The Rule Book (Jennifer Blackwood)

Starr Media Second-Assistant Survival Guide

1. Don’t call your hot boss the antichrist to his face.
2. Don’t stare at hot boss’s, um, package or his full sleeve of tattoos. (No. Really. Stop!)
3. Don’t get on the malicious first assistant’s bad side.
4. Don’t forget to memorize the 300-page employee manual.
5. If you value your cashmere, steer clear of boss’s dog.
6. Boss’s dimples are lust-inducing. Do. Not. Give. In.
7. “The elevator ate your clothes” is not a valid excuse for showing up to important meetings half dressed.
8. Don’t break seven of the rules within the first week of employment if you, ya know, are in dire need of money to support your sick mom.
9. Whatever you do, don’t fall for the boss. See rule eight about sick mom.
10. Never forget the rules.

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First and foremost, in something that shouldn’t come as a surprise by now, I read this book with Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much, so go here to read her review of this book.

People, look at that blurb!!! Isn’t it one of the most appealing blurbs ever?! I love it! Lists and rules are such an important part of this book, that it’s not only fitting that the blurb takes this format, but it just begs to be read.

I really enjoyed this one, because from the get go, this book is hilariously written. The book is told in Lainey’s POV, and she’s just hilarious! Her use of pop references, inner dialogues and breaking of the fourth wall, is super well done. Her rants are to die for! I absolutely loved the writing, it was enjoyable on itself.

This is such a cute story of office romance. Lainey is a great female protagonist, who knows her worth and is not afraid to fight for what she thinks she deserves. Also, the things that come out of her mouth? Amazing! Because the book is only told from Lainey’s POV, we only know how Brogan Starr is from her perspective, but it’s enough to swoon more than a few times! Brogan, and MIT graduate, built his own company from scratch, and believes that the only way to succeed is by following a strict set of rules… a lot of them. This all comes crumbling down when he falls for his assistant, obviously!

The conflicts in this book are at the same time kind of expected and heartbreaking, because mixing professional and personal lives is never easy… but I really liked how they came about, and how they were solved. It was kind of surprising and refreshing that the conflict didn’t go to a very expected path…

The side characters were interesting as well, mainly Lainey’s mom and BFF, Zoey, and of course Bruce, the slobbing-farting-half horse dog (he was amazing!).

I only had one complaint about this book and that was the lack of sex scenes. Yeah, I don’t expect every book to have explicit sex scenes, not at all, but the way she fantasized about her boss, and from the sexual tension between them, it would have benefited the book if we saw a lot more than what we did. The sex is implied, of course it is, but it was just lacking something.

And while I loved Lainey’s POV, because she was an amazing narrator, I would have liked to read about Brogan’s internal struggle, because breaking the rules that could affect his baby – aka, his company – had to be a hell of a struggle, and it would have been super interesting to hear his thoughts on it.

To sum it up, fantastic NA book! Super cute and fun office romance, with hardly any heat. I would highly recommend it.

Let’s Talk About: Buddy Reads. Do They Influence Your Opinion on a Book?

Hey guys! I haven’t done one of these in awhile, right? Well, as you might know from reading some reviews on my blog and whatnot, I’ve been doing a lot of buddy reads lately, mostly with Cátia @The Girl Who Read Too Much, but also with Kat @Life and Other Disasters and Sara@Freadom Library. This made me wonder, how influenced are we by someone else’s reading experience?

I think it’s true for most people – at least it is for me – that when we see someone whose judgment we trust enjoying and raving about a book, we go to that book with a certain degree of excitement and expectation. This is both good and bad, because you enter it with an open mind, but expecting it to be awesome, and sometimes it’s hard to live up to that.

But what happens when you and your buddy are enjoying a book at the same time? You don’t have those expectations, but you do have the excitement, because buddy reading on itself it’s awesome! Right? So, how does this excitement translates to your enjoyment of the book?

I have to admit that I usually buddy read books that I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy, but it has happened a few times now that we’ve read a bad book. One thing I’ve noticed after a few buddy reads is this: 

Sure, this can be due to the fact that Cátia and I think pretty much alike, and are bound to enjoy some of the same stuff. We love the same books, request the same books, so our rating usually doesn’t stray from 0.5 stars of each other.

So, let me talk about another example, for instance, when Kat @Life and Other Disasters, Sara @Freadom Library and I buddy read Anything You Want. Me and Kat immediately fell in love with the book and the main character, but not Sara, she took a little while longer to get there. Did the fact that we were discussing the book and giving her our takes on the character and actions influenced her in any way to be a little more open to it? I honestly think so.

Discussing some part of the book that you didn’t understand right away, or simply didn’t like, with someone else with a slightly different take on the subject, allows you to open your mind a little more, and sometimes enjoy the book a bit more in the process as well.

The same happens when you don’t like something within the book you’re buddy reading. I’m aware that sometimes I hate some cheesy lines, or plots more – that in non-buddy reading books might go unnoticed – because we end up nitpicking some of those things apart. So buddy reading can also lower my opinion of a book.

I don’t think they do exactly. I do think that sometimes a buddy read sharpens your take on a book. It doesn’t change whether you liked a certain book or not, but it influences HOW MUCH you enjoyed it or not. For me, it sometimes makes the difference between a 4 or a 4.5 stars. Or a 3 and a 2.5 or lower.

For me, discussing a book in real time makes me see that book differently, makes me notice more details, jokes, and even mistakes, that I would maybe have missed it if I was reading it by myself. It’s 100% an enjoyable experience for me, that for sure influences my opinion on certain books.