Tag: Simone Elkeles

Review: Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles

Posted May 10, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Rowena’s review of Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles.

After getting kicked out of boarding school, bad boy Derek Fitzpatrick has no choice but to live with his ditzy stepmother while his military dad is deployed. Things quickly go from bad to worse when he finds out she plans to move them back to her childhood home in Illinois. Derek’s counting the days before he can be on his own, and the last thing he needs is to get involved with someone else’s family drama.

Ashtyn Parker knows one thing for certain–people you care about leave without a backward glance. A football scholarship would finally give her the chance to leave. So she pours everything into winning a state championship, until her boyfriend and star quarterback betrays them all by joining their rival team. Ashtyn needs a new game plan, but it requires trusting Derek—someone she barely knows, someone born to break the rules. Is she willing to put her heart on the line to try and win it all?

It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by Simone Elkeles but I’m knee deep in a re-watch of the entire series of Friday Night Lights and I was in the mood for some high school football action so I picked this one up.

Derek Fitzpatrick just got kicked out of his fancy private school for a prank that he took the fall for. His father is somewhere in the middle of the ocean, doing big Navy things and Derek is sent to live with his step-mother who is moving out of their Southern California home to her hometown of Chicago. He’s almost a senior and he’s just trying to get through, one day at a time.

When he meets Ashtyn Parker, things get really interesting. First off, she thinks that he’s a thug who has come to rob her family and she stabs him. And then she locks him in the shed. When she finds out that he’s actually her sister’s step-son, she’s embarrassed. From then on, Derek and Ashtyn fall into a bickering relationship. There’s a whole lot of chemistry between the two of them but Ashtyn has a boyfriend and Derek isn’t there to meet girls.

But things happen and really, you can’t help who you fall in love with.

Derek and Ashtyn take a road trip to Texas where Ashtyn is enrolled in a football camp (she’s the captain of her football team) and Derek is set to meet his grandmother. Derek’s grandmother has never been in Derek’s life. She ditched his Mom when his Mom married his Dad and Derek is not happy about this little reunion. It is while on this road trip that you see Derek and Ashtyn’s relationship really take off.

Ashtyn has broken up with her loser boyfriend, Landon McKnight and she’s starting to be honest about how she really feels about Derek but he’s not the guy for her. At least in his head he isn’t. But really, Derek…you can’t run from who you’re meant to be with. Everyone knows that.

What I liked about this book is that Ashtyn was honest with her feelings for Derek almost from the moment she realizes she has feelings. She knows what she wants and she goes for it. She had that I’m woman, hear me roar mentality and at times, it got on my nerves. Her, I don’t need any help from anyone (even though the circumstances called for a little help) made me want to smack some sense into her but I had to keep reminding myself that she was a teenager and sometimes teenagers act ways that nobody understands.

Derek was one of the good guys. He came off as selfish and rowdy but at his core, he was a genuinely good guy. He cared deeply for the people close to him and he was a good step-brother to Julian. I really liked the growth we see in his character and that grand gesture at the end was the business.

This was an enjoyable read but it wasn’t without things that got on my nerves (mostly the way Ashtyn behaved toward Derek) but overall, I enjoyed this book and think that fans of contemporary YA will enjoy this one. I wish we could have seen some kind of interaction between Derek and his father but even still, this was a good one.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Walker Books for Young Readers. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Tagged: 3.0 Reviews, Contemporary, Rowena's Reviews, Simone Elkeles, Walker Books for Young Readers, Young Adult

Review: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles.

Posted June 8, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Main Characters: Alex Fuentes, Brittany Ellis
Series: Fuentes Brothers series?, Book 1

A fresh, urban twist on the classic tale of star-crossed lovers. 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.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

Like the blurb says, this is a star-crossed lovers story where we have the boy from the wrong side of the tracks falling for the rich girl. They’re from two different worlds and yet they have so much in common it’s weird. Elkeles did a heck of a job writing about the distinct differences in the worlds of both Alex and Brittany.

Alex is poor and in a gang. Brittany is perfect and has everything going for her. When they’re paired up to be chemistry partners, things get interesting.

What I found interesting is that though Alex was struggling to make ends meet and had to get his hustle on to pay the bills, you could tell that him and his family were happy and that they loved each other. They may not have had the best of things but they made do with what they had and they enjoyed each other. Family was family, they did stupid things but you’d forgive them everything because at the end of the day, they were still your family. That wasn’t the case with Brittany’s family. Well, for Brittany and her sister but there was such a disconnect with the kids and the parents. Brittany loved her mother but you often wondered if her parents gave a crap about her and Shelley. In Alex’s family, it was evident but not so with Brittany’s family.

What I liked about this story was the romance between Alex and Brittany. She’s unattainable but he goes after her anyway. He doesn’t want to fall for her but he does anyway. She swears she’s going to stay away from him but she can’t. She knows that he’s no good for her and yet she can’t stay away from him. Watching these two fight the obstacles in their way and then making their way together was cute.

Alex was a stand up hero. He did what he had to do to protect his family and dealt with the consequences afterward. He was smart. He had a good head on his shoulders even though he was a gang banger. He was strong for his family but he wanted a better life for his brothers. He lived for his family and how could you not love a guy for that?

Brittany wasn’t at all what she appeared to be. She appeared to be perfect but was far from it. Her relationship with Collin was a phony hoax of a relationship that didn’t hold a candle to the realness of her relationship with Alex. She was a good girl but she had so much pressure that she was slowly unraveling and if Alex didn’t come into her life when he did, she probably would have gone crazy mad.

Alex and Brittany together was a treat to get to know. They bickered and they fought their way together and I enjoyed the ride.

The secondary characters were great in this book. I enjoyed getting to know Brittany’s best friend, oh crap what is her name? Hmmm, forget but anyway, I enjoyed getting to know her and I also liked the friendship that sparked up between her Isa. The friendship between Paco and Alex was my favorite though. Knowing that someone had your back the way that those two had each other’s is always great to read about and seeing it come to life through Paco and Alex made for some great reading. Whether they were at a cousin’s wedding, in class or around town, the loyalty between these two was constant and I adored it.

I’m not really sure why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I was going to. I mean, I enjoyed it but it wasn’t a favorite of mine. Maybe all of the hype that I built up around this book got to be so much that nothing was going to measure up, who knows. The relationship that blossomed between Alex and Brittany didn’t ring true to me for a while and I’m not sure why. At first, I didn’t understand why Brittany liked Alex. He was such a prick to her and yet she was drawn to him and I didn’t get it. We’re seeing things from both of their POV’s (which I liked) but while we’re reading about Brittany’s feelings for Alex early on in the book, it didn’t seem genuine. Moreover, it didn’t seem real.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the characters and I’m looking forward to reading Carlos’ book. I’m glad that things worked out for Alex and Brittany. I adored the way that Alex was with Shelley and seeing him at the end made my heart go all pitter patter. I love me some Mexicans so this was a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

This may have been my first Elkeles but it won’t be my last. Rules of Attractions, here I come!

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