn into a real one?

I loved Nora and Derek. Their story was so cute and I loved seeing their second chance together. I really liked seeing how they were both so hard working and determined to excel in their careers, but were also so supportive of one another and willing to sacrifice for the other. My one critique would be the dialogue. The dialogue was a little cheesy, cringey at times, but I think this might be the way Sarah Adams writes in general. Overall, though, I really liked the storyline and characters so it was easy to overlook for me.

Read this if you want a steamy (some spice but on the lower scale) sports romcom with the second chance romance trope.

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