Review – Chain Reaction (Perfect Chemistry, Book 3) by Simone Elkeles (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Walker Childrens
Release Date: August 16, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0802720870
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Perfect Chemistry series
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Luis Fuentes has always been sheltered from the gang violence that nearly destroyed his brothers’ lives. But that didn’t stop him from taking risks – whether he’s scaling a mountain in the Rockies or dreaming of a future as an astronaut, Luis can’t stop looking for the next thrill.
Nikki Cruz lives her life by three rules – boys lie to get their way, don’t trust a boy who says “I love you”, and never date a boy from the south side of Fairfield. Her parents may be from Mexico, but as a doctor’s daughter, she has more in common with her north-side neighbors than the Latino Blood at her school. Then she meets Luis at Alex’s wedding, and suddenly, she’s tempted to break all her rules.
Getting Nikki to take a chance on a south sider is Luis’ biggest challenge, until he finds himself targeted by Chuy Soto, the new head of the Latino Blood. When Chuy reveals a disturbing secret about Luis’ family, the youngest Fuentes finds himself questioning everything he’s ever believed to be true. Will his feelings for Nikki be enough to stop Luis from entering a dark and violent world and permanently living on the edge?”
This is the third and final book in the Perfect Chemistry series. There has been some buzz around a fourth book, but I was unable to find a solid release date for that. This was my least favorite book of the Perfect Chemistry series. I felt like Luis and Nikki didn’t really have much in common and were a lot more insta-love than the other books in this series.
I also thought that for Luis being so smart he was making some really bad decisions. He didn’t even really have the pressure on him to make those bad decisions that his brother Alex had. The whole story seemed a bit forced. Additionally, the whole 26 years later Epilogue was a bit hokey and unnecessary.
The above being said this was still a very good book; I just really loved the first two books and found this one to be somewhat disappointing. This book was an easy and engaging read and the story sucked me right in. I finished it in a couple hours.
Overall, while this was still a very engaging and easy to read YA contemporary romance, it was not nearly as good as previous books in this series. If a fourth book does finally come out, I probably won’t read it. I don’t read a lot of contemporary YA romance and I felt like the series has started slipping a bit.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
