Genre: Romance {open door-can skip}
Format: Audio from Spotify (Hathaway Lee & Will Damron)
Published: April 2, 2024 by Dell
Soundtrack: Nervous – John Legend
Second chance romance with a sweet twist, The Rule Book was a delightful dual POV with wonderful audio. My first Sarah Adams book did not disappoint; I wanted something light, humorous, pinning, and a touch of steam and this delivered on all fronts. The dual POV allowed the chapters to fly by, and the narrators did an excellent job of animating the jokes and invigorating the unresolved feelings (by both of our MCs). This was light on sports (just felt like the setting) and heavy on romance, but the romance was more than made up for it.
Derek Pender and Nora Mackenzie felt fast and hard for each other in college. Several years later, they have their careers as football star and sports agent crossing paths. I loved that while their young– 20s selves may have lacked communication skills, their almost 30 selves refused to repeat the same. The communication between the characters was clear and banter-filled, and their inner monologues had both MCs working through unresolved insecurities. Between learning who they are now, their persistent physical attraction, and keeping their careers on an upward trajectory, Nora and Derreck have a lot to work through to make this second chance happen.
I know this is Adam’s first open-door book, but the steam was minimal (one scene) , and she makes it easy to avoid, which is considerate of closed-door fans. I think knowing it was coming added to the angst between Dereck and Nora, and I enjoyed the payoff.
This was the second book in a duology that I, true to form, read out of order. It worked, although I know Adams brought back a lot of character from The Cheat Sheet, and perhaps it would have been better to read that first. Despite reading out of order, the context was clear, and the secondary characters were endearing. I intend to go back and read some of Adams’ other works to see how her completely closed-door novels compare.
🌟4 – love it/ 🎧-4
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