Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkles

Publication Date: April 27, 2010
ARC Source: Traveling ARC Tours
POC Challenge (2)
Summary Taken from Goodreads:


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 Two Cents:

A little slow in the beginning but I ended up liking this one. I'd heard so many good things about Perfect Chemistry so I was excited to pick this one up. When is everyone going to learn that the person who gets under your skin is most likely the love of your life? Yes, weird.

Kiara wears whatever she can grab first, no makeup, and can hardly be considered a "girly girl". She's the only girl who doesn't show that she's smitten by Carlos' charm and wit. In the beginning he definitely rubbed her the wrong way with his cursing and bad attitude.Though, it was hard for her to figure out why she couldn't stop thinking about him.

Carlos, is the misunderstood bad boy. He's not used to people helping him out of the kindness of their hearts and not wanting anything in return. He's distrustful of adults. At first I couldn't stand him, but as the book went on I began to see that he did certain things because he felt he had to protect the people around him.

It certainly takes a while for this unlikely pair to both come to their senses, but when they do, it's hard to stop it. I love that the cover is an actual scene in the book. It's exactly how I imagined it. Great romance, and pretty steamy at times. I would recommend this one for older teens since there's some pretty racy topics in this one. I was expected a bit more from it plot-wise. It sounded like a story I'd read plenty of times, but it was still delivered well.

Rating: