Monday 7 February 2011

Rules of Attraction review

Rules of Attraction
Simone Elkeles
January 6th 2011(UK)/ April 27th 2010 (US)
Simon and Schuster (UK/ Walker (US)

When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now.


Simone Elkeles is probably one of my favourite authors. I haven't even read her other books, but the Perfect Chemistry novels are my favourite. My favourite what? you may be wondering. Just my favourite out of everything for the time being. Though that being said, a lot of things are my favourites... anyway! We didn't come her to ramble about favourites, did we?! Unless you did in which case you've probably come to the wrong place... We've come here to discuss and analyse this piece of literature! (or in other words, swoon over hot Mexican brothers ;p)


Rules of Attraction (dudes, the title was in the book. That already gives it points, on top of the fact that it has Alex AND Carlos in it. I love books with the title in it, unless it's really really cheesy like 'Stay With Me, Forever', or, 'I Love You, So Don't Ever Leave Me Ever Because I Clearly Cannot Be A Respectful Human Being Without Being In An Unstable Relationship With A Creepy Vampire...' not that anyone would call their books that (and I'm not really hating on Twilight! I like Twilight. Edward is just... no.)...) is set 2 years after the events of Perfect Chemistry took place, and is based around Carlos (who we knew before) and Kiara (who is completely new to us).


Carlos has just moved back to America and goes to live with Alex ( we do see quite a lot of Alex and Brittany is this book. They're soo good together!) But something bad happens at school (I'm not going to spoil it for you, you silly's! Silly's? Sillies? *shrugs*) and Carlos ends up having to live with Kiara Westford and her family (this happens like 100 pages in. Kiara was Carlos's peer guide at high school, so it's not like they're complete strangers, even though tehy're not on the best of terms... I should just never try to summarise things. They always end up being out of order...)


Carlos  is such a sweetie! He may not seem like it for, like, the whole of the book, but he is really. Not as good as Alex, but he's still really cute... Though I think he would beat me up for saying that. He may have a huge ego problem, but that's what makes him different from Alex. That's the main thing I was worrying about with this though. I was worried it was just going to be an exact copy of Perfect Chemistry, but it wasn't! Yay! In fact, the whole main plot line of the book kind of reminded me of every single episode of World's Strictest Parent's I've ever seen, only with more romance and more drug busts... But Mr. Westford (did he have a first name?) reminded me of all of the dad's from that show. And Kiara. She kind of got on my nerves at first, but I really warmed up to her. She was nice, and she had spirit, and she wasn't like Brittany. In fact she was rather the opposite. I think Kiara would be fun to go hiking with. I like hiking. We would probably be friends. Tuck was funny too. I loved how Carlos and Tuck pretty much hated each other. And gosh, that Ultimate Frisby game was rather funny.


I am infinitely jealous of Simone's skill at crafting a near flawless love story, with likeable, emotionally complex characters, and despite the epically cheese epilogues, I can't help but love these books. Though it didn't quite grip me to love it quite like PC did, I still really loved it. 4.5 Stars (Gosh, all this chat has made me want to read PC again... *swoons over Alex Fuentes...* What is it with sexy people called Alex?! ;P)

1 comment:

  1. Great Review Cicely :) Now I just have to find some money so I can so purchase it *hunts in purse for loose change*

    ReplyDelete

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