Review: The Fine Art of Truth or Dare

The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen

Publisher: Speak
Publication Date: February 16th 2012
Pages: 380
Source: Bought
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Goodreads

Pretty in Pink meets Anna and the French Kiss in this charming romantic comedy

Ella is nearly invisible at the Willing School, and that's just fine by her. She's got her friends - the fabulous Frankie and their sweet cohort Sadie. She's got her art - and her idol, the unappreciated 19th-century painter Edward Willing. Still, it's hard being a nobody and having a crush on the biggest somebody in the school: Alex Bainbridge. Especially when he is your French tutor, and lessons have started becoming, well, certainly more interesting than French ever has been before. But can the invisible girl actually end up with a happily ever after with the golden boy, when no one even knows they're dating? And is Ella going to dare to be that girl?

When I first read about this book on goodreads I was very, very excited about reading it, but now I really can't figure out why. Though this book has good intentions, I really did not enjoy this book. There were some very funny scenes, but I never connected with the characters and didn't feel and spark in the romance. There was a LOT of unneeded detail added to the story about things that are completely irreverent to the story and didn't add anything to the book.

The main character, Ella is a art school student who is obsessed with Edward Willing, a 19th century painter, and is in love with the most popular boy in school. Ella was a character that seemed to, like I said earlier, have good intentions, but I really didn't think she was developed enough to be a good character. Ella is a very down-on-herself character with low self-esteem who seems to think that she is the lowest of the low and no one could ever love her. I really don't like it when books that aren't issues books have really down on themselves for no reason characters. Ella seemed like she was against everyone, including her family, and it kind of annoyed me. Alex Bainbridge, the most popular boy in school and the boy that Ella has a crush on is much different than Ella. I really don't understand where the romance came into the story, they really had no reason to be together except for Ella's crush, and her crush was just that, a crush. The one character I really did like in the story was Ella's friend Frankie. Frankie had such a crazy awesome personality I just loved him. I wish he was real. I also really liked the restaurant atmosphere of the main character's family's business, it seemed like a very exciting atmosphere.

Overall I think this book was really cliche and though I really did like the setting and the intentions, it just wasn't ready in terms of character development and writing.