Ten Rules for Faking It

The clever premise of Sullivan’s debut falls flat in execution. On radio producer Everly Dean’s 30th birthday, she catches her boyfriend in bed with another woman and accidentally rants about it live on air. When the station owner hears her meltdown, he moves to replace Everly, but station manager Chris Jansen, who has a crush on Everly, proposes a wild idea to save her job. Everly’s tirade got listeners invested in her love life, so Chris pitches a show in which Everly will find a new boyfriend by dating listener-nominated men and recapping her dates on air. Everly’s attraction to Chris turns into real feelings after he matter-of-factly takes her anxiety disorder into account in planning the show, but his role as her boss gives her pause. Readers will share her reservations, as, though Sullivan attempts to update the workplace romance trope for the modern age, Chris’s handsy jealousy over Everly’s dates screams for an HR intervention. The dates themselves are fun but repetitive, and aggravating detours into the relationship struggles of Everly’s immature parents slow down the otherwise zippy rom-com plot. Die-hard fans of The Bachelorette will enjoy this novelistic take on the theme, but others may want to give it a miss. [em]Agent: Fran Black, Literary Counsel. (Jan.) [/em]