Okay, I am dying of laughter over the fact that The Cheat Sheet is blowing up over on BookTok. Those two don’t go together at all in my head! Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. So, I decided to write a quick review/ things to keep in mind about this book before you read it because I love it and can already predict the hate it’s going to get.

The Cheat Sheet Summary

The Cheat Sheet is a best-friends-to-lovers fake-dating trope. It stars Bree Camden (an injured dancer and overall goofball) and her best friend Nathan Donelson (a star quarterback in the NFL). They’re both obviously in love with each other but are too afraid of losing their friendship to say anything — until Bree drunkenly tells a reporter everything in the bathroom and the consequent “tell all” TMZ article goes viral.
 
Now they’re being asked to fake date for three weeks and film a Super Bowl commercial for a pretty prominent name brand. Maybe that’s just what they both need to take this friendship to the next level, but both Bree and Nathan are getting mixed signals as the lines between them start to become blurred and hazy. Will everything end up happily ever after or will this be a mistake that not even a Tide pen can erase?

My Thoughts

I read this book back when it was first published in 2021; the book came out in August and I read it shortly thereafter in October through Kindle Unlimited (I’m pretty sure). Back then I was still mostly into YA romances and hadn’t fully jumped into the adult side of TikTok and contemporary romances. I liked the book well enough.
 
I recently reread the book (like last week), mainly because I saw it blowing up everywhere, and still thought it was cute. Then I read the comments and reviews. 😅 Yikes. So here are my 5 recommendations to keep in mind if you decide to read The Cheat Sheet.

5 Things to Keep in Mind

First (and perhaps most important): this book is not smut. So if you’re going into it expecting things to get spicy or descriptive or all-together like anything recommended on TikTok YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED. I can basically guarantee that. But, if you’re going into it expecting a clean, lighthearted, fluffy, semi-sports romance where you don’t have to think too hard and everything is rainbows and butterflies, you’ll love it.
 
Second: the writing style isn’t for everyone. In addition to feeling like a debut novel (when it isn’t), it also features a dual point of view (with alternating chapters between Bree and Nathan written in first person), and a light-hearted fluff plot. In all frankness, it reads like a young adult author wrote a young adult book and then marketed it a an adult-ish book.
 
Third: though The Cheat Sheet is written about 30-year-old slightly successful adults, the characters often act more like high schoolers. While that can be a turn-off for people, I think if you know what to expect about their maturity levels and predictable actions going into it, you won’t be quite as annoyed by them. To be honest, I just imagined them as barely out-of-high-school kids in my head while I was reading it. Did that timeline add up with the successful jobs part of the plot? No. But that is okay.
 
Fourth: there is no conflict, to the extent that some readers might say it’s slightly boring and unrealistic. While that’s not entirely true, it’s not untrue either. Adams did write some interesting scenes involving depression, anxiety, and panic attacks that added a little bit of depth to the plot and provided tension in Bree and Nathan’s relationship that wasn’t the stereotypical blown-out-of-proportion argument most contemporary romances have. And, given that they’ve been best friends since high school, I find it a little easier to believe that they would have less “conflict” because they’ve figured out how to work through disagreements and tension in a healthy manner.
 
Fifth: The Cheat Sheet is very VERY cheesy. It’s basically a low-budget Hallmark movie in book form (I say that with love, especially since I have watched many low-budget and hallmark movies in my life); if the executives at Hallmark turned this book into a movie, I would 100% watch it. If I had to sum it up in one word I would say it’s adorable — with all the imagery and connotations that word usually brings to mind.

Concluding Thoughts for The Cheat Sheet

Okay, this book is incredibly cheesy. And there’s absolutely no spice. And it’s a very juvenile-feeling book and the characters act like irresponsible teenagers a lot of the time.
 
Will most of BookTok hate it? Probably. And yet, I still give it 3.5 stars — which is better than half the books on BookTok. It’s such a guilty pleasure novel and has convinced me to read more of Sarah Adam’s books.

Show & Tell Book Nook Rating:

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐.5 /5

Spice: 🌶 /10

 

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Did you know we have a YouTube channel where we publish new book memes, thoughts, and reviews nearly every day? We even did one for The Cheat Sheet and Sarah Adam’s When in Rome. You can watch it here – just don’t forget to subscribe to our channel so you can be notified of any additional book reviews.
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