A
modern tale of star-crossed lovers with a fresh urban twist.
At
Fairfield High School, on the outskirts of Chicago, everyone knows that
south-siders mixing with north-siders can be explosive. So when Brittany Ellis
and Alejandro “Alex” Fuentes are forced to be lab partners in chemistry class,
this human experiment leads to unexpected revelations—that Brittany’s flawless
reputation is a cover for her troubled home life, that Alex’s bad-boy persona
hides his desire to break free from gang ties, and that when they’re together,
life somehow makes more sense.
Breaking
through the stereotypes and expectations that threaten to keep Brittany and
Alex apart, Perfect Chemistry takes readers to both sides of the tracks in a
passionate love story about looking beneath the surface.
I
had heard a lot of hype about this book for a long time, and I’ve actually
owned the book just as long. It was only recently that I finally took the
chance to read the book, and I have to say that the hype is completely true. I
wasn’t sure how I felt about Brittany in the beginning because of how “perfect”
she was and made herself appear to be. I’m not saying Brittany was ever my
favorite character, but I understood her home troubles and why she was the way
she was.
Alex,
however, was one of my favorite characters. He was the bad boy, with a good
heart and those characters make me swoon. He felt tied and unable to escape the
gang due to his father’s mistakes and the mistakes he is trying to prevent his
younger brothers from making. All in all, the characters and their flaws were
portrayed amazingly, and the north-side, south-side dynamic was on point and
perfectly executed.
I
did have a few issues with the book though, the first being the ending. While I
loved seeing the year’s later epilogue, I felt that it was an outdated and
easy-out sort of ending. I know that there are a couple of sequels to this
book, told through Alex’s brother’s points of view, and I would have loved to
see the ending of Alex’s and Brittany’s stories through the brother’s eyes
instead of the way in which Simone Elkeles did it. I understand that sometimes
sequels aren’t a guarantee and you want your readers to know how everything
ended happily ever after, but that’s the joy of YA. Your characters are teens
and we read the stories to see them grow up and have their whole lives ahead of
them. YA books are open-ended most times because of that. Sure, the guy and
girl get together but we will never know if they stay together or the trial and
the tribulations of their relationship because they’re no longer young adults.
A
bit of a rant there, sorry. Other than that, the rest of the cons I had are
just the other side of the coin of my pros for the book. While I thought the
characters were great, I didn’t love them. Paco and Isabel were the only
characters I completely loved. They were true to themselves and to their
friends. Brittany and Alex just got so caught up in themselves, and everyone
else in the book did too and that was annoying. One relationship cannot be the
end of the world.
My
final con was the whole part where Alex ran away. I hated that he did that and
didn’t just deal with his issues. His family was in danger, which I believed,
but it was so weak of him. Sure, he fixed all his problems in the end, but that
just made me frown.
Anyway,
that’s all I have for that book. Do read it, because it was really good! I know
it seems like it wasn’t, but I did love it overall. I even loved the epilogue
even though I hated that it was there. Does that make sense?
XOXO Tia
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