Review: Rules of Attraction

Title: Rules of Attraction
Author: Simone Elkeles
Pages: 324
Hardcover, Walker & Company

Goodreads summary:
When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now

My review:

Oh my goodness. Love this book!

Okay, so I wasn't expecting much of it to begin with. I loved the first one so much and I've had a history of being disappointed with the sequel. But this book, this book brings hope that squalls will once more be grand!

This is the story of Carlos Fuentes, Alex's high school senior little brother, and high school senior Kiara.

Kiara is your basic high school senior, with a slight speech problem. Carlos is your basic Mexican gang member. They would have never picked one another as someone they would go out with.

When circumstances beyond them control bring them under the same roof, they can't recognize one another.

The book is amazing. I loved it so much, and as a native Spanish speaker, it was amazingly correct. Well there was one exception, but it could actually depend on what it really means. I'm glad to say that I've learned a lot of things from this book. Due to my growing up in the States, I'm not that advanced in the Mexican slang and well reading Simone Elkeles has finally caught me up to the language of my cousins.

I personally connected with the book, and I'm thinking that's what made me love it so much. It wasn't just how well written it was, or how there was a believable romance, or how I was basically engaged into the story that when I took a break and returned to my room, for a moment I was trying to remember what channel I had been watching. That's how good it was, I could see everything playing out in my head.

I'm giving this 4.5 out of 5 stars and am recommending it to everyone who loves a romance, wants to learn Spanish or just looking for a good sequel.

-Karina

Review: Crash into Me

Title: Crash into Me
Author: Albert Borris
Pages: 257
Hardcover, Simon Pulse publishing

Goodreads summary:
Owen, Frank, Audrey, and Jin-Ae have one thing in common: they all want to die. When they meet online after each attempts suicide and fails, the four teens make a deadly pact: they will escape together on a summer road trip to visit the sites of celebrity suicides...and at their final destination, they will all end their lives. As they drive cross-country, bonding over their dark impulses, sharing their deepest secrets and desires, living it up, hooking up, and becoming true friends, each must decide whether life is worth living--or if there's no turning back.

My review:

Alright, I'll admit it. I picked up this book at Borders because it had a really cool cover. Then because it had a nice title. So cheers to publishing companies and their cover art designers, you have won another reader over.

Crash into Me is basically about a group of suicidal kids on a cross-America road trip to their final destination in California. It's a literal and figurative final destination, because that's where the Pack is going to fulfill the Pact to finally die together.

And they did.

Only it wasn't the way you would think. This book takes four strangers who only have their emotional instability/death wishes in common and takes them through the journey that everyone should take.

They find reasons along the journey that brings them closer to what they're really afraid of, what they really want to get rid off from their lives, while bringing them closer to each other.

Their journey does end in death, but not the kind they expected.

The book was actually well written. I really like reading Albert Borris. The characters do develop, and you feel for them. The flashes to the past give you insight to what kind of people they are, while reading about the kind of people they're becoming.

I give it 4/5 stars, and recommend it to everyone.

-Karina