Sunday, March 29, 2015

Review: Rules of Seduction by Jenna Mullins


The first rule of seduction is: don’t fall in love.

Fresh out of college, Dani Young heads for the LA sun to chase her dream of becoming a screenwriter-director. So when her former BFF turned actress Elise offers Dani the opportunity to work on the hit teen show Vamp Camp, Dani can’t refuse, even if it comes at a price: Elise wants Dani to seduce her boyfriend, Vamp Camp superstar Tate Lawrence. Turns out Elise has some major trust issues, and needs Dani to test Tate’s faith. The only rule: don’t fall in love with him.

Sure, Dani doesn’t mind occasionally glimpsing Tate’s megawatt smile…or accidentally-on-purpose brushing up against his perfect torso…but she’s no fool. There’s no way she’d ever fall for a shallow celebrity and no way one would fall for her, a lanky movie nerd.

But amidst vampire-crazed fans, a conniving fellow intern, and a devilishly handsome showrunner, Dani feels like all the rules she used to know have disappeared, except for one: Love doesn’t play by the rules.



 



Dani had high hopes and rose colored glasses when thinking of breaking out of Illinois and heading to the City of Angels but her first day in LA was something of which nightmares are made. On top of the no good, very bad day, Dani runs into a blast from her past ... one of her closest friends from home. While this should be a happy moment, the old friend wants Dani to seduce her gorgeous TV star boyfriend to see if he is trustworthy. Dani discovers that seducing someone is a bit harder than making a list and having high hopes.

I didn't NOT like Rules of Seduction, but it is not one of my favorite novels this year. For me, it felt a little all over the place with what was going on within the pages. The characters were ... okay. I wanted to know a bit more about each of them and I think that a little more depth would have done them some good. I was also a little surprised with the immaturity. These kids are out of college, I wasn't expecting it to feel so incredibly young. Granted, that could be just that I'm feeling super old in my 34 years but I don't think that is the case. I found myself rolling my eyes and thinking "REALLY?!?" quite a few times at the situations these characters seemingly put themselves through. 

I did find quite a few quotes that I really enjoyed and it was a bit funny at times. Unfortunately, that wasn't a redeeming enough quality to save it from the three stars that I thought this should receive. After I read this, I found out that the author has a pretty big history in television and that makes sense because since the majority of this novel takes place on a set and it seemed like it was very well fleshed out. 

I might be interested in reading what else comes out by this author ... it looks like this is her first book and I'm wondering if future novels will be even better. 



Available: April 21st, 2015


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