Even given the sprinkling of Spanish in Alex's chapters, neither Brittany's nor Alex's points-of-view read as distinct from one another; the whole book could've been written in third person and it wouldn't have made a difference. And while I understood why the two were drawn to one another, the rest of their relationship—why they stayed together—was only vaguely sketched in amid all the gang-related and familial drama. Not that I didn't enjoy the drama, but by the time I reached the end of the book, I had no real sense for why they were so passionately in love...only that they were and I was supposed to take their word for it. ( )

Ms. Elkeles knows how to write a good romance. ( )

Perfect Chemistry is the first book in a 3 part series. This book is about two teenagers who have completely different lives falling in love. One of the characters is a white girl who is a cheerleader for her school, and lives a "normal" life at home with her parents. The other character is a Hispanic boy who is in a gang, and was raised around gang violence his whole life. They end up falling in love, but have many struggles and differences along the way. I read this book several times, the first time being in junior high. Although this book is geared towards "young adults", I believe pre-teens could benefit from reading this book as well because it gives insight on reality. The author does an awesome job at showing how different people's lives can be, and how differences do not necessarily separate one person from the next. I actually loved this book so much that I met the author at an event after reading it for the first time! I would recommend this book for pre-teens and teens who are mature and enjoy learning about real world problems. ( )

re-read #5: 23/09/2015 *sigh* this book is as good as ever, i can never get enough of Alex and Brittany ( )

As soon as I picked up this book and read the sypnosis, I knew exactly what was going to happen. This book is predictable from the first damn page.

Its the same old story, and I've read it a thousand and one times. That said it's a quick read (the first time, anyways). I read it in one day. and while I was reading it, I noticed something: It's West Side Story in reverse. Ther same story, but with a totally different outcome. And I must say, I prefered WSS to this book. It has great music and dancing, and you feel as if the characters really come alive because they are standing right in front of you. (I saw a live production. I want to see the movie too, but haven't got around to it yet.) Plus, it's fun. ( Gee, Officer Krutke was the funnient thing ever. Just saying).

I don't want this review to be to long, but I will point out something that irritated me. Alex is Mexican, and the book spends the entire time reminding you of that fact. Random Spanish turns up in every second sentence. (Most of it wasn't that difficult to understand. I don't know what you people where whining about.) The book is filled to the brim with stereotypes. (Am I the only one who refuses to beleive that all Mexicans/Latinos are in gangs and work on cars?) But the whole Mexican culture thing isn't the thing that irrittated me.(Okay, the stereotypes did, but that's not the point.)It's the fact that while Alex was filled culture, Brittany is just your generic American rich white girl. No background at all. (American doesn't count as a background.) I don't know why it annoyed me. I'm one of those people that think your culture really changes the way to think about things and brings another dimension to a character. And Brittant didn't have that. It didn't even have to be this huge part of who she was, like it was with Alex, it could have been mentioned in passing. Like,
"What's your background?"
"Oh, my parents came from Germany/Poland/Sweden/whatever"
"Cool".

See? Is that difficult? Of all the interesting and different European cultures she could have chosen, she decided to go with no cultural background at all. Wierd, isn't it?

Well, that's it! To sum up, it was a fast and easy read, that despite all my ranting and all the cheese, I enjoyed, because I am a sucker for stories like this. So curl up on your bed, grab some popcorn, read this book and then break out your copies of Grease, Dirty Dancing, West Side Story and Say Anything and make a day out of it! Bring on the cheesiness!


P.S. Alex, I'm just saying, Eli "Weevil" Navarro from Veronica Mars did a much better job of being the 'sexy Latino in a biker gang that loved the rich white girl' than you. Sorry. ( )