My Selection for Waiting on Wednesday: Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

Book Three

Let's all meet up for a super meme, one last time before the holiday! Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly get-together to learn what others are anxiously waiting to get their hands on to read. It was started by the fabulous Jill over at Breaking the Spine.

Book One

This week I'm looking forward to the next installment of one of my favorite authors of contemporary young adult fiction: Simone Elkeles. I mean seriously, Simone is one of the best writers for young people. She has really captured the art of good story-telling. I first read her work about two years ago, Perfect Chemistry, and I've been hooked on her stuff ever since. The story left me in tears...lol...love, angst, loss and death...ugh...awesome!

Book Two

She's also a very cool person too. (see interview on 04/21/10 post) Her spring release, Rules of Attraction, finally put her on the New York Times best sellers list and she's always running around to pick up some award or speak at some conference or another. She's incredibly busy, but we managed to communicate back and forth and she sent me some awesome swag that I include in some of my YA giveaways. I mean, she mailed it using her home address. Now you tell me. How many NYT best selling authors or any author is going to do that?! She's totally keeping it real--in her writing and in her life.

Chain Reaction is the third Perfect Chemistry novel and it follows the love affair of the youngest Fuentes brother, Luis. Let's check out the description from Amazon:

Luis Fuentes is a good boy who doesn't live with the angst that his big brothers, Alex and Carlos, have always lived with. Luis is smart, funny, and has big dreams of becoming an astronaut. But when he falls for the wrong girl, Luis enters a dark world he's never known, and just when he thinks he's got life all figured out, learns some disturbing news about his family that destroys his positive outlook on life. Will that Fuentes bad boy streak come out with a vengeance and lure Luis to live on the edge like his new girlfriend and his own father?

I know it's gonna be hot. Simone's books always are. She tells it like it is: the sex, the feelings, everything. Can you take it?

 

Chain Reaction releases May 24, 2011

Happy holidays!

And The Two Winners of PERFECT CHEMISTRY and RULES of ATTRACTION are...

What a weekend. Whew! There are winners galore. First there were the two winners of Blogmania 2010-the Spring edition and now I'm able to award two more winners of the awesome books from Simone Elkeles. I'm not going to hold you in suspense any longer girls. The winners of PERFECT CHEMISTRY and RULES of ATTRACTION are...

Awesome Book Giveaway and Interview: Simone Elkeles, YA Author of PERFECT CHEMISTRY & RULES of ATTRACTION

If you guys keep up with my posts, you know Simone is one of my favorite Young Adult authors. She writes wonderful contemporary, realistic novels. They're full of hot love, romance and teenage angst; perfect if you're at that stage in your life or just remembering when you were. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to ask her a few questions and offer two of her novels to my terrific followers.

There will be two winners: One person will receive her breakout novel, PERFECT CHEMISTRY and the other winner will receive the sequel and newly released, RULES of ATTRACTION. Even though Rules of Attraction is the follow-up to Perfect Chemistry, it is a firm stand-alone novel and the winner will have no trouble understanding it if they've not read Perfect Chemistry first. The winners will also receive bookmarks depicting the books.

Let's move on to the interview and then finish up with the requirements of the giveaway.

1) How did you begin your career as a writer? Did it start as a hobby or did you always want to write full time? What's your educational background? Do you have an MFA?

Unlike most authors I know, I hated reading as a teen and hated English class.  I got B’s and C’s in English class most of the time.  I have a master’s degree in Industrial Relations from Loyola University-Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Psychology. I’ve never taken a creative writing class in my life.  I fell in love with reading as an adult – specifically romance novels.  I was so in love with them, I started writing them.  Once I started writing for “myself” and not a teacher or for a grade, I realized that I loved writing and never wanted to stop.  I pretty much taught myself how to write, because they didn’t teach me how to write a book in my regular English classes.  Writing is the best profession and now I can’t imagine doing anything else!  I know I still have a ton to learn about writing and when I read books I love I think “I wish I could write like that!”  I’m always working on my craft and hope I can get better and better with each book.

2) Why did you select a Latino gang member as the love interest in PERFECT CHEMISTRY? What kind of research did you do in preparation for writing this story? Was it difficult?

I did interview some suburban gang members in Illinois.  I also talked to my friend who is a Chicago police officer who gave me information. Lastly, I looked online or made up stuff on my own.  It was hard to do the research, but definitely interesting. (some stuff I read and heard made my stomach churn, but I didn’t write about those things)

Simone Elkeles: My favorite kind of YA author: An accessible one!

Over the weekend, a neighbor rang my bell and informed me that a package had been left in her box with my name on it. When I looked at it, the return address was from Simone Elkeles, author of the awesome breakout novel Perfect Chemistry and it's sequel, the newly released Rules of Attraction. We've communicated a few times via email and I always found her to be very personable and open to dialogue, having answered questions I had for her in the past.

The package contained some swag that she sent at her own expense. I find this to be very thoughtful of her. I handed out some of the goodies to folks that help me out by reading pages of my manuscript and giving me feedback. I'll also pass along some of it to my followers with giveaways.

Simone is a excellent storyteller, and has gained increased attention since Perfect Chemistry caught fire. With her success, she has not forgotten those who put her there: her readership. For this, I say thank you, continue to give us great stories and continue to keep it fun and real with those who love your books.

I'll be posting a interview with Simone this week as well as a giveaway of her two wonderful books: Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction. Make sure to stop in and enter for a chance to win one of the two books and support a great author.

Toodles!

Can a Young Adult romance be enticing without paranormal elements? You bet it can! A book review: Perfect Chemistry

The Young Adult book market is rife with stories that incorporate paranormal elements. Such books are often exciting, suspenseful and capture the imagination of their readers. The trend in the market being what it is, can a teen book without supernatural elements stand a chance of intriguing an audience? I think it can. One such book is Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles.

There are no boys turning into fantastical creatures in this book, but that doesn't make it any less of a great read. Perfect Chemistry is a 357 page YA novel that's romantic and edgy. The differences between Brittany Ellis and Alex Fuentes may not be otherworldly, but crossing the great divide between culture, race and class provide more than enough conflict and drama.