Book Review: Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

By: Katie McGarry

Published by: Harlequin Teen

To Be Released on: July 30th, 2012

Source: ARC from publisher to review

4.5 stars: I really enjoyed it

Pre-Order from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

"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 -quoted from Goodreads

An edgy, true to life, gritty contemporary, Pushing The Limits quickly pulls you into it's story and both of the characters live's and leaves you thinking about them long after you've closed the book. It's a story that's full of triumph, heartbreak, swoon worthy character chemistry and is one heck of an emotional roller ride. Both Echo and Noah have had their fair share of crap (and I say that nicely) to deal with in their young lives. Each one is trying to piece back certain parts of their