Seven top YA reads that explore love from the wrong side of the tracks

Sona Charaipotra is a New York City-based writer and editor with more than a decade’s worth of experience in print and online media. For the B & N Teen Blog she tagged seven top YA books that explore love from the wrong side of the tracks, including:

Perfect Chemistry, by Simone Elkeles

Brittany Ellis is perfect: blonde, beautiful, rich, and popular, she seems to have it all. But it’s a façade—she’s hiding a dark, painful secret about her family, one she can’t share with anyone. Alex Fuentes is Fairfield High’s resident badass. A gang member whose dad was murdered, he’s trying his best for his family, but his pals and ex Carmen don’t make it easy. When Brittany and Alex are paired up as lab partners in chemistry class, the whole thing should implode. Instead, they find themselves exploring an undeniable attraction. Race, class, culture, and politics all come into play in this cross-cultural romance, the first in a bestselling trilogy.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue