Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
Series: Perfect Chemistry #2
Source: gifted paperback
Publisher: Walker
Publication Date: April 19, 2010
Age Genre: Mature YA (includes sex)
Challenges: TBR / Cleaning my Shelves
Challenges: Prequel-Sequel
Challenges: Contemporary
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Carlos Fuentes felt betrayed when the big brother he idolized, Alex, chose to get jumped out of the Latino Blood for a chance at a future with his gringa girlfriend, Brittany. Even worse, Alex has forced Carlos to come back from Mexico to join him on the straight and narrow path. Trouble is, Carlos just wants to keep living on the edge. And ties to his Mexican gang aren't easy to break, even when Carlos is living with one of Alex's college professors in Colorado. Carlos feels completely out of place in the suburbs. He's even more thrown by his feelings for the professor's daughter, Kiara, who is nothing like the wild girls he's usually drawn to. But Carlos and Kiara soon discover that in matters of the heart, the rules of attraction overpower the social differences and dangers that conspire to keep them apart.

This book has been up on my TBR list for a while now, since I read the first book approximately two and a half years ago. And since it was a birthday gift from Megs, I thought it was high-time I read it!

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I'm not disappointed in it, if that's what you might be wondering. I think it was about as good as the first in the series, which raises an awkward question - how can that possibly be true if you gave the first 5 stars and this one 3.5?!

Well, here's the deal. Perfect Chemistry was one of the first contemporaries I read, and maybe the first Mature YA I did. I didn't have much to compare it to, so it suitably impressed me. Truth is, I don't remember much of the book, aside for the whole sex scene, and I only remember that because I wasn't used to seeing that in YA. Today, I'll probably give Perfect Chemistry about 3.5 stars as well.

But enough about it's predecessor, let's talk about Rules of Attraction. Rules of Attraction is one of these books I think are perfect when you're in need of a story to suck you in and separate you from reality. While I wasn't head over heels in love with it, I definitely kept reading. And reading. And reading. In that aspect, it was perfect.

In this installment of the series, we follow Carlos and Kiara.

I didn't love Carlos, at first. By the end of the first chapter, I thought him a stupid brat that needs to grow up, and I just hoped he gets better as the story goes. He did, but a bit too quickly for my taste. Elkeles rushed a bit to the "relax, he's not really like that" part, for example by letting Carlos tell us almost immediately the real reason he was fired. I feel like if you already made him seem like a total jerk, let us work a bit to get to the true him.

Still, I guess I can't really complain because I liked that Carlos a lot more than the one we met at first.

Then we have Kiara. Her, I loved. She really stood up for herself, all the time. She wasn't afraid to take shots. Well, she was, but she didn't let fear stop her. She wasn't scared of challenging Carlos - or standing up to him. All of which is in complete contrast to the shy girl everyone thinks she is because of the stutter she's been born with.

The part I felt the book lacked in was actually the romance. Yes, I just said that. I was actually on board until half way through. I thought it was decently building, and I liked them together. But if it was a steady climb the first half, it became a race in the second. Suddenly, there were declarations of love, and sappy words, and inability to be without one another, etc. It was too... rushed, to me.

I saw no reason they should be there so soon. This is something I find lacking in many books. Few actually execute the romance in a way I find perfect.

But, as House says above, this book is cute. Carlos and Kiara together are adorable, even if I thought they needed more time to get to the love stage. And it was fun, and it sucked me in, and I do think it's a good book. I just don't think it's A-mazing.

Nitzan★

Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles
Series: Wild Cards, #1
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: September 24, 2013

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain--people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

Being a huge fan of anything that Simone Elkeles writes, I immediately jumped on the train to read this one-- and I can't say that I loved it silly. I really liked it, this is true, but I didn't love-love it like I hoped I would.
Ashtyn and Derek's chemistry was very good-- good enough that I really wanted their romance to succeed from the very beginning, so no problems there.

I loved their alternating points of view, and that they both have such huge crushes on each other, but as I read more of the book, I started to realize something. As much as I wanted them to end up together, I was also desperately hoping that it would be all very dramatic and such-- but it didn't turn out like I had hoped in that regard. Not that there aren't the usual troubles in their tumultuous relationship, but my heart just wasn't breaking for them.

But moving on to the characters themselves-- Derek was a sexy boy, I'll tell you that right here and now. I really liked him. He didn't try to conform to the society norms, or to be someone that he wasn't. He's very aware that he may not be what Ashtyn needs, and that just made him more attractive to me. I liked his wry sense of humor, and that he had a few skeletons in his closet.

Ashtyn has skeletons, too, even if they aren't near so visible. She also went against most society norms, being a girl football player and all. I liked her stubbornness, and I just liked being in her head.

All in all, Wild Cards was a good read, but I feel like it doesn't really live up to her previous works in my mind. Still worth a read, though!