Perfect Chemistry is a love story in its simplest terms, but it actually goes a whole lot deeper.

It’s a modern West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet (with a better ending). I wanted to explore what might happen when a boy and girl from different sides of town and a different socioeconomic status fall hard for each other. It’s a high school that mirrors Fairfield. I base Perfect Chemistry off of Highland Park High School, which is near my house. When this bad boy is forced to live with good girl Kiara Westford’s family, he has finally met his match! Carlos lives his life on the edge and breaks rules whenever possible. In the sequel that just came out, Rules of Attraction, Alex’s brother Carlos is sent to Colorado to live with his big brother. The problem is that in order for these two teens to be together, they have to risk everything…even their lives. He thinks it will be a piece of cake, until he starts realizing that the girl who he once accused of being a rich bitch is actually a complex girl whose life is anything but perfect. Perfect Chemistry is about Latino bad boy Alex Fuentes, a gang member, who makes a bet with his friends that he can lure his chemistry partner, the beautiful rich white girl Brittany Ellis, into his life.

Thanks so much, Simone!Ĭan you tell us what Perfect Chemistry is about, and how you came up with the idea for this story?

I am lucky enough that the lovely Simone Elkeles, author of Perfect Chemistry, took some time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions for me about her novel to celebrate it's UK release.

Simone elkeles books in order