Review: Perfect Chemistry - Simone Elkeles

Title: Perfect Chemistry
Author: Simone Elkeles
Series: Perfect Chemistry
Publisher: Walker Books
Release Date: 23 December 2008
Date Read: August 2012
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

This review will contain spoilers.

I should've known, really. Actually, I did know. I just didn't listen to myself. I blame the lack of available books I've got. I haven't been to the library for so long and I've succumb to reading this. I'm going to go on a borrowing rampage now just to prevent this from happening again.

Enough ramblings. 

Just by reading two chapters I could already tell what would happen in Perfect Chemistry. It was extremely predictable. You know how you get those books that are so transparent and predictable but it doesn't even matter because you're just enjoying the book so much (think Cinder by Marissa Meyer)? Well, Perfect Chemistry wasn't one of those books.

Golden Girl Britanny is not who she seems. It's all an act. Under all that pretending, she hides a girl insecure and drowning with all the expectations her mother puts her with. Bad Boy Alex is part of a gang, the Latino Blood, but only to give protection to his family, so they won't get jumped and whatnot by gang members. The two are worlds apart but a fateful Chemistry class forces the two together when the teacher pulls out a seating arrangement, telling the two to sit next to each other for the rest of the year.

Of course, by now, the two are already attracted to each other even though Britanny has a boyfriend and they're acting like they hate each other's guts. To quote one of the characters, "Everyone knows it's all foreplay." But, if it's not enough, Alex accepts a bet that he can get Britanny to sleep with him before Thanksgiving. Using whatever he's got to win the bet, Alex slowly -- surprise, surprise --starts to fall in love with Britanny and -- again surprise, surprise-- Britanny feels the same way. They flirt. They can't be together because Alex is in a gang. They become a couple. Alex thinks Britanny is worth risking everything for but is too scared to leave the gang. They fool around. They sleep together. Britanny finds out about the bet. Britanny leaves him. Fast forward ten months, Alex is cleaned up, out of the gang, in college and proposes to Britanny that when they graduate, they'll get married. They get married. They have babies. Their son is in the exact same Chemistry class as them. The end.

I knew all of that would happen by the third chapter, apart from a few minor details. It was all so very predictable and the writing was just meh. Nothing really stood out from the book. It was one big meh.

I know so many people who just absolutely love this book. So many people. I can not fathom why. I feel like maybe we read completely different books, like maybe they're talking about a different Perfect Chemistry or someone pulled a prank on my copy and tapped a different cover to the book I just read. I don't know.