Review: Can't Beat the Chemistry by Kat Colmer

Title: Can't Beat the Chemistry 

Author: Kat Colmer
Publisher: Rhiza Press
Published: April 20, 2019
Pages: 274
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: ARC
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Ionic and covalent bonds are a piece of cake for MJ. But human bonds are a little harder ...

There are only two things MJ wants in her final year of high school:

1) Glowing grades and ...

2) to convince uber-smart, chiselled-jaw Jason they’d be a winning team outside the science lab as well as in.

Tutoring deadbeat drummer, Luke, isn’t part of the plan. After all, he has average intelligence, takes disorganised notes and looks like a partied-out zombie at their study sessions! Not even his taut biceps will win MJ over.

But MJ learns that she could be tutored in a few life lessons too: That sometimes there’s good reason to skip chemistry tutorials. That intelligence is so much more than a grade average.

And that sometimes you can’t beat the chemistry. 

Goodreads / Amazon

MY REVIEW

DISCLAIMER: This review MAY contain SPOILERS. I received an Advance Reader Copy at no cost from Netgalley. The opinions in my review are my own. 

This is an opposites-attract story that touches on some important things. One major theme in this book is learning not to judge a book by its cover. Getting to know someone instead of making assumptions based on what you can see on the outside. 

I liked seeing the Down Syndrome representation in Luke's sister, Rosie. She was such a great character and I loved her. I also liked how the theme of overbearing parents was touched on. MJ's mother puts too much pressure on her and is basically a helicopter parent wanting to live through her daughter by making her become a doctor. MJ struggles because she doesn't want to disappoint her mother and yet her dreams do not lie in medicine. 

MJ and Luke are the main characters in this book and the story is told through their alternating POVs. I really liked Luke's character. He was a great friend, brother, son, and person. He was serious book boyfriend material. His kindness and genuine nature radiated from him. MJ, on the other hand, is a character that I could not connect with the least bit. I straight up hated her at the beginning of the book. She was judgmental and stuck up. She had serious blinders on when it came to the world around her. She was smart, but she was very socially inept. While her backstory did soften her to me a bit, I still never really liked her. Even with an overbearing mother ruling her life, I felt it unrealistic that she could still be so callous. It was a naivety that seemed too bizarre to feel real. I did like Luke and MJ's character journeys with regard to being judgmental. They both judged the other in the beginning but learn that there is more under the surface. I did like all of the side characters. They were all great and had the perfect impacts in the story. 

I really loved the plot. The premise for this story was one that caught my attention right away. I always love an opposites-attract story and this one had a lot of potential. I found it lacking in a lot of ways and this mostly boils down to the execution of the story. I found the storytelling hard to follow at times and a bit choppy. The writing voice isn't one that I connected with. It occurred to me while reading this that some of the dialogue was unusual to me. I found this hard to get used to at first. I gathered that this book takes place in Australia (where I do not live) and I came to wonder if perhaps it came down to a cultural barrier of some kind for me. The characters said things and used slang and abbreviations that I was unfamiliar with. Once I got used to the difference it was a bit easier to read. 

The romance was enjoyable. MJ and Luke are pushed together and they both dislike the other in the beginning. Through their tutoring sessions and the weekend that MJ spends with Luke and his family, they learn more about each other and a friendship forms that turns into more. They both find that their original assumptions of the other is not the complete picture and that there is more to the other than they originally thought. They both encourage each other in ways that matter. I also liked how MJ started to realize her feelings for Jason were unwarranted because he didn't make her feel the things that Luke did. He didn't encourage her.

Overall, this was an entertaining opposites-attract romance that kept my interest. I enjoyed the romance and though I had issues with one of the main characters, I still enjoyed the book as a whole. It didn't knock me out of the water but it did rock the boat. It's a fun and quick read.

Have you ever read a book and you just could not connect with one of the main characters? That is the issue that I had with this book. Do you find it hard to rate a book when this happens? What summer reads have you crossed off your TBR?