Review: The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen

Title: The Fine Art of Truth and Dare
Author: Melissa Jensen
Publisher: Speak
Release date: February 16th 2012
Pages: 380
Genre: Contemporary YA; romance
Source: Bought
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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?

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars


I started out loving this book. I could immediately relate to the main character Ella. Her insecurites are easy to understand. As a child, she was burned badly, and she still has a huge scar on her shoulders, neck, and breast, and that makes her very self-conscious. I liked reading about her insecurities as she struggles with her self-esteem but doesn't spend hours whining about it. 


I loved Ella's friends as well. Frankie is a hilarious character - I know it's cliched, but I just love the gay-best-friend type of character. Sadie is a good character, too, and I liked reading about her family issues. Ella, Frankie and Sadie have a great friendship - the way they support each other is sweet, and I found myself always looking forward to scenes with these two characters. I loved their ToD games, too!


The restaurant and Ella's family situation is a nice addition to the story. Her family is Italian and they own a restaurant where Ella spends a lot of time, since the whole family has to help out. I always loved the scenes in the restaurants - the food sounds so delicious! Seriously, don't read this book hungry - the descriptions of the food had my mouth watering! I would have liked to know some more about each of the family members, but all in all, I liked reading about the family dynamics.


I love the idea for Ella's obsession with the dead painter, Edward Willing - unique and interesting. I liked reading about Edward's life story, and how it relates to Ella's own life. I think we got to know a little too much about Edward, though - there are excerpts from biographies and articles about him and stuff like that, and I was kind of bored during those parts. Maybe that's just because I'm not all that interested in art, though.


All of that sounds pretty postive, and I did really like this book, in the beginning. The only storyline I didn't like is the romance, and sadly, the romance turned into the main focus later on in the book. Ella's obsession with Alex annoyed me - I'm just sick of the quiet-loner-girl-falls-for-the-most-popular-guy-at-school storyline. I never really got Alex as a character - there were times when I wanted to like him, when he really seemed like a good guy; and there were times when I couldn't stand him. I just never got a grasp on what kind of person he was supposed to be. The romance storyline is predictable, and it just didn't work for me.


About halfway through this book, I got bored. The pacing is really, really slow, and I was ready for the book to be over long before it actually was over. I would have liked the book to be a little shorter, the plot to move a little faster.


I'm not sure what to make of this book. I think it had a lot of promise, since I liked the whole set-up, with Ella's character, her friends, her family, and her obsession with Edward. But the slow pacing and predictable romance made it hard for me to enjoy The Fine Art of Truth or Dare. Nevertheless, I liked reading about most storylines other than the romance, and I do think it's a cute, fun book - just nothing special.