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.

Perfect Chemistry is a classic tale of girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, as well as a classic tale of a bet that turns into more.

Alex Fuentes makes a bet with another member of his gang involving the school “princess” Brittany Ellis, which ends up leading into the two falling completely for each other.  They learn more about the person underneath the images they put up in school and in the streets, finding out their vulnerabilities and what really makes the other tick.  In the process, they find out they actually have more in common than they realized.

I enjoyed the characters in this book, including Alex and Brittany’s best friends, Paco and Sierra.  Paco was a bit of comic relief and showed that he really cared for his best friend and Sierra was much more understanding than she was made out to be in the beginning of the book.  There was great character development and realism to these characters.  Alex and Brittany really had depth in their characters that you don’t see in the first few chapters, but it’s revealed as you read more into their story.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book going into it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.  It’s not like a lot of the YA romance novels you see today (but also consider it was first published in 2008) and it was quite refreshing to read a raw story like Alex and Brittany’s.

Rating: 4.75/5 stars