Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Title: Dare You To (Pushing The Limits #2)
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Release date: May 28th 2013
Pages: 462
Genre: Young Adult contemporary romance
Source: BEA - I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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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...

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

I liked Pushing the Limits, but I wasn't as in love with it as most of the YA blogosphere. I really liked the characters' individual stories in Pushing the Limits but had some issues with the romance. So I was both excited and nervous when I started Dare You To. And while I still had some of the same issues as I'd had with Pushing the Limits, I actually liked Dare You To better!

As in Pushing the Limits, the characters in Dare You To are so real you sometimes forget they're fictional. Ryan and Beth are not the easiest characters to like - they're messed up, stubborn, and in many ways it feels like they're just trying to piss of the reader. But even when they're annoying, they're real, and that's what matters. Especially the way we get to know the characters and their pasts impressed me - Katie McGarry is a master of showing instead of telling. So much so that you don't know exactly what is going on with Beth's family until the very end, and you find out in a way that feels completely natural, not just orchestrated to cause drama, which I really appreciated.

The romance had some of the same aspects that bugged me in Pushing the Limits. Again, there is a strong focus on all things physical and the characters' appearance - Beth goes on and on about how hot Ryan is and Ryan mentions again and again how he likes Beth because she looks so different from all the other girls he knows. After a while, it just got old - we get it. And again, I felt like the whole thing was just a little too melodramatic. I don't want to sound heartless, but big romantic gestures and declarations of love just aren't my thing. The ups and downs in Ryan's and Beth's relationship go on a little too long for my taste, mainly because of Beth's stubbornness. I get that Beth's refusal to open up is necessary for the story, but the way she keeps ruining things for herself still bugged me because it made the story drag a little. Other than that, though, the romance is great - Beth and Ryan have amazing chemistry.

Like in Pushing the Limits, though, the romance wasn't my favorite part; I enjoyed the individual stories relating family and personal growth a lot more. I don't want to say too much about this because, like I said, I really like the way we slowly discover the extent of the characters' issues, but both of their stories are fascinating.

I always love companion novels because you get to see previous books' characters again, and Dare You To is no exception - I loved seeing Echo and Noah again! I especially enjoyed reading about Isaiah - I can't wait to read his story next!

Despite the smaller issues I had with the romance, I liked this one even more than Pushing the Limits. I love how Katie McGarry combines such dark issues and messed-up characters with such sweet romance. I can't wait for the third book in this series!

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: July 31st 2012
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary YA; romance
Source: NetGalley
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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.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars


I was super excited to read Pushing the Limits, and when I first started the book, I was loving it. But once Noah and Echo got together, the book kind of went downhill for me.


I loved getting to know these characters as individuals - both of their stories are fascinating! It's impossible not to feel for Echo. She's grieving her brother, who died in Afghanistan a year ago. And she's trying to remember what went down the night her bipolar mother attacked her. And her father is a control freak who has married and impregnated Echo's former babysitter. And she has to deal with the people at school being weird to her because of rumors about what happened to her. Yeah, there's definitely no lack of messed-up-ness in Echo's life, and I could easily feel for her.


Noah's life isn't exactly easy, either. He lost his parents in a house fire, for which he blames himself, and now he's stuck in the foster system. He has two little brothers who are living with another family, and Noah wants to somehow gain custody of them to put their family back together. Both Echo and Noah are majorly messed up, and I loved getting to know them as individual characters. Their stories are fascinating, and their development over the course of the story is really well done.


But I had some issues with the relationship between the two. The first attraction is well-done, and in the beginning, their chemistry is hot - I couldn't wait for them to get together. But when they did, I was disappointed. I'm not even sure why, but I didn't love these two as a couple as much as I loved them as individual characters. I think their relationship moves too fast, and their feelings for one another get too deep, too quickly. Couples that proclaim their love for each other just a few weeks after they get together frustrate me so much. Really, that's one of my biggest bookish pet peeves, and something like that can basically ruin any book, for me.


Most of their relationship is physical. Actually, that's not true - they do say they love each other for other reasons. But their attraction, the only things they ever seemed to think about, were the physical aspects of the story. And I need more than physical attraction to swoon over a romance. Maybe it's just part of his bad-boy image, but the way Noah talks about Echo particularly pissed me off. He kept calling her 'his nymph', 'his siren', or simply 'his'. He got really possessive of Echo - not as in, his possessiveness is an issue that's addressed in the story; it was just a part of the relationship, which bugged me.


I enjoyed most of the other storylines. I enjoyed reading about Echo's family issues (even though her grief is a little underdeveloped and the development at the end is too abrupt, in my opinion), as well as Noah's character growth concerning his family situation. Echo's friends could have used some more depth, but I really liked reading about Noah's friends and fellow foster kids.


I feel bad for saying this, since some of the stuff that happens really is bad, but the book definitely borders on melodramatic. There is so much drama, and some of it does feel forced. It bugged me how every little emotion is made into a huge deal, and how these characters basically refused to confront their issues and try to, you know, be happy.


I did enjoy this book and really liked the character development, but the romance didn't work for me. I do recommend this book, since I think most of the other storylines are good - I just wish the romance hadn't been the main focus. I'm a little disappointed by Pushing the Limits, but I will still be reading the companion, Dare You To, because Beth's character is one I'd like to get to know more.

What are some of your pet peeves in YA romances?