Book Review: Rules of Attraction (Simone Elkeles)

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.


Sequel to Perfect Chemistry (a personal favourite), Rules of Attraction is every bit as delightful as its predecessor. If there were any doubts of the Fuentes brothers' droolworthiness after Perfect Chemistry, Carlos sealed the deal in Rules of Attraction. I just loved the masculine presence of Carlos in this book. Definitely a Fuentes.

Rules of Attraction is a hell of a lot funnier than Perfect Chemisty. While Alex was resigned to his fate, Carlos is cynical about his life in general. His outlook in life is comparably worse, and this cynicism he easily translates into humour - this, combined with Kiara's boldness and the flair of interesting, hugely entertainting secondary characters, produces humour that had me giggling and laughing while reading. Despite his best efforts, Carlos is immature, wanting to dive head first into a life his brother once left behind. Watching him develop, learn and ultimately mature is perhaps one of the strengths of this book. Like Alex, Carlos has a strong heart, but mind you, is the truer bad boy of the two. And while I could quite easily list Carlos' endless loveable traits, I'll let you know that ultimately he's as hot as older brother Alex.

Unlike Perfect Chemistry - which was equally underscored by Brittany's and Alex's stories -, I found Rules of Attraction to focus more on Carlos and less on Kiara. Bits and pieces of Kiara I found missing, which left her characterisation to be underdeveloped. However, the development of Kiara's family offsets this quite well.

The romance, as with any of Simone's work, is wonderful. Carlos and Kiara's chemistry is fresh and witty, but not as sizzling as Alex's and Brittany's. And, speaking of the two, I looked forward to and was satisfied with the glimpses that Simone has provided into Alex's and Brittany's relationship. It was familiar ground, just from a fresh viewpoint. There were also parts which seems to lay the foundation for the third book in the series. I like!

Overall, Rules of Attraction is a worthy read, twenty times over. There are bits and pieces I did not like, but it was very hard not to love this book in general. It encompasses many motifs, among which is brotherly love, trust and growth. Each of these are impeccably handled. For that alone, this book is worth anyone's time.

Apologies, I seem to compare RoA with PC a lot - while I honestly tried to review RoA in it's own merit, it appeared increasingly difficult not to compare it with PC!

Four Stars.

PS. Tomorrow I'll be posting a review with Simone Elkeles. Watch out for it!