Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Release Date: May 28, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: E-galley
Source: NetGalley
Series: Pushing the Limits #2
Pages: 462
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. "Dance with me, Beth."

"No." I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again....

"I dare you..."

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....

Dare You To is one of those books I’ve been all grabby-hands about since the moment I finished its companion novel Pushing the Limits last year.  Katie McGarry’s debut gave me a couple to root for in Noah and Echo, but I knew I’d love to hear Beth’s story.  Turns out, not only do I love Beth even more than I did before, but I think Ms. McGarry has added herself to my “Insta-buy List” from this day forward.

Beth Risk is the definition of someone who makes you work for it.  The girl has had a hard, gypsy-style life of moving and hiding and taking care of her mother. Her dad left them both long ago, for something that Beth claims was her fault, and she’s been the one to take care of them ever since her dad’s brother Scott abandoned them to become a Yankee (like the baseball team, not the Doodle Dandy).  Ryan Stone is a golden boy of Groveton—he’s a baseball star, his dad’s well-known and well-respected, and his older brother helped his high school football team win many a game.  However, he’s got his own family troubles hidden beneath the layers.  He and his buddies are in a constant Dare War, which is how Our Boy meets Our Girl in a Louisville Taco Bell.  The rest, as they say, is a compelling, heart-meltingly romantic tale of redemption, wall-busting, and love with a capital L (for “Lawd, this book is h-o-t”).

I really, truly adored Beth in Pushing the Limits.  It was so clear that she had a big heart and that she needed someone to love her the way she deserved to be loved, but she wouldn’t and couldn’t tear down those walls of hers.  I spent so much of Dare You To with a deep crease between my eyebrows and a lump in my throat.  Dear, sweet Beth.  I wish I could hug her and tell her it’s not her fault.  I wish she had had a true childhood without any of the harshness that she saw.  I felt for her in a deeper way than I previously did for Noah and Echo.  This isn’t to say that I didn’t care about them, but there’s just something about Beth that gets under your skin and demands your attention.  I blew through this in one sitting, and I could’ve read 450 more pages easily.

And Ryan.  A jock with depth.  One of my favorite aspects of this novel was its turn on the tradition of bad boy/good girl into bad girl/good boy.  That’s something I don’t see often enough, and it’s done so well here.  Ryan and his buddies are boys in all the boyiest ways, which you know I love to bits.  Have I said that I love well-written male POVs before?  Oh, only about a gazillion times? Well, all right then.

Honestly, I have been in such a reading rut lately.  Nothing has been able to bust me out of it.  I’m so happy to say that Beth and Ryan may have been just what I needed, so thank you Dare You To for being the book I needed.  The only problem?  Now I have to wait for Isaiah’s story!  Dang it, McGarry!

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Release Date: July 31, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Pages: 384
Buy: Amazon / Book Depository / IndieBound
Description: Goodreads
So wrong for each other...and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

This is contemporary YA in its most vulnerable, rawest form.  This is romantic YA at its most passionate, its most genuine.  Pushing the Limits unrelentingly grabs hold of your heart and doesn’t let go until the very end.

  

Honestly, I didn’t know how I was going to feel about Pushing the Limits when I picked it up.  I have a bit of a history with Books About Issues, which is my way of saying that they aren’t always my particular poison.  Turns out, I shouldn’t have worried.  This is more a Book About People.  Those people happen to have some issues to handle, but the important thing to note is that neither Echo nor Noah want their issues to define them.  Echo has been through such a terrible trauma that she’s repressed the memory, and her hands and arms bear the scars of a horrifying act that she can’t even remember.  Echo is also artistically gifted, whip smart, and stronger than she realizes.  Noah lost his parents in a fire, only to become separated from his two younger brothers due to technicalities in the foster care system.  He’s also a fiercely loyal friend with a heart as big as all outdoors.  While they are thrown together by their shared counselor, it’s not surprising that they’re drawn to one another, even if it takes them a while to notice what’s going on between them.

And what is going on between them is happy-making on so many levels.  Katie McGarry deftly alternates the points of view between Echo and Noah each chapter, and seeing their feelings develop in their own words is simply divine.  Their voices are distinct, matching their personalities exactly as they are depicted.  And they are so dang hot for one another, I swear my book nearly burst into flames so many times.  I particularly enjoyed Noah’s chapters because I love a well-written male POV.  His growth beyond the silent stoner kid with his hair in his eyes delights me, and the way he melts Echo and melts for Echo delights me even more.  He makes it his goal to be the best he can be, not just for her but for himself as well.  

This isn’t to say that I didn’t like Echo as much, because oh me, I am all about the Echo.  Girl has been through more sadness in her few years on this planet than most people see in their entire lives, and she still manages to, you know, keep on living.  I love every moment when she forgets her scars.  I love every time she doesn’t let anyone dictate her friendships.  I love when she realizes that Noah Hutchins, the baddest bad boy in her class, has inspired her to become a stronger, fiercer Echo.  I just really, really hope she catches a break at some point.  I mean, besides getting to make out with Noah.

Pushing the Limits is honest, authentic, and so very hot.  Katie McGarry made me grin, blush, and weep—sometimes all in the same chapter!  This is a must-read for anyone who loves character-driven contemporary YA.