Rowena’s review of The Fine Art of Pretending by Rachel Harris.
According to the guys at Fairfield Academy, there are two types of girls: the kind you hook up with, and the kind you’re friends with. Seventeen-year-old Alyssa Reed is the second type. And she hates it. With just one year left to change her rank, she devises a plan to become the first type by homecoming, and she sets her sights on the perfect date—Justin Carter, Fairfield Academy’s biggest hottie and most notorious player.
With 57 days until the dance, Aly launches Operation Sex Appeal and sheds her tomboy image. The only thing left is for Justin actually to notice her. Enter best friend Brandon Taylor, the school’s second biggest hottie, and now Aly’s pretend boyfriend. With his help, elevating from “funny friend” to “tempting vixen” is only a matter of time.
But when everything goes according to plan, the inevitable “break up” leaves their friendship in shambles, and Aly and Brandon with feelings they can’t explain. And the fake couple discovers pretending can sometimes cost you the one thing you never expected to want.
This sounded like such a cute book so of course, I wanted to read it. I’m a sucker for these cute contemporary YA’s and I’m happy to report that this book definitely worked for me.
Alyssa Reed is sick of being friend zoned. She’s going to be a senior when school starts up and she wants to go out with a bang..err, something like that. So gone are the sweats and the boy clothes. She’s going to revamp her style and hope that boys will start to notice her as someone they want to hook up with and not something they need to get serious with. She kind of had a thing for best friend, Brandon but when he didn’t reciprocate her feelings, she let it go.
Now she needs his help in getting other boys to notice her so she asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend on the senior camping trip so that the boys at their school will finally notice her. Her plan completely works. The boys are definitely noticing her, but so is Brandon.
Brandon has never wanted a complicated relationship with his best friend. He loves the girl to death but because she deserves someone that would put her on a pedestal and he’s too young to commit to just one girl…but when he gets roped into helping Alyssa snag the attention of the boys in their class, he can’t stop thinking about her. And wanting to kiss her. And other things.
What a cute book this turned out to be. I really enjoyed it even though there were times when I wanted to smack the crap out of Brandon and Alyssa. There were some times when their communication broke down and I would shake my head because they’re best friends. They should be able to communicate a whole lot better than they did in this book but the angst was real and the characters were charming and I really enjoyed this book. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by Rachel Harris before but she’s on my radar now and I will definitely be reading more.
I loved seeing the growth in both Alyssa and Brandon’s characters. I thought they were adorable and seeing them try to figure things out was entertaining, sweet and just too freaking cute. If you’re a fan of cute, lighthearted contemporary YA romances then you’ll probably enjoy this one.
Grade: 3.5 out of 5
This book is available from Spencer Hill Contemporary. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Leave a Reply