Rules of Seduction by Jenna Mullins

Title: Rules of Seduction

Author: Jenna Mullins

Publisher: The Studio - Paper Lantern Lit

Release Date: April 21, 2015

Source: eARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / B&N / Indigo

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.

Part The Devil Wears Prada, part How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, this story of friendship and romance is sure to appeal to fans of Stephanie Perkins, Jennifer E. Smith, and Anna Todd.

Stories set in or around Hollywood and that world are among my reading weaknesses. I hear about such a book and it automatically gets added to my “Want to Read” shelf on Goodreads. That’s how Jenna Mullins’s Rules of Seduction found itself on my e-reader. And, probably unsurprisingly, I found myself enjoying this story a lot. 

Dani Young is lucky. Right out of film school, she’s scored her dream job working for one of her role models. She’s ready to head to LA and start living her dream. But Dani’s not even in LA one day when things already start going downhill. The dream job is gone and now Dani doesn’t know show she’s going to be able to survive in LA without work. When she runs into Elise, an old friend form high school, who offers to get her a job on a hit teen TV show, Dani jumps at the opportunity, even if the job comes with certain conditions. Dani has to agree to seduce Tate, Elise’s boyfriend and the star of the show, to prove that he’s faithful to Elise. What should be relatively easy turns out to be much more complicated when Dani realizes she’s not sure who she’s seducing for whom anymore.

Guys. Hollywood books. I can’t get enough of them. Seriously. There never seem to be enough of them (though in reality, there are totally some I still haven’t read, I’m actually staring at them sitting on myself right now). But really, books with Hollywood-related storylines are totally one of my major weaknesses when it comes to reading. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for Jenna Mullins’s Rules of Seduction to be added to my Goodreads when I found out what it was about. Despite my excitement over the Hollywood premise, I wasn’t entirely sure how the rest of it was going to work out, especially willingly seducing someone else’s boyfriend because they asked you to. But it wasn’t as convoluted as I had thought it was going to be. It just added some fun drama to the story and upped the stakes, causing me to become more invested than I thought I was going to on some of the relationships. But as much as I enjoyed the Hollywood aspect of the story, what really made me appreciate and enjoy it was Dani.

Dani was fun. Though at times misguided. But more on that in a moment. I just really enjoyed reading her story, and not just because it was set in the TV world. What I liked about her, was that she never really let anything get her down, even when things were going really poorly for her. And I had to respect that because I don’t know what I would have done in her shoes. Actually, I do, I probably would have just given up and slunk back home. The one thing that did bug me was how long it took her to realize what was right in front of her. But then, if she had realized it sooner, there wouldn’t have been a story, so there’s that. So really, I shouldn’t complain. Moving on. Do I really have to say that I loved Tate, because it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. But it’s what happened. Tate was not who I thought he was going to be, and I loved seeing how he was around Dani. Their relationships was just really fun to read about and see go from friendship to something more. Beyond just Dani and Tate, I really enjoyed Dani’s roommate, Brit, as a character. She was just so fun and different and sweet and I just wish I could have seen more of her.

Jenna Mullins’s Rules of Seduction was a fun Hollywood-set story. I highly enjoyed reading it and loved seeing all the on- and off-set drama unfold. If you’re looking for something to read this summer, this is the book for you.