Chain Reaction review

Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From Goodreads:

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 southsider is Luis’s 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’s 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?

My Review:

After I read the last word of the book I turned over to the epilogue and read the whole thing again. After that I just sat there, with the book in front of me thinking – this is it. No more Fuentes brothers, no more of that hot, passionate romance, no more of Simone Elkeles’ beautiful trilogy, Perfect Chemistry. And then I almost teared up. I mean Oh My God! Chain Reaction was such a beautiful, captivating and heart wrenching book. And the ending was so so so sweet that I was almost at the brink bawling in the end. I kind of get mixed feelings for the last books in the series. I love them because finally the protagonists can live happily ever after with their loved ones but I also hate them because after the last book I would no longer be able to…I don’t know…be with them or something like that, especially for such special books like this one.

Now that I am writing this review I am getting to know that how hard it is for me to let my favorite Fuentes brothers go and how much I love them. Also how much I am going to miss them. Simone Elkeles surely knows how to create awesome characters and how to construct such complicated yet somehow normal and everyday (for some) lives. She is the best. This is definitely one of those books that even after finishing them I would take them out and flip over to my favorite parts and read them over again to revive those beautiful scenes and memory of reading them the first time. And this book, Chain Reaction…it totally took my breath away. The characters had depth, all of them, from not so important ones to the most important ones. The story was as always magnificently crafted and beautifully written, in a straightforward and breathy manner.

At the beginning when I started reading the book I couldn’t wait to finish it, to get to know what happens in the end (after all, the best thing I love about Simone Elkeles’ books are their Epilogues) but now that I finished the book I try to recall why exactly had I wanted to finish this book so soon, knowing that this was the last one. Because, boy, did I finish it fast. (To be exact, one and a half days.) Perfect Chemistry was simply…perfect and so was Rules of Attraction. And now as I write this review for the third book Chain Reaction, I can officially declare that Perfect Chemistry trilogy was easily the best realistic fiction series I’ve ever read, hell, the best realistic fiction series anyone could ever read.

I will not comment on my rating which is of course 5 stars, because the above three paragraphs totally justifies whatever they have to. So…this is my final goodbye to the Fuentes family (I am getting all teary eyes…again!) and I also pray to The God of books that whoever had caused them pain in the past may rot in the worst hellish scenario any author has been able to conjure up till now.

Oh I miss them like crazy already.

Oh…did I mention that Simon Elkeles is the best?

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