Perfect Chemistry * Simone Elkeles
Au début, la couverture et le résumé m'avaient laissé penser qu'il s'agirait d'une histoire complètement "cliché"...Puis Cécile m'a offert ce bouquin à l'occasion du Swap de la Non rentrée et devant l'insistance de mes copines (et la volonté d'allonger ma liste de potentiels ^^) j'ai fini par l'ouvrir...
Bien m'en a pris car je m'étais complètement plantée...!
Extrait...
"Miss Ellis?" Mrs Peterson says. "It's your turn. Introduce Alex to the class."
"This is Alejandro Fuentes. When he wasn't hanging out on street corners and harassing innocent people this summer, he toured the inside of jails around the city, if you know what I mean. His secret desire is to go to college and become a chemistry teacher, like you, Mrs Peterson."
Brittany flashes me a triumphant smile, thinking she's won this round. Guess again, gringa.
"This is Brittany Ellis," I say, all eyes now focused on me. "This summer she went to the mall, bought new clothes so she could expand her wardrobe, and spent her daddy's money on plastic surgery te enhance her, ahem, assets. Her secret desire is to date Mexicano before she graduates."
Game on...
La 4ème...
When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created "perfect" life is about to unravel before her eyes. Forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, Brittany finds herself having to protect everything she's worked so hard for - her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend and, most importantly, the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But the closer Alex and Brittany get to each other the more they realise that sometimes appearances can be deceptive and that you have to look beneath the surface to discover the truth.
Mon avis...
A la lecture de la première phrase:
"Everyones knows I'm perfect. My life is perfect. My clothes are perfect. Even my family is perfect", je me suis dit que j'avais bien raison, je risquais de m'ennuyer ferme face à une enième cruche (ça m'a rappelé Elena de Journal d'un Vampire qui a réussi à me gonfler en 2 secondes avec des phrases de ce style...), mais la fin de la phrase:
"And alhtoug it's a complete lie, I've worked my butt off to keep up the appearence that I have it all. The truth, if it were to come out, would destroy my entire picture-perfect image." m'a fait réaliser que j'étais peut être bien en train de me planter sur toute la longueur (et que mes copines n'étaient *peut être* pas si folles que ça! ^^)
Brittany n'est pas la nana totalement superficielle que je m'attendais à rencontrer, elle est simplement prête à tout pour que les gens ne se rendent pas compte de ses faiblesses, de la tristesse et la culpabilité qui la hantent.
Alex joue le rôle du bad boy que sa famille et son instinct de survie lui intiment de jouer pour protéger les siens.
Ces deux-là se cherchent pendant un moment et leurs échanges sont détonants. Quant à Alex, il déborde de sexytude...^^ et il est autant craquant que ce que j'avais entendu de lui! *MP alert, MP alert*
"I know. It's your image, what Alex Fuentes is all about. It's your brand, your logo...dangerous, deadly, hot and sexy Mexican. I wrote the book on creating an image (...)"
"You do realize you called me hot."
"As if you didn't know."
I didn't know Brittany Ellis considered me hot. "For the record, I thought you were untouchable. But now that I know you think I'm a hot, sexy, Mexican god..."
"I never say the word 'god'."
Certes, le sujet de base est déjà vu: une histoire d'amour impossible entre une pompom girl blanche et friquée, et un mexicain fauché d'une petite ville paumée et raciste des Etats Unis, mais pour autant, ce livre se dévore grâce à la répartie des deux auteurs, au rythme de l'histoire et à la double narration qui nous fait tourner les pages toujours plus vite!
"He likes you, you know," Isabel says, looking at her fingernails instead of at me.
Butterflies start flittering around in my stomach. "He does not," I say, event though I'm tempted to ask for details.
She rolls her eyes. "Oh, please. You know it, even if you don't want to admit it."
"For someone who says they'll never be friends with me, you sure are sharing a lot this morning."
"I have to admit I kinda wish you were the bitch some people say you are," she says.
"Why?"
"Because it's easy to hate someone who has it all."
Ce livre incarne à la perfection la YA Romance qui fait du bien!
"With someone you like that much, the lows are as low are the highs are high. Does that make sense?"
"It does. It also make me sound bipolar."
"Love will do that to a person."
Perfect Chemistry de Simone Elkeles (VO) 
Editions Walker & Company
360 pages
9,90$