Format: Paperback | Pages: 357 | Release Date: 2009 | Publisher: Walker & Company
"
Perfect Chemistry" [Perfect Chemistry Novel, Book 1] by
Simone Elkeles
My Book Summary : To those who don't know her Brittany is her high school's golden girl. She has blond hair, high class clothes, rich parents, a hot ride, she's dating the football star, and she seems just about perfect. However, her home life is completely different. Yes, her parents are still rich, but with an older sister with a disability her parents (especially her mother) put more pressure on her to make sure she acts/looks perfect so that nobody has the ability to start talking bad about them. Because of this facade she has been putting on for others outside her house, it has made it so she doesn't let many people (if any) get close to her.
Alejandro (Alex) lives for the day since he is never sure if he'll live to see the next. When he was six-years-old his father died in front of him, and he swore he wasn't going to be anything like his father, but now 12 years later he's in the same gang (Latino Blood) as his father was. He doesn't want to be a part of Latino Blood, but to make sure he protects his family he is and he know that the only way out would to be beaten to death by the members or killed by someone outside of his gang, and neither look like interesting options. Plus, nothing is more important to him then his family.
Now it's their senior year in high school and they get paired up together as Chemistry partners, despite their objections to their teacher. Working together at first is hard since they both have their own opinions of each other. However, as time passes they find that despite their lifestyles they have more in common then they originally thought.
Soon they start to find being together comes with a price of friends, family, and the loyalty to those they originally believed were there for them. Thankfully their best friend still have their backs up until the end, but how will they be able to deal with a town that is set out against them? And when Alex finds out more about his father murder all those years ago, will he be able to avenge his father or will his fate be the same as his father's?
My Book Review : 3.5 out of 5 stars! This story is kinda like "West Side Story" since you have the gangs (even though Brittany or her family isn't involved in one themselves) and the romance where everything is set up against them. I like that the book is written from both view points of the main characters! I wasn't sure I was going to like this book, mostly because I saw the author video for it (which is below) and the Brittany character was portrayed as a really flighty person, however once I started reading the book I feel in love with the main characters! They had more depth then I expected (because of the video) and I started routing for them immediately! =0)
Author Book Trailer :
Book Teaser(s) : "So you understand why I'd freak out if my parents find out we're . . . friends."
"You'd get in trouble? Shit, you're eighteen. Don't you think you can be friends with who you want to by now? The umbilical cord's been cut, you know."
"You don't understand."
"Try me."
"Why do you want to know so much?"
"Aren't chem partners supposed to know a lot about each other?"
She gives a short laugh. "I hope not."
Truth is, this girl isn't what I thought she'd be. From the moment I told her about my dad, it was as if her entire body sighed in relief. As if someone else's misery comforted her, made her feel as if she wasn't alone. I still can't understand why she cares so much, why she chooses the I-am-flawless facade to show the world. ~ within Chapter 24
For more information on this book, series and/or any other books by Simone, then please check out her
website.
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So far in my major book reading lately I have found that no one else but Susan Elizabeth Phillips can write a great romance novel where every single one (thus far that I've read) deals with opposites attracting to each other (or at least that's what the characters believe in the beginning). My favorite of her novels is still "Match Me If You Can" from her The Chicago Stars books.
