Review Take Two: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Title: Crash Into You
Author: Katie McGarry
Genre: young adult, contemporary, romance
Series: Pushing the Limits #3
Pages: 474
Publication: November 26, 2013
Source: Publisher via NetGalley and edelweiss
Rating: 4/5

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

Reviewed by Danielle. 
An absolutely gorgeous novel of love, loss, forgiveness, and adrenaline.

Rachel is the perfect daughter. She’s smart, beautiful, and well respected by her parents’ society friends. If she hadn’t been born as the replacement for a dead sister who was actually the poised, girly, perfect child, everything would be great. Well except for the panic attacks. And the speed addiction in her Mustang.

Maybe Rachel’s not so perfect after all.

And one night, needing to escape from another benefit dinner, Rachel decides to do the first “bad” thing in her life. Following one of her (many) brother’s friends to a street race, she gets involved in the wrong crowd. She ends up fleeing from the cops with Isaiah, a punked up foster kid also caught in the crossfire.

Isaiah needs money. He’s made some spare cash legitimately drag racing before, but facing a time crunch, he decides to make a deal with the devil and enter Eric, the local kingpin’s, street race. When the cops get a tip off, Eric’s looking at the new girl and the guy who sheltered her. Together, Rachel and Isaiah have six weeks to return the $5k Eric lost in the raid, or else.

From there, we embark on a shockingly romantic tale for a book that features armed robbery, drug dealers, cancer, and car accidents. Isaiah and Rachel have great chemistry and an obvious bond from the get go, unlike a lot of “wrong side of the tracks” romances. It does not hurt that Isaiah is hotter than nitrous. I have some quibbles about side plots, (is Zach from any of the previous novels? Because he is seriously underdeveloped in this one,) but for the most part it’s a charming, hot contemporary that’s worthy of five stars.

Except for Rachel’s home life.

Rachel's family is way fucked up. She's the youngest of six and the only remaining girl in a misogynistic nightmare. Despite being a twin and second youngest, West, being less than a year older, only Rachel's curfew is 10. Because she's a girl. I wasn't kidding about the circumstances of her birth and none of the boys ever lets her forget it. Even after her panic disorder comes to light, they still force her to speak at Mom's benefit to be able to break bad news while the family is at a high. The final confrontation with her father is nauseating. And none of that would be a real issue if it were properly condemned at the end. If West weren't the hero of the next book.

Sorry, he's the one who busted out, "Your track record proves you need Ethan and me making these decisions for you." Rachel's huge sin? This "track record"? Leaving halfway through school. Once. Ever. And now being on a date. Well alert the fucking media, we found a goddamn teenager. Her whole family was gross and was the worst thing about the novel.

This is my first Katie McGarry, but not my last. I understand the big complaint with this book is that her plots have become formulaic. Because I can’t comment on that, I found it to be absolutely stellar. I can't imagine, even if you've read the previous stories, not recommending this.

Review: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Title: Crash Into You
Author: Katie McGarry
Genre: young adult, contemporary
Series: Pushing the Limits
Pages: 489
Published: November 26 2013
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 3.75/5

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

With Katie McGarry, you know what to expect when going into one of her Pushing the Limits novels. We all know we will get a swoon worthy boy, a rounded and dimensional female main character, a dramatic romance, and some kind of happy ending when it's all said and done. Along the way there will be ridiculous plot lines (see Eric/$5000), cute moments, cringe-worthy nicknaming, and a lot of fun. 

Despite the flaws to the formula, it really does work for the author. Despite these books always being about 100 pages too long, they are engrossing and readable. The thing is, McGarry makes discovering these new characters so much fun despite the expected (and probably required) happy ending. Crash Into You is finally Isaiah's story -- he has been bit and supporting character before, but here it's his time to shine. And while his story features some of the same struggles as Beth and Noah before him, he really comes to life as a main character. It helps that McGarry writes with real teenage feeling, authenticity, and distinction. Isaiah doesn't sound like Noah before him, and nor does Rachel sound like Beth. 

I will say that for all of McGarry's couples (Noah + Echo, Beth + Ryan), I like these two (Isaiah and Rachel) the most, both together and as individual people. The only problem I have with them once they finally become a couple is the instalove train they immediately board. Oh, boy the instalove. It's frustrating to see an author so talented use such a cheap and easy trick with her characters. Make me see why these two belong together, show me them becoming friends, and then have that blossom, naturally, into more. As much as I like Isaiah and as much as I like Rachel, a love for cars and escaping a street criminal does not a true love make. 

As much as I enjoyed finally getting to read Isaiah's story, it's just too long. Nearly 500 pages for a YA contemporary is straining the limit. (The limit does exist, in this case, Cady.) There is so much that could be cut out, without truly affecting the plot. It's also way too overwrought sometimes. The drama can almost drown the plot, and that gets old, especially when it comes to Rachel's brother's. The final caveat that MUST be mentioned is the nicknaming. "Angel" is slightly better than "nymph" or "siren" but it's just so very very cheesy.

Like the two previous novels, characters from the other books pop into Crash Into You. They play varying levels of importance to the story, but it's fun to get to see Noah and Echo, Ryan, Logan, and Beth interacting with Isaiah and Rachel. For fans of the previous novels, Crash Into You will be just what they expect --- and there is nothing wrong with it. It's a good contemporary novel, if a tad longwinded.

Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Title: Dare You To
Author: Katie McGarry
Genre: contemporary, young-adult
Series: Pushing the Limits #2
Pages: 655 (ARC edition)
Published: expected May 28 2013
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 4/5

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....

Two for two!

McGarry continues to improve and grow as a writer! I'm impressed and happy that this was such a quick, enjoyable real. McGarry's sophomore novel was by turns so fun, and entertaining and sad, in all the right places. A fast read, with great and well-drawn protagonists, Dare You To is an impressive and strong second novel from this promising and talented author. I loved this, from drama to dialogue to plot, it all worked so well together and added up to a really memorable read.  Full of the same complex, flawed characters one has begun to expect from McGarry, the second Pushing the Limits novel was an even bigger hit with me than the first, the eponymously-titled Pushing the Limits. 

A lot of the reasons this was a bigger success than its predecessor with me comes down the main characters. While I liked Noah and Echo (mainly Noah), they each were a bit too dramatic and cliche for my tastes. Their story was compelling enough, but nowhere near the level of Beth and Ryan's interactions.  These were two complete opposites whose attractions felt genuine, and believable. Full of the typical ups and downs of teenage relationships, the sources of the drama between the two that prevent their inevitable coupledom didn't feel like filler. Both have fleshed out personalities and lives beyond each other, and that help to shape these two into real people with incredibly sad histories. McGarry has largely left behind her overwrought drama from the first and learned to craft more subtle - and thus meaningful - conflicts and struggles for her two protagonists to overcome.

 There is a plot in Dare You To, but it really takes a backseat to the evolution of the characters and their relationship. McGarry is more than adept at creating a character-driven novel and both Beth and Ryan's narrations are engaging and distinctive. It's intense and emotional from the start, and the slow reveal of how horrific Beth's life has been pulled all the heartstrings I have. Ryan might have had a better homelife, but these are two characters you want to end up together. It's a foregone conclusion that they will, but McGarry and Beth and Ryan make it a tumultuous ride to that result. McGarry isn't afraid to make hard choices for her characters - as Beth's rejection of Isaiah shows in spades.

McGarry is a growing writer, and it's apparent in Dare You To. All the talent and promise she showed, but didn't quite achieve in her first book has come to fruition with her second. I am immensely excited for this, especially as there is a third Pushing the Limits novel due out not soon enough soon. Crash Into You will be Isaiah's story, and I for one can't wait to see even more improvement from an already talented author. McGarry - you've won me over. I am officially a fan.

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits

Author: Katie McGarry

Genre: young-adult, contemporary

Series: N/A

Pages: 409 (Nook ARC edition)

Published:  expected July 31 2012

Source: publishers via NetGalley

Rating: 3.75/5

"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.

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.

Don't let those 3.75 out of 5 stars fool you - I really, really liked this novel. It's not perfect, but it is a perfectly enjoyable read. Good storytelling coupled with two damaged and likeable, if slightly cliched teenage protagonists, makes for a fast, easy read. Some pacing issues and the predictability of the plot keep it from a higher rating, but really, in spite of its few flaws, this is a good book. Fully engaging, wholly involving without falling victim to instalove or even a real love-triangle Pushing the Limits is teenaged romance with punch.

In a character-driven novel such as this, it takes multiple strong protagonists to carry the novel. Even with the bit of mystery surrounding main character Echo, it is her interactions with co-pilot Noah that drive the plot and the novel. Their banter is amusing, sweet, occasionally a bit saccharine for my taste, but wholly believable. Katie McGarry takes the whole "opposites attract" to the extreme with these two wildly disparate characters, but she makes it work. Their progression from acquaintances to friends to boyfriend/girlfriend evolves in complexity and emotionally. Their attraction and subsequent trials feel natural and authentic to who they are. Two damaged teens with authority issues galore, both Echo and Noah are presented as three-dimensional people and it is easy to root for each - both as a couple and as individuals. While they can come across as being cliched in some aspects of their characterization, especially in the beginning, both these protagonists grow and change over the course of the book.

There were things that grew to irritate me during this 400-page read. Noah's repeated use of "nymph" and his frequent mentions of Echo's "scent" of sugar and cinnamon buns got old, fast. Still, those are two relatively minor quibbles. My main issues with Pushing the Limits came in the form of the pacing. This is a novel that starts out strong  - I was invested and hooked on the story within 50 pages. However, during the middle third of the novel, when the tension should be steadily building towards some kind of main conflict.... it dragged. Majorly. Not a lot happens and some of what transpires between Echo and Noah comes off as needlessly melodramatic, which just made me irritated. Thankfully, the book picks up again before the final pages and I found myself emotioanlly attached to the story and characters.

Pushing the Limits is a creeper, a stealth novel - one of those novels that sneaks up on you (and up in your estimations) as you read it. I didn't realize how much I cared about both Noah and Echo until I realized I didn't want the book to end. I wanted to keep reading - see what these two (and their amusing cast of cohorts) got into next, how they dealt with the next part of their lives. Thankfully, there will be sequel (Dare You To - about Beth!) so I look forward to another strong, solid novel from this promising author.