Perfect Chemistry

By: Simone Elkeles

Narrated by: Roxanne Hernandez, Blas Kisic

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

RITA Award Winner, Best Young Adult Romance, 2010

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created perfect life is about to unravel before her eyes. She's forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles' breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

©2008 Simone Elkeles (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Perfect Chemisty has perfect chemistry.

I wasn't sure if I would like this book. It was recommended to me, so I thought I would take a chance and buy it. Now, I am glad that I did.

Two diffrent narrators were used to tell the story. And I think that that made the book even better.

There are some very adult themes in this book, even though it is suppose to be a Young Adult book. Maybe, more like an "Older Young Adult" book. LOL
Enjoy.

Steamy Teenage Romance

You can’t see it but I’m fanning myself right now. Perfect Chemistry is super steamy and oh so much fun to read. The chapters alternate narration between Brittany Ellis and Alex Fuentes, giving you each characters perspective. As mentioned in the description, Brittany and Alex are total opposites. At school, Brittany is the popular good girl and Alex is the Latino blood gang member and school bad boy. The two characters are paired together as lab partners in Chemistry class and their differences create friction from the beginning.

Brittany puts up a facade to her peers that she has the perfect life, but in her opinion it is far from perfect. At home, Brittany’s parents pressure her to keep up appearances by always looking great and keeping up good grades. While her parents are busy nitpicking her, they ignore her special needs sister, whom Brittany cares for deeply.

Alex is the oldest of three brothers and ever since his father died, from gang violence, he has been the man of the house. Since gang activity is prevalent in his neighborhood, he becomes a member to protect his family. He hopes to keep his two brothers out of the ‘Blood’ by doing everything the gang wants, even though he would love more than anything to be free.

As they are forced to get to know each other, the lives they try to keep so secret are exposed. They fall hard for each other, but with everything standing in between them can their relationship last?

I love so many things about this story: the characters, the romance, the social challenges.

Elkeles wrote a sizzling romance that pulls you in and keeps you turning the page. The characters face real life social conflicts that, in the end, turn them into remarkable people. Alex’s gang experience is very true to life and you feel the difficulty of his situation. Brittany pushes past what her parents want her to be and reaches out to help Alex, in return, she finds out who she really wants to be.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves teenage romance novels.

For more Perfect Chemistry fun, check out Rules of Attraction (Perfect Chemistry #2).

Good Story

What made the experience of listening to Perfect Chemistry the most enjoyable?

I liked how real they seemed. The accents and the whiny teenage girls were pretty accurate.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Paco was one of my favorite characters, he was loyal and he made me laugh out loud several times.

What aspect of Roxanne Hernandez and Blas Kisic ’s performance would you have changed?

I didn't like how whiny Roxanne made Brit if I'm being honest. I think it fit her character but it was honestly annoying at times.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

At times yes.

Dating should be fun

I loved this story. You have the bad boy Alex who belongs to a gang and the beautiful stressed-out blond Brittany, both trying to fight their growing feelings for each other, and not having much luck. There were some real sweet and touching scenes, but not too corny. I thought the narrators did a wonderful job, and Blas Kisic had a very sexy accent, but I did find that he sounded older than 18, well at least that way I didn???t feel like I was robbing the cradle.

I'm dead

THIS IS SO GOOD OH MY LAWD granted I'm a hopeless romantic but still wow well done

A very interesting story...

I love this book, and this series. However, I disliked how the woman, Roxanne Hernandez, read Brittany's part. She made her sound more whiny and more like an airhead than she needed to be. Depending on how the book is read, its easy to change the voice of a character, and how they're perceived. Regardless of that fact, the book is very good and definitely worth it.
Looking for a dark, non-abusive romance? This is definitely the book for you. There were a couple plot twists, that could possibly be seen as obvious but interesting nonetheless.

Romance lover

I loved this book and wanted to see what Audible was all about. This book went back and forth between 2 protagonist in the story and the narrators did a great job, but if they would have interacted with each other in the chapters it would have been really great. Each narrator changed their voice to match the other protagonist which I did not like.

A book for a high schooler ONLY

The girl narrator and her voice inflections drove me crazy, she seriously sounded like an immature teenager, the things she thought were important, how emotional she was about EVERYTHING not important. This book tortured me. It was SOOOOOO juvenile. Okay storyline, but how it was presented was just so immature. I could see a high schooler loving this book though, but once you have lived and matured, you will not be satisfied by this book at all. I am surprised i actually finished it at all. No bueno.

Perfeectt!

I’m pretty sure I finished listening to this book in under 3 days. I was completely hooked to the storyline and can picture every detail.

Love the story, but not good narration

I love this series so much, it's definitely top 3 for me. The story is so interesting, I love interracial romance and bad boy characters and this is so well written. Brittany and Alex captivate you, they have so much depth and are very real. They both appear a certain way on the surface, but are totally different inside. They also have friends who care about them and friends who betray them. The romance is well paced, starts out with mutual attraction but they don't like the other, but as they see into each other's worlds, the attraction turns into love.
I didn't really like the audiobook, The woman did a terrible male voice when she was imitating Alex or any other guy. The man sounded too old for a high school kid and just didn't fit Alex's gang member persona. I highly recommend reading the physical for this. Fun, quick, great read!