Review: The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

Title: The Art of Lainey
Author: Paula Stokes
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: May 20th 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

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?

This book was a pleasant surprise to me, I didn´t expect to much of it. The Art of Lainey is a very funny, entertaining book with a cute romance and although the idea is not original, since I have seen the same story several times in different ways (especially in movies), I really enjoyed it.

The story begins in the summer before Lainey´s senior year, she´s looking forward to a wonderful summer with her amazing boyfriend and working at her family´s cafe, when her boyfriend breaks up with her at her work, she´s at first a little disoriented because Jason never gave any indication that something wasn´t working between them. But once she overcomes her shock and humiliation, she decides she has to get him back because all her future plans and her senior year will be disastrous if she doesn´t gets her boyfriend back, so with the help of her best friend which then is reading the book The Art of War, decides to take the book as a guide on how to confront, overtake and conquer the "enemy" aka Jason, so they make a list of things Lainey should and shouldn´t do in her attempt to get him back. Besides that she "recruits" Micah, a coworker to be her pretend boyfriend to make her ex-boyfriend jealous and from there she and Micah begin to spend more time together and something change between them.

I really liked the character of Micah, he isn´t the typical guy Lainey would date, but the more time they spend together they start to like and know each other (despite being classmates for years), although the original deal was to try to win back their exes.

The Art of Lainey is a fun, light, fresh contemporary novel with a cute romance with likable characters.