Stars: ★★/5
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 someone pitches to you Pretty in Pink meets Anna and the French Kiss, you just think Yes! Just yes. Because...Anna and the French Kiss and Pretty in Pink. It must be YA magic. And I guess The Fine Art of Truth or Dare had all the elements for the pitch to technically work - "average" girl + popular boy + romantic hijinks - but it totally lacked the charm it promised. It's not even the comparison that really ruined the book for me, it was just the book. So boring and cringe-worthy, it really does earn the nod of a cheesy 80s romantic comedy. Just not Pretty in Pink.
So there are two major themes of this book that really, really grated. The first being that, with the exception of close friend Harper, every rich person in this book is treated like a soulless bully. The girls are bitches and the boys are assholes, that's all there is to it. And when Alex, the St. Clair/Blane of this book, doesn't fall at Ella's feet for wearing some lip gloss (I kid you not) and proclaim his love for her on the spot, it's because he's got money and is therefore inherently evil (or something). They are terrible rich snobs, they will never be like us, etc etc.
This is not to say Alex's behavior is much better, and hence theme two problem: I love you, but let's keep it a secret, okay? The banter between Ella and Alex was cute at first, especially in their first few shy Thanksgiving e-mails, but eventually it just comes off as insincere on both sides. Ella continues her strange love affair with a dead poet and Alex stays with his girlfriend, despite the fact that he is supposedly falling in love with Ella. And of course Alex's rich and pretty girlfriend, Kay, is rendered a villain of epic proportions:
"Just in case you doubt it, I could ruin your life so easily.” She tapped the screen with a glossy gunmetal nail. “A few lines on Facebook that will follow you forever."
I didn’t buy this type of character in Alyson Noel's Art Geeks and Prom Queens and I don’t buy it here. But really, Alex only pursues Ella after Kay, teen villain superstar, dumps him. He also never takes Ella anywhere and doesn't tell any of his friends they're together. He doesn't meet her family, she doesn't meet his, and the only time they spend together is alone. Ella realizes towards the end of the story that this isn't normal relationship behavior, so I was like, Aha! She confronts him about it (yay), he runs away, she confronts him again and is basically mollified in the dumbest way possible but okay (not yay). I'm pretty sure the sun is eventually going to set on their relationship, even though the 80s rom com soul of this book wants us to believe it's happily ever after.
If you were hoping for something with a little more heart but with the same atmosphere, see Alyssa B. Sheinmel's The Beautiful Between or The Stillburrow Crush by Linda Kage.
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