Publisher: Audible, Inc. (Hardcover published by Walker Books for Young Readers, December 23, 2008)
Audiobook Format: 9 hrs and 45 mins
Narrated by Roxanne Hernandez , Blas Kisic
Series: Perfect Chemistry #1
Genre: YA Contemporary
From Goodreads. 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.
Review
PERFECT CHEMISTRY, by Simone Elkeles, is a fantastic example of how YA is not just for a specific age range. The romance and chemistry (no pun intended) is relatable to a person of any age reading this book.
Since I read this in audiobook format. I feel like I got more of the original 'flavor'. Hernandez and Kisic did a really great job encompassing these characters. Since Spanish is not my native language, the narrators were able to pronounce the words correctly and with the right emphasis. They made the story come to life and added to the love I felt for this book.
The story is an old one, boy from wrong side of town meets rich girl, but Elkeles made it stand out from the rest. She started slow and molded the relationship between Alex and Brittany so beautifully. Everything about this story was different and as it went on I was anxious to see if these two could overcome the obstacles that kept them apart.
The relationship that Alex and Brittany cultivated with their forced partnership in Chemistry class was absolutely charming. I love a good 'I hate you' relationship turning to 'I can't stop thinking about you' one. These two were at the mercy of Elkeles and I was very pleased with the more realistic ending to the book.
Elkeles did not shy away from the obvious sexual tension of the teenagers in the book. Sex was a big issue that was faced, but it was gradual and it wasn't just thrown into the book unwarranted. She cultivated these relationships and when sex was discussed it was done tastefully. Another realistic issue that was faced head-on was gangs. The fact that Alex was in a gang heightened the seriousness and danger that the main couple's relationship faced. Just another component that made this book full of tension and kept me hooked.

Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry, slang words, texting acronym, Add a tag
So this week THE BUZZ GIRLS are spreadin' the LOVE and I'm giving away not ONLY a HARD COVER signed copy of Perfect Chemistry, I'm also giving away a t-shirt that says ES UN LIBRO - It's a book! (from my rap video - if you haven't seen it go to my website at http://www.simoneelkeles.net/ and watch it!) I'm sorry, but this has to be sent to a US address only.
So here's the deal with the shirt. They're from my big book launch party and all I have are a womens small (shown) which is REALLY small. Or I have a mens t-shirt in a size XL (it's really big, and the writing in pink on the girls shirt is in white on the mens shirt). If you're the one lucky winner, you can choose which shirt you want. And if you already have Perfect Chemistry and want to switch it out for another Simone Elkeles book, that's okay too.
BONUS GIVEAWAY!!!
TEN lucky second-prize winners will receive three (3) Simone Elkeles pens. They write in PURPLE INK!!!
Here's what you have to do to enter the contest (remember that winners must have a US address) - WRITE DOWN A SLANG WORD OR TEXTING ACRONYM THAT YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS USE A LOT! Be creative!
(NO PROFANITY, PLEASE)
THE ONE WINNER OF THE BOOK/SHIRT AND THE TEN WINNERS OF THE PENS WILL BE POSTED ON MONDAY, SO BE SURE TO COME BACK AND CHECK IF YOU'VE WON!
Simone Elkeles
author of:
How to Ruin a Summer Vacation #3 on Top Ten Teen Books
Perfect Chemistry in bookstores now!
2008 Author of the Year by the IL Assoc. of Teachers of English
http://www.simoneelkeles.com/

Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Angelina Jolie, tina ferraro, Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry, Hayden Panettiere, The ABC's of Kissing Boys, Kristin Stewart, big lips, lips, Kim Kardashian, Add a tag
So Tina's book got me thinking about lips. The cover of her new book is beautiful, and shows these awesome lips. Which got me wondering what makes the lips beautiful.

Or Kristin Stewart (who played Bella in Twilight)...

