Brittany has spent her life perfecting her image -- perfect clothes, perfect family, and it's all a perfect lie. She's not the shallow teenager she portrays at school. Brittany spends her evenings and weekends protecting her disabled sister, Shelley, from her own parents, who aren't interested in taking care of the girl and want to place her in a care home. So Brit tries to take care of Shelley and make sure everything runs smoothly, so they don't send her sister away.

Alex has the opposite image problem as Brittany. He's the punk bad-boy who is expected to deal drugs in the back halls of the high school and end up dead or in jail. But few people know that Alex joined the gang he's in so that his brother didn't have to -- so that his brother could follow his dreams.

When Alex and Brittany collide, two worlds that normally don't meet begin to intertwine. Alex learns that Brittany's life isn't nearly as perfect as it appears, and Brittany learns there's more than a tough attitude hiding behind Alex's hot bod.

What is it about the bad guy and the good/perfect girl story? There's something compelling about it and maybe it's what we all hope inside can be true -- that someday people will be judged by who they are and not slotted into roles and lives they don't want.

PERFECT CHEMISTRY is a nice romance -- very unrealistic -- but nice. Although Alex's world is clearly bad, I do think it's portrayed as "romantically" bad in a way that doesn't exist in a real-world scenario. Still, Ms. Elkeles' writing flows and you'll enjoy the sweetness of the romance between Brittany and Alex.