Tag: ARC

I read and really enjoyed PUSHING THE LIMITS by Katie McGarry so I was anxious to get my hands on DARE YOU TO. Thanks to Netgalley and HarlequinTeen, I was able to devour the book months before its release.

And let me tell you one little secret:

I loved it.

Even more than PUSHING THE LIMITS.

Summary from Goodreads.com:

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….
Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all…

Release Date: May 28th, 2013

Sometimes, you have books it´s hard to explain when exactly you fell into a story. For DARE YOU TO, I can tell you that the first scene got me hooked. Ryan is a total cocky jock in that scene but he seems real. And the chemistry with Beth was here from the beginning. After that first scene, I needed to know how those two would meet again.

From there on, here are a few things that kept me turning the pages:

• Beth. She´s a complicated character with many layers, fears and insecurities. IPage after page, glimpses of her past, her relationship with her uncle, her allegiance to her mother despite everything show how tough she´s trying to balance, how some decisions can do ricochet and have an impact.
• Ryan. Ryan has flaws, he has issues, dreams and he´s just this funny, charming guy you wished you could have met while in High school.
• The chemistry/banter between Ryan and Beth. They definitely have INSTA-LUST but not being able to stand each other means they´re trying to fight their chemistry – that just makes for good reading 😛
• Cast of secondary characters: The uncle, his wife, Ryan´s friends, Ryan´s brother, Beth´s best friend…the appearance of Noah and Isaiah…They all play a role in the story, they all leap through the pages…Katie McGarry can pick any of them to write another story and I´ll read it.

And because I like quotes, here are a few ones:

• Ryan has this blank, way too innocent expression. “Don’t worry, Mr. Risk. I’d love to help Elisabeth.” He turns to me and smiles. This smile isn’t genuine or heartwarming, but cocky as hell. Bring it, jock boy. Your best won’t be good enough.
• “I won’t let you go.” I blink. As if he could stop me. “You won’t let me go.” “No, I won’t let you go. You’re mine and I don’t lose.”
• “There are times when you stand on the cusp of moments so huge, you know you’ll remember them forever. This is that moment for me and for Ryan.”

And for more information on DARE YOU TO, those posts are pretty great:

• Just Try and Make Them Fall in Love – Katie McGarry explains how trying to force characters to fall in love just doesn´t work.
• Interview with Beth Risk – I love characters´ interview ❤

First, thanks to Netgalley and HarlequinTeen for enabling me to read PUSHING THE LIMITS by Katie McGarry a tad earlier than its official publication date. I loved it so much that I pre-ordered a copy. Be warned, my emotions ran high throughout this entire book. My husband was not happy about the fact that I read it until late at night and could not put it down during the morning, thus making me a bit late.

“I won’t tell anyone, Echo. I promise.” Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. “You didn’t do that-did you? It was done to you?” No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

So wrong for each other…and yet so right.

It’s like meeting two people for the first time and not expecting you would click but you do and you KNOW you were meant to run into each other.

Both Noah and Echo have a voice since it’s told in alternate POV. They both resonated and shone or cut through the pages (depending on the moment).

Let me tell you why I lost sleep because of this book:

1. Noah. Noah. Noah. Did I mention Noah? This guy reminded me of my own male character in my WiP so I may be a tad bias but Noah is – loss of words – well he is complicated. He has a golden heart, he has problems, he made me laugh and he made me cringe. Totally swoon-worthy even with his issues.

2. Echo. She broke my heart. And I wanted to reach out to her and tell her that I would be like her best friend Lila, I would sit with her at lunch and I wouldn’t ignore her or whisper or make fun of her.

3. Noah and Echo together. Hot, steamy hot. Real. Fun. They open up to one another in such a way that again I want to wrap them in a hug and tell them they’re much stronger than they give themselves credit for.

4. The rest of the cast. Noah’s little brothers. I think I went “awwwwwwwww” every single time there was a scene with them. Echo’s dad and stepmother, the difficulties, the pain, again all felt so real and so painful. Echo’s friends, Noah’s friends…

5. Because it felt like I knew them: this one is totally subjective (maybe some of the other ones too – hmmm pondering away about the meaning of subjectivity when it comes to my reviews – pondering done with no tangible results) but I almost could be sitting in the same classroom as them, I could laugh at their jokes and smell the burger at the mall. I connected with both characters. Maybe it’s the alternate POV but you really can get into both their heads and it’s honest. When Noah is feeling “hot and dirty” you know it, when he deals with his feelings you know it, when Echo freaks out, you freak out right along with her. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect but I let myself be carried by this story.

Two of my favorite quotes (please keep in mind that this was an e-galley so maybe they have changed…). There are many more but I don’t want to say too too much…

“Luke used to give me butterflies. Noah spawned mutant pterodactyls.”

“We’d read about sirens in English this fall; Greek mythology bullshit about women so beautiful, their voices so enchanting, that men did anything for them. Turned out that mythology crap was real because every time I saw her, I lost my mind.”

So, tell me which upcoming books are you most looking forward to?