Rules of Attraction Review

Rules of Attraction is the long awaited sequel to the best selling and ever popular Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. I’ll admit that I came to the Perfect Chemistry party a little late but when I read it, I absolutely loved it. It was steaming hot and I loved the tension between the two main characters, Alex and Brittany. When I heard there was a sequel on the horizon, I was ridiculously excited but I also wondered how Simone could make it different enough to keep the audience still interested in the story but at the same time, give us everything we loved about the first book.

Rules of Attraction features Carlos, Alex’s younger brother who is forced to come over to the US from Mexico. To cut a long story short, he ends up being taken in by a good, wholesome family who want to take care of him without judgement. Carlos is going along with it but not exactly by choice, at least not until he finds a reason to be a better man when he falls for the daughter, Kiara.

If you thought Alex was bad-ass, you haven’t met Carlos yet. He has a tough outer shell that’s difficult to crack and it takes Kiara quite a while to get under his skin. He’s not as flirty as Alex was in Perfect Chemistry but he’s just as sexy. It’s a bad boy thing ;) I like the way the reader is able to see his inner thoughts and we find out that he’s not such a hard nut underneath it all.

I really liked Kiara as a character and I absolutely LOVE the fact that she’s pretty much a bit of a nerd. She’s smart, witty and doesn’t care about fashion or being cool. She’s just a genuinely nice person. The kind of girl you would NEVER put with Carlos but somehow Simone makes it work. Opposites attract after all which is arguably one of the “rules of attraction”. I think Kiara softens Carlos and opens his heart up to love. On the flip side, I think Carlos helps Kiara to live a bit more dangerously, and helps her to open up to new and exciting experiences.

For the diehard Alex and Brittany fans, they still feature quite heavily in Rules of Attraction although they are no longer the focus of the story. They’ve become secondary characters and this is how it should be. It’s actually quite nice to have them in the background so the reader can find out what happens to them and ultimately still carry on with their story.

I read this book on night shifts (during my break) and I found that I couldn’t put it down. I liked Kiara much more than I liked Brittany and the story kept me captivated. It had a lot of the heat the first book gave us but it’s not a “love at first sight” book and it takes both characters a long time to warm up to each other. I guess you could call it a slow burn.

Overall, I really enjoyed Rules of Attraction and I’m really looking forward to the next book, Chain Reaction which features the youngest Fuentes brother, Luis. I’m quite excited to see how Simone is going to portray the youngest Fuentes brother who seems more innocent than the other two and perhaps even protected from the gang culture so predominant in the series.

Chain Reaction is released on 24th May and Rules of Attraction is available now both in the UK and the US. If you need any more reason to read it, check out the fabulous, movie quality trailer for it (below). The funny thing is, Alex, Carlos AND Kiara are just how I would imagine them to be! To find out more about Simone, visit her website here.