These girls don't have huge big lips and they're still beautiful. So I guess it's the total package that makes "beauty" (and I'm really only talking outside beauty here for this post).
Simone Elkeles
author of:
How to Ruin a Summer Vacation #3 on Top Ten Teen Books
Perfect Chemistry in bookstores now!
2008 Author of the Year by the IL Assoc. of Teachers of English
www.simoneelkeles.com

Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: book trailer, Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry, rap video, Add a tag
So...have you seen the hilarious Making of...video yet?
Watch it below!
So my new book that came out this week is titled PERFECT CHEMISTRY. It's about a Latino gang member who falls for the rich girl who he's paired with in chemistry class senior year of high school.
If you haven't seen the rap video, I'm going to post it here at the end.
So today we're going to talk about "bad boys." What makes a bad boy bad? Is it the perception of being bad? I dated a boy in high school (let's call him Luke) who everybody labeled as "bad". He was gorgeous, 21 (and I was 18), smoked cigarettes, and was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who had just come out of rehab.
In front of everyone else, Luke acted like he didn't care about anything or anyone in the world. He was hard-core and looked it. He put on a very cool front to the world. One day he bought black spray paint and we spent an entire day spraypainting his yellow car black. Even his car engine was loud (we even got stopped by the police for his engine being too loud).
But behind closed doors Luke was sensitive and romantic. He cried when he was sad and was goofy and funny when he was happy. He was the most loving person I've ever met to this day. When I went on vacation, he used to tape his voice on a tape recorder about how much I meant to him and he'd talk about the times we shared and the fears he had. He'd give me the tape to play on the plane ride (that was when everyone had a Walkman). I'm married with kids, but I still have those tapes because they meant so much to me and seriously why would I throw away something that says, "Simone, you're a gift from God and the best thing in the world, etc, etc."
With Perfect Chemistry, I wanted to show a rough guy "Alex" who is really something different than he shows to the outside world. And Brittany, the heroine, is totally different than everyone else thinks she is. I show you the stereotype and break them throughout the book.
So in reality things with Luke didn't work out, but he will always have a special place in my heart as the not-so-bad-boy I fell in love with.
Not all bad boys are bad...are they?
So Perfect Chemistry is a total fantasy...it's the "what if" book! I think the attraction to bad boys is that they're mysterious and we want to find out if under the rough exterior they're really sweet and caring and loving guys with a heart of gold. Not all bad boys are like this...stay away from those bad-to-the-bone boys...but there are some that are teddy bears to the core!
Did you ever date a bad boy? Are you dating a bad boy or have a crush on one? Are you married to one?
Perfect Chemistry Rap Video book trailer
Perfect Chemistry rap video teen book trailer
Have you seen the Making Of...Highlight video?
The Making of a Book Video - Perfect Chemsitry by Simone Elkeles
Simone Elkeles
author of:
How to Ruin a Summer Vacation #3 on Top Ten Teen Books
Perfect Chemistry in bookstores now!
2008 Author of the Year by the IL Assoc. of Teachers of English
www.simoneelkeles.com

Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Simone Elkeles, perm, Perfect Chemistry, Add a tag

This is my college picture. I was done with the perm and used a straightener to straighten my hair every day. I always liked long hair because I think it looks better on me.

Simone Elkeles
author of:
Leaving Paradise 2008 RITA® finalist
How to Ruin a Summer Vacation #3 on Top Ten Teen Books
How to Ruin my Teenage Life 2008 AJL Notable Book for Teens
2008 Author of the Year by the IL Assoc. of Teachers of English
http://www.simoneelkeles.com/

Blog: Books, Boys, Buzz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: iPhone, Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry, hair extensions, Add a tag
Okay, I got hair extentions because I'm going to be in this rap video (as the book trailer for my new book Perfect Chemistry...which I will post here as soon as we shoot the video) I wanted to look different, and my friend Debbie got hair extensions and said they'll "change my life!"
So I usuall have really long hair (see buzz/bee picture above) but I got it cut shoulder length about six months ago. I liked it, but I really missed my long hair. So....in three hours of sitting at the salon I went from medium length hair to really really long hair!
Here's a pic I took of myself in the mirror with my iPhone after coming back from the salon.
My hair was actually way longer, but I got it cut shorter because I thought I looked too much like Cher. I got curly extensions, but they had straight ones too. I have to admit, people don't know I have extensions in...unless I tell them. Although they wonder what vitamin I'm taking to make my hair grow so long so fast...really they don't even think they're extensions.
So I found some youtube videos that show hair extensions and in one you can even see them being put in hair. I hope you can see them, I'm so bad about links and embedding videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8uzDM0eRa0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMXtj-19sFg
So, what do you think about the extensions? Would you ever get them or know anyone who has them?
Simone Elkeles
author of:
Leaving Paradise 2008 RITA® finalist
How to Ruin a Summer Vacation #3 on Top Ten Teen Books
How to Ruin my Teenage Life 2008 AJL Notable Book for Teens
2008 Author of the Year by the IL Assoc. of Teachers of English
www.simoneelkeles.com

