Chain Reactions by Simone Elkeles Review

Chain Reactions
By Simone Elkeles
Young Readers, 308 pages
16th August, 2011

Luis Fuentes has always been sheltered from the gang violence that nearly destroyed his brothers’ lives. But that didn’t stop him from taking risks—whether he’s scaling a mountain in the Rockies or dreaming of a future as an astronaut, Luis can’t stop looking for the next thrill. 

Nikki Cruz lives her life by three rules—boys lie to get their way, don’t trust a boy who says “I love you,” and never date a boy from the south side of Fairfield. Her parents may be from Mexico, but as a doctor’s daughter, she has more in common with her north-side neighbors than the Latino Blood at her school. Then she meets Luis at Alex’s wedding, and suddenly, she’s tempted to break all her rules. 

Getting Nikki to take a chance on a southsider is Luis’s biggest challenge, until he finds himself targeted by Chuy Soto, the new head of the Latino Blood. When Chuy reveals a disturbing secret about Luis’s family, the youngest Fuentes finds himself questioning everything he’s ever believed to be true. Will his feelings for Nikki be enough to stop Luis from entering a dark and violent world and permanently living on the edge?


- GoodReads.com description


I thought when I first pick this book up it won't be intense at all. I should give Elkeles much more credit than that. 


I thought that maybe since Luis is the most innocent and good kid in the family he won't be involved in the gang activity and he's  just another boring genius kids who spends most of his time studying. Obviously not. Luis's ambitious. That's for sure. I also never thought he could be such a*finding the right words/appropriate ones. The kind that doesn't need bleeping*... jerk! (Still not the right word but you get what I mean if you've read the book). But we all love him anyway because he's one of the Fuentes brothers - who if you don't know, is the most swoon-worthy fictional characters of all times. They're such badasses;)


I don't usually read books about a girl who got knocked up. I actually didn't read the description when I jumped into this one. All I know it's one of Simone Elkeles's books and I wanna read it because she's the coolest author in the world;)


But this one isn't really all about the knocked-up. Nikki build her wall because of the boy she once trusted. I could relate to her in some ways. I mean, we all know how boys could break our hearts right? Her feeling to not trust Luis is quite strong here. Especially since Luis is best friend with her ex.

As usual, I can't review long on this without giving some scenes/plots away. So for the 3rd time on blog and thousands of times on Twitter: Read this! (But of course after you read the 1st and 2nd book, oh you get my point). You won't regret it!*staring you down*

Fara