Actual rating: 4.5 
 I'm not going to lie, but originally, I had no intention of reading The Art of Lainey. The premise sounded a little... farfetched. But I'm so, so happy I did end up picking it up because it was truly a great contemporary, with the main character, Lainey Mitchell, learning a lot about herself as a person. Not to mention, OMG MICAH. 
 It took me a while to get into this book because I wasn't really clicking with Lainey. She was popular, a star soccer player, had the hottest guy in school as her boyfriend, and was overall, kind of shallow. But what's great about this story is that you started seeing her changes right away. She's been taken out of her element and is forced to adapt to scenarios that she's unfamiliar with. She immediately started growing on me because she questioned who she was before and who she thought she might actually be. 
 Of course, there were moments when she fell back on her old ways and the majority of the book had her pining for her ex-boyfriend, Jason. I could understand that she was struggling to figure out who she was without Jason but I wanted to smack her at times because she would refuse to see what other options she had. That was really my only gripe with the entire story because it kept her from more moments with Micah, who absolutely stole my heart. I wanted to high five Lainey's best friend, Bianca, because we were totally on the same page when it came to who Lainey was more suited for. She was great with supporting Lainey's choices but she also showed her the bigger picture and played devil's advocate. 
 Oh my goodness. And then there's Micah. This boy made me fall head over heels for him. The chemistry between him and Lainey was absolutely the highlight of the book for me and I loved the banter these two constantly exchanged. These two characters couldn't be more different at the start of the book but they demonstrate that opposites can truly attract and find commonalities. 
 Overall, The Art of Lainey has become a favourite contemporary of mine. It's a fantastic story of finding yourself, with a beautiful ship to boot. It's also reiterated for me the power of reviews and that seeing enough positive ratings can sway me to give something a chance.