Review: Pushing the Limits- Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Release Date: July 31 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen- Net Galley
Genre: YA/ Contemporary Romance
Rating: 5 Hoots- Top Pick
Reviewer: Angela
Buy From: Amazon/ Barnes and Noble

Sum It Up!  Pushing the Limits will wow anyone with its dramatic story.  

"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.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series

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.  (Goodreads)

Review:

Pushing the Limits is my all-time favorite YA contemporary read. For an author’s debut novel, Katie McGarry has hands down, kicked some butt!  I cried throughout reading Echo and Noah’s story- their up’s and down’s made me feel like I was walking right beside them. And for an author to grab hold of you in such a profound way- it’s simply amazing.

Echo is a girl with a broken past- in more ways than one. She was once the most popular girl had the hottest boyfriend in the school but all that was in the past- a past she cannot remember and the one person who can help her mind release those dark demons from the recesses of her mind is the one person she never thought possible- with the help of an overly nice, untidy school counselor.

Noah is a guy biding his time in the messed up world he was unfairly thrown into. Being a foster kid sucks and being in the system means being separated from the only people he has left in this world- his two younger brothers. A new counselor at school forces her way into his messed up life- he’s grown tired of people of authority spitting out lies of help and justice when they’ve been anything but. And to top it off, he’s paired with the only girl at school who may be more messed up then he is.

Echo and Noah’s worlds become laced together; both have scars, externally and internally and as they move closer, the walls come crashing down. Together Noah and Echo work at putting the pieces of their shattered lives back together.

This is such an emotional book. I found myself wiping my eyes, frustrated because I couldn’t see through the constant waterfall. My heart was torn while reading Noah’s struggle to win custody of his brothers. Even the simple school assembly, Noah took nothing for granted when it came to those he loved. And when he made the worst yet best decision of his and his brothers lives, that killed me. Echo’s break through was hard to read, especially when she realized what role her father played in the whole mess. But I wouldn’t have had this book any other way; bit by bit both characters pushed the limits and came out stronger for it on the other side.

If you’re looking for a book with realistic characters that face real life situations, then look no further. Pushing the Limits will wow anyone with its dramatic story.