REVIEW: The Fine Art of Pretending (The Fine Art of Pretending Book #1) 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.

I fell in love with Rachel Harris after reading Accidentally Married on Purpose. This is the second book of hers that I have read and granted it was a good book it couldn’t top the other one. I love these types of books or movies. Have someone help you catch the attention of someone else and fall in love with the first one in between. It’s a guilty pleasure and I was so excited to sink into this book when it popped up on my kindle.

Aly has been the girl all of the guys don’t mind being friends with. Now that it is her senior she wants to change her image into a girl that the boys in her school want to date. She goes through a transformation where she changes her clothes, hair and make-up. And now it is time to take her high school by storm.

Brandon is one of the hottest most popular guys in high school. He only does casual flings because he has seen love and relationships destroy things. He can’t take the chance of feeling the way his mom did when his dad died. Brandon is now going to help Aly change her image by pretending to be her casual hook-up.

Aly is not a character that I liked much. I get the needing to change her appearance. I mean every girl likes to go through a make-over once in a while but Aly seemed to do it in the wrong way. Her transformation was to dress in clothes that would be considered Lingerie before they were considered clothing. I feel like this shouldn’t be how getting boy’s attention should be portrayed to the younger readers. Granted Rachel Harris took the turn it was supposed to but Aly was never a character that I liked very much.

I actually liked Brandon’s character. There was some confusion on how he viewed Aly’s new make-over but in the end he loves her for the person she was and the person she has become. He was there to help her gain the confidence that she now has. He loves her for the right reasons and not just because she dressed slutty for everyone to see her. He gets an A in my book for that. It was frustrating how long he fought them but that was the angst that made the story good.

Aside from some of the plot points that I didn’t really enjoy this book was pretty good. It was a good fluffy high school read that was written pretty well.