Saturday, October 4, 2014

Blog Tour, Review, and Giveaway: The Fine Art of Pretending 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.





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The Fine Art of Pretending by Rachel Harris is a heartwarming story about a girl, desperate to be one of the popular girls, to be noticed by the guys as more than a friend deciding to change who she was, only to later realize that the original version of herself wasn't as bad as she thought.  This high-school tale will have the reader remembering what it was like to be in high-school and how difficult it was to be who you were without worrying what other's thought.  I give this book 3.5 stars and recommend it to others that are looking for a light, feel-good read.

"If you want to recreate yourself in a new image, you must embrace you inner vixen."

Aly is on a mission, to have a date for her senior year homecoming dance that wasn't a friend.  She felt in order for her wish to come true, she had to change herself into a better version, sexier clothes, hair and an attitude.  She enlists her best friend Brandon to pretend to be her casual hook-up so that the other boys at Fairfield Academy would take her transformation seriously.  She yearned for them to look at her as a casual girl, one who would hook up, be adventurous and have fun instead of the commitment girl that everyone labeled her as.  Everything seems to be according to plan except for the one thing that she didn't anticipate; actually falling in love with Brandon.

Brandon has sworn that he will never be in a relationship, not after watching his mother fall apart when his father died.  He believed that a friendship with Ally was the safest course of action, because to him friendships didn't end; they lasted forever.  He needed to have Aly in his life forever and not risk the amazing friendship that they had.  Brandon thought pretending to be hooking up with Aly would be easy, especially since they spent so much time together anyway.  What he didn't count on was his feelings for Aly slowly changing.  Brandon spends a better part of the book fighting against the love that all of his friends and family can see between him and Aly, even the reader can see it.  There are times when you want to smack him in the back of the head and tell him to wake up and go after her, not let her go.

Aly realizes that her mission to become sexy wasn't what she really wanted or needed.  And it was that realization that made everything else fall into place for her as it should have been from the beginning.





Award-winning and Bestselling author Rachel Harris writes humorous love stories about sassy girls next door and the hot guys that make them swoon. Emotion, vibrant settings, and strong relationships are a staple in each of her books...and kissing. Lots of kissing.

An admitted Diet Mountain Dew addict and homeschool mom, she gets through each day by laughing at herself, hugging her kids, and watching way too much Food Network with her husband. She writes young adult, new adult, and adult romance, and LOVES talking with readers.

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