Blog: The YA YA YAs (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Reviews, Fiction, teen romance, simone elkeles, perfect chemistry, Add a tag
Simone Elkeles’ Perfect Chemistry is a teen romance full of clichés, melodrama, an unrealistic denouement, and a completely over the top epilogue. And I freaking loved it. Ate it up with a spoon like it was an ice cream sundae.
I was initially wary because Perfect Chemistry utilizes the same alternating narrators format as Leaving Paradise, this time switching between Alex, Hot Latino Tough Guy Gangbanger (with a brain), and Brittany, Popular Perfect Blond Rich Girl (with a secret). Forced to become partners for the entire year in their chemistry class, Alex and Brittany start to see each other past the rumors and stereotypes and façades they’ve erected. Do I need to spell out what happens next?
In any case, Alex’s chapters were…better than Caleb’s in Leaving Paradise. Oh, there were still parts that had me shaking my head, wondering, “Dude, what kind of guy talks like this?” but it happened less often than Leaving Paradise. As for the rest of the book, for a story that’s supposedly about two teens who learn to see past stereotypes, most of the secondary characters were stereotypical. The plot points alternated between the ridiculous and the predictable, and the epilogue ranks right up there with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as my least favorite epilogues of all time.
And yet, I was totally sucked into the story. Elkeles had me hooked and I have no idea how she did it. Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I think Elkeles does emotion well, despite (or is it because of?) all the melodrama. Ultimately, though, there’s just something about her writing that that makes me need to keep reading, regardless of all the problems I may have with the book, though I cannot identify what that something is. I had to finish the book, had to find out if Alex and Brittany would end up together.*
There’s a lot of crude language in this book—I did mention Alex is in a gang, yes?—and, well, let’s just say this is definitely a romance for more mature teens. It won’t change anyone’s mind about romances, by which I mean girls looking for a romance will adore it and those with less patience for its bad boy/good girl setup and occassionally unrealistically (there’s that word again) sentimental dialogue, not to mention the way it romanticizes the bad boy and gives false hope about the possibilities of reforming them, won’t. If you don’t think much of romances to begin with, this is definitely not the book I’d recommend to change your mind. I have a hard time picturing this one in school libraries, and I think it will be one of those books readers either love or hate, especially judging by the other reviews I’ve read, at Teen Book Review and Semicolon (warning: spoilers!).
Perfect Chemistry will be published on December 23.
* Can I call this Diana Palmer for the high school set even though I utterly failed in my attempt to read a Diana Palmer book? Just based on this statement about a Palmer book: “it was crazy and insane and it made no sense and yet I still loved it”?

This is probably universal, but my kids often text me with one letter to let me know we're all in agreement:
K
So while not that unusual or anything but
I've been trying to quit cursing for years as I work with kids and it just isn't cool professionally, so instead I use filler words like "oh, SNAP!" being my fav. It usually gets a laugh and I don't negatively influence anyone.
LOL... my niece and I use it as Laugh Out Loud but my mother-in-law uses it as Lots of Love, which can get awful confusing. As could be Lots of Luck. <3 :)
My most random "slang" term is "doop."
It's short for "doop shootz" which is obviously a variant of a term I can't use in front of my pre-schooler.
I spend half the day telling her "not to say that" anyway. . . . :)
Our most-used texting acronym is rofl.
Cheryl S.
Acronym: ROTFLMAO
Slang: Holy Freak.
Okay, they're sayings my characters use, but I've caught myself saying Holy Freak a lot now. ;)
In Texting we use lol, 2, and ttfn a lot.
And in IMing we use rofl a lot.
Rachel R.
mybkclub.com
[email protected]
I don't really use shortened words or anything when I text, because it annoys me... I even use commas and everything when I text. :p I'm such an English nerd. The only one I use is lol.
But, anyway, my friends use ttfn (ta ta for now), jk (just kidding). Those are the two main ones. I can't not stand them doing this, though, and I let them know... maybe that's why they haven't been using them lately? haha. :)
hope.
My GF's and I use
SN2SH
when talking about rotten guys.
It means 'Somebody Needs to Slap Him'.
I'm not sure it's slang or anything, but it really bugs my dad!
Awesome, totally, and random.
~Meredith
rosesaremyfavorite at hotmail dot com
I have a deep hatred for slang in texting, but the one thing I do use sometimes (I'm gonna go with Tina on this one) is K!
a lot of times me and my friends use is "oh shiz!" we use it instead of saying oh shi*
I'm similar to Nikki, I don't like using bad words. What I do is substitute silly words for the bad ones it's pretty fun and actually catchy hehe I've gotten a LOT of my friends to say fudge brownies instead of the other word haha it's pretty interesting hehe
I would usually say holy poop and the acronym we used most often would be brb, nvm, lol and all that good stuff!
DFTBA- Don't Forget to be Awesome!
<3 (love)
Christina
CYNA Could You Not Abbreviate, because my friend and I always get emails with so many abbreviations it can't be deciphered. So for all you hypocrites out there, CYNA!
My mom sister and I always use "defily"(don't ever forget i love you) to say good by to eachother. It means alot to us because my sister is not living with us at home anymore and we miss her. So "defily" which sounds like deaf with -ly tagged onto the end of it is our way of saying "love you".
Overused acronym: 2c4u (too cool for you)
Favorite slang word: fosho (for sure)
Haha both of these words get used a LOT at my school! Love your books Simone :)
the only one i can think of right now is the one i just used, ngl: not gonna lie.
I'm going to hope this counts because I'm a dork and don't use really any texting stuff (my mother uses more than I do)...but I do use bc or b/c a lot for because--probably because I use that in writing, too :)
-Lucil
Slang: Slog. As in, I slog, you slog, he she it slogs.
Ex: I'm totally slogging in algebra.
Acronym: TSB: A creation of my two best friends and I, standing for That's So Britney. We use it whenever one of the guys in our school shaves his head, like Brit did while so was having a little breakdown.
-J.T.
I use "no manches" a lot. I picked it up when I was on exchange to Mexico. Depending on the context it can mean different things, but I guess the best way to describe it is to tell someone to stop kidding around or to show disbelief or surprise.
I love everything that you are giving away. The es un libro shirt is so fun.
My friends and I love reading British books so we picked up the word uber and haven't been able to stop saying it! so uber would be me slang lolz!
Nay-nay
my sister and I say BRB whenever we leave a room. we even have our Mom saying it when she is going somewhere. BRB!
and I will because I always come back to this blog!
I use TTYL for texting and emailing, and ROFL and LOL alot also in both of those. I am pretty new to texting, but with teens it's a necessity, so I'd better get used to it!
Oooh, it's hard to pick just one.
Between my bff and I, the most used chatspk is probably "ILUBB" which is basically "I love ya babe or baby"
We usually use it after an inside joke. (LOL jk; ilubb <3)
I use PEACE for texting and emailing.
Peace
Doxys
"Down low" as in, don't tell anyone keep it on the down low.
Also, instead of saying "I'm not up for that" or "I'm not down with that", we say I'm not jiggy with that."
Yeah, we are that dumb. :-)
Okay,, I don't get half of what people are writing here :S, but anyway, my sister and I started to use this code word for "gay". Instead of saying it out loud we started saying Greg-Adam. And now my whole family uses it and all of my friends... =P
i end up always using the acronym LOL at least once ina chat conve.
We use lol.
Me and my best friend love reading and writing, so we talk in random literary jargon, constantly throwing around terms like "Mary Sue" and "muse" and "nanoism" while people give us strange looks of confusion.
And I don't really send text messages, but when I'm online I someimes use lol, omg, and smileys :). I also tend to put things in *asterisks*.
paradoxrevealed (at) aim (dot) com
lqtm
laughing quietly to myself...p.s. you're coming to my school..Fremd on Tues,Feb 24..im so psyched..im begging my Spanish teacher to take my class to see you..i think i might persuade her by showing her that video of Perfect Chemistry that you created for your latest book..it has some Espanol in it.