HDU: A Novel by India Lee

Amanda Nathan just lost everything - her first real boyfriend to her lifelong best friend, her half of their shared apartment in St. Louis and her first post-grad job as a receptionist. Forced back under her parents' roof in Merit, Missouri, the gossipy town she'd spent her life trying to escape, Amanda has but one saving grace - being an anonymous moderator on HDU, the Internet's largest celebrity gossip community. Unemployed and alone, Amanda relishes in the one thing she has control over - Hollywood gossip. Now, her idea of fun is getting lost in the glamorous lives of others and posting nasty rumors about her former bestie's favorite actor, Liam Brody, a playboy notorious for dumping his model girlfriends on a monthly basis.

So who would've thought that Liam Brody would be Amanda's answer to escaping Merit? When the controversial womanizer needs an image boost to land a new role, he turns to none other than HDU for some good press. As it turns out, Liam is as eager to shed his playboy image as Amanda is desperate to move out of Merit. The solution to both problems? Fake a romance in which Hollywood's biggest playboy falls for an unknown, sweet and shockingly plain Jane.

With the help of Ian, a fellow HDU moderator and self-developed expert on stardom, Amanda packs her bags for her new life in New York, where the overnight fame and glamour of being a celebrity girlfriend awaits. But Amanda soon discovers that their little ploy is a lot more emotionally complicated than she imagined. And while she finds that life works a thousand times better in her Hollywood circle, so does manipulation.