The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen

Title: The Fine Art of Truth or Dare
Author: Melissa Jensen
Blurb:
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?

Links:
The Fine Art of Truth or Dare on Goodreads
 
 Kala's Review:
The blurb for this book is misleading. This book is not a romantic comedy at all. I can't recall a single moment that made me laugh. It's more like a typical YA romance novel.

Ella, the main character, is not too bad. She's shy and damaged and very self conscious about a scar she got as a child. Her best friends and her family are even better - Frankie and Sadie and her grandma are all awesome. Ella and her friends attend a private school and are the outcasts. She's had a crush on popular boy Alex Bainbridge for a long time.

Eventually (not until about 30% of the way through) Alex becomes Ella's tutor. I enjoyed most of the Alex/Ella interaction, but they were too few and far between. I think Ella spent more time interacting with a picture of a dead painter (who TALKED BACK). This is where the novel got so boring. I couldn't stand Ella's infatuation with "Edward Willing." She had long in depth conversations with him and spent pages and pages and pages researching him. I got so bored I ended up skipping most of it.

The ending was also kind of abrupt. I think Ella had a valid point about Alex hiding their relationship. He had excuse after excuse about why and the way it's written, we're made to believe that his hiding her is okay.

I enjoyed the parts of this book where Ella was with her friends/family/Alex. Hated the parts where she was obsessing over the painter. Because of that, I wasn't overly impressed by it, but I would read something else by this author.
 
3 out of 5 stars.

Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/397528740