Angel Reads

24 Dec

Book Review: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

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First Published: 23rd December 2008
Pages: 257 (paperback)
Publisher: Walker Books
ISBN: 0802798225
Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Synopsis

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.

Review

To say that I loved Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles would be an under statement. I adored this book, I don’t know if it was that one of the main characters was a bad boy or just simply the writing, it had me captivated from the very start. I read Perfect Chemistry quite a while ago, and while thinking about this book, while I am just so tempted to read it again, the only thing stopping me is the 22 books on my tbr shelf.

I really enjoyed the plot, the whole concept of the story intrigued me just form the synopsis and as soon, as I picked the book up I couldn’t put it down, I read the whole book in 2 days. I just couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t even the “forbidden romance” that really got my attention but everything else behind it.

I really loved the insight we got on gangs, just the way Elkeles wrote all about, and how she turned this character of Alex, that’s a gang member to be likeable, even loveable, someone that we could somehow admire. She gave has the insight about how, sometimes people don’t want to be in gangs that are forced to, in one way or another. When I think of gangs, it’s drugs, drive-by’s, you know what I mean, but I never really got what made people join gangs, why do they do the stuff that they do. And yes I know that books aren’t real, but still the concept behind the gangs is.

I really enjoyed Alex’s character, he was this ‘Bad Boy/Good Boy’ wrapped up into one. Bad Boy on the outside, good on the inside . He had this tough outside that was hard to break, but when he did, we got to know the real Alex.

I have different feelings for Brittany I both loved and disliked her. Her character was very complex, was a very real character but at some points I wanted to yell at her to slow down and take everything in. Don’t rush. She didn’t get that angry at the end and I know if that was me, I would be kinda furious but in saying that, if Brittany was just that little stronger, a little more fierce I would have loved her to bits.

I also enjoyed the dual POV’s. We got to know not only Brittany and Alex on the inside, but how they thought of each other, how they effected each other. How life affected them. It made me really think about them. I think I connected more with the characters this way, I felt for them. If it wasn’t in dual perspectives then I don’t think I would have understood Alex as much as I did. I wouldn’t feel for him as much, same going for Brittany.

Despite the differences between the two characters, they were so much more alike than I would have ever guessed. It still seems impossible and yet I’ve seen it! They were perfect for each other, they are like chocolate cake and ice cream, perfect. They could understand each other like others can’t.

Elkeles’ writing was captivating, it was smooth, one word just flowed into another, page to page. She didn’t just write a novel about a love strong, about a forbidden romance, it was so much more… it was about life lessons, the saying of ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover’

Perfect Chemistry made me laugh, brought me to tears, it pulled me into the world. It is a fantastic contemporary romance that relies not just on the romance.

Quotes;

“You are the one girl that made me risk everything for a future worth having.”

“We’re actors in our lives, pretendin’ to be who we want people to think we are.”

I Give Perfect Chemistry a 4.5 Stars out of 5.

Have you read Perfect Chemistry, what did you think of it?

20 Dec

Book Review: Autumn by Sierra Dean

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First Published: June 11th 2013
Pages: 262 (paperback)
Publisher: Createspace
ISBN: 1490486674
Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Synopsis

Cooper Reynolds’s life is going to the dogs… literally.

As if being a high school senior in a small Texas town wasn’t hard enough, Cooper has bigger things to worry about than who he’ll take to prom and whether or not the Poisonfoot Padres will win homecoming. He has less than a year before his eighteenth birthday, when a curse placed on his family will doom him to live in coyote form forever.

The last thing he needs to complicate his already messed-up life is a girl, but fate has other plans in mind for him when it brings Eloise “Lou” Whittaker to Poisonfoot. She’s grouchy, sarcastic and has no love for her new Texas home, but she might be exactly the right person to help Cooper break the curse.

The clock is ticking, and Cooper will have to decide if he’s willing to let Lou in on his dirty little secret before it’s too late.

Review

I received an ebook copy of Autumn by Sierra Dean from NetGalley in return for an honest review, it in no means affects my review.

I did not know what to expect form Autumn at all, but I was highly impressed. Even though it was what I think a very short novel it was action packed. Autumn is an original story that took me by surprise.

I really enjoyed both of the main protagonist Cooper and Eloise, they were both likeable and I didn’t have a problem with them at all. Cooper, I just loved him, he wasn’t a jerk, even though he had all this baggage on knowing in just a few months he will be like the rest of his male family. He has accepted his fate and is determined to live his human life until his birthday with all he has. He still participates in football even though everyone ignores him off the field. I really loved Eloise, Lou as she likes to be called. She lets people know her opinion, she is spunky, even when she is a typical teenage girl that feels insecure on the inside. She doesn’t let anyone tell her what to do, or what to think of people especially Cooper. I really admire her, for that. She is a great female lead.

The fact that we already know what Cooper is meant to turn into a Coyote on his 18th birthday, that’s right I said Coyote, like it is totally different. It was mysterious, we knew some things but then at times it’s like we know nothing at all. I liked how that made me feel, it’s like I knew everything but nothing at the same time. The Twist, the real twist is figuring out how the curse came upon the Reynolds family in the first place and how much, or little, does the rest of the town really know about it.

The interaction between Cooper and Lou is just so cute, and sweet. I also feel that even though Autumn was filled with romance it was not heavily relied on it, which I quite enjoyed. Cooper knows he doesn’t have much time and tries not to get to close to Lou, he tries to stay away and ward Lou off knowing that it will hurt both of them when he turns 18, but he also craves the love she can give him, he craves her kindness,no one has acted the way Lou has to him before, everyone in the town avoids him like a plague.

Sierra Dean makes us feel for Cooper, we feel his pain, what he feels to be outcast, how he feels lighter when he is with Lou. We want everything just to go away and for him and Lou to be together forever. I really enjoyed Sierra Dean’s writing, the way she wrote really pulled me in and I couldn’t get enough of it. I read the whole book in a few hours.

The only thing I didn’t like was the ending, because well it was a major and I mean major cliff hanger, I loved it, but hated it at the same time, I just want the next book as soon as I finished it. I just cannot contain my feelings, my heart shattered for both Cooper and Lou. I cannot wait to pick up the next book which comes out pretty soon I think. I NEED to know what happens, I hope everything just works out.

Overall Autumn by Sierra Dean was an entertaining, fun, heartfelt read that I think that if someone is in the mood for different and suspenseful then this is your read. Well I think that anyone would like this but you get what I mean.

I Give Autumn 4.5 stars out of 5

18 Dec

“Waiting” on Wednesday #8

Posted by angelreads Features, Waiting on Wednesday 5 Comments

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spin, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

This Week my Waiting on Wednesday is Out of Control by Sarah Alderson

Expected Publication: May 22nd 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Children
Format: Paperback (320 pages)
Series: –
Genre: Contemporary
ISBN13: 9781471115752

Synopsis

When 17 year old Liva witnesses a brutal murder she’s taken into police custody for her own protection. But when the police station is attacked and bullets start flying it becomes clear that Liva is not just a witness, she’s a target.

Together with a car thief called Jay, Liva manages to escape the massacre but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit two killers who will stop at nothing to find them.

When you live on the edge, there’s a long way to fall

I really enjoy Sarah Alderson’s writing even though I have only read Hunting Lila, the way she writes just pulls you right in. The Synopsis for Out of Control just wraps me around it’s finger and I just need it now, it sounds so good.

So this is what I am waiting on this Wednesday. What are you waiting on?