Review: The Art of Lainey

The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: May 20th, 2014
Source: Library
Date Read: 7/8/14 to 7/11/14
384 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰

Soccer star Lainey Mitchell is gearing up to spend an epic summer with her amazing boyfriend, Jason, when he suddenly breaks up with her—no reasons, no warning, and in public no less! Lainey is more than crushed, but with help from her friend Bianca, she resolves to do whatever it takes to get Jason back.

And that’s when the girls stumble across a copy of The Art of War. With just one glance, they're sure they can use the book to lure Jason back into Lainey’s arms. So Lainey channels her inner warlord, recruiting spies to gather intel and persuading her coworker Micah to pose as her new boyfriend to make Jason jealous. After a few "dates", it looks like her plan is going to work! But now her relationship with Micah is starting to feel like more than just a game.

What's a girl to do when what she wants is totally different from what she needs? How do you figure out the person you're meant to be with if you're still figuring out the person you're meant to be?

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As my first contemporary romance since Eleanor & Park, I thoroughly enjoyed The Art of Lainey. With its popularity and hype throughout the blogosphere, I knew I was taking my chances when I borrowed it from the library. Truth is, I'm not a huge fan of contemporary, I stick to Fantasy and Sci-fi or some sort of dystopian series. But you know what? I think I may need to branch out a little more!

So here's the situation. Right at the start, Lainey is dumped by her boyfriend, Jason, of 2 years. But instead of moving on and forgetting about it, she comes up with a strategic plan with her best friend Bianca, all based off of The Art of War by Sun Tzu. So what exactly is the plan? To be in a fake relationship with her co-worker, Micah, so both of them can make their exes jealous, and hopefully get them back.

But sometimes, well most of the time, these things don't work. It's really up to Lainey to decide whether she wants to go back to the old, or remake herself completely. Because maybe her old self, wasn't exactly her.

So first off, let's talk about Lainey. Though I did find her annoying along with her choice of friends (aka Kendall) and then Jason. Everything seemed to revolve around social status, which is believable though saddening. I wanted to hit my head every time Lainey went back to thinking about Jason. LIKE NO! FORGET ABOUT HIM! But yay for the huge character developments. Without it, I think I would've just dropped the book.

To be honest, I've never read a book about a fake relationship, I don't think. It's definitely interesting, even though I ended up feeling more frustrated BUT THEN THEIR RELATIONSHIP. Micah and Lainey are literally perfect together. I don't know how else to say it. Their banters were cute and playful, and basically everything in their relationship is what I dream of, haha. And I definitely didn't like Jason, I really didn't. HE DOESN'T DESERVE SOMEONE LIKE LAINEY!

And Bianca is literally one of the bestest friends anyone could ask for. She stuck with Lainey even after a couple of stupid decisions, always letting her decide for herself, and more importantly, BE HERSELF. Honestly, I don't even think I could act the way she did with Lainey around. How did she survive those two years in high school?

Oh, and another thing, can we talk about Hazelton? I want a creepy torture pancake house in my town! I want a teen dance club! Or even a simple place like Denali. Is it just my town that barely has any cool places to go at all? Like really?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that soccer is involved, since all of the characters besides Micah are basically soccer superstars. Though I'm not a big fan of soccer (sorry!), I know a lot of other readers are :D

Lainey's troubles did kind of remind me of my own relationship. I definitely understand the feelings Lainey went through, about throwing her entire life away and having to move on. It's just really hard to start over, especially if it was your first relationship. So even though I don't necessarily agree with some of the things she did, I definitely understand why she did it. And because of this, I really liked The Art of Lainey. Sure, sometimes it was pretty predictable, but it was a light-hearted read that really connected to me. WOULD RECOMMEND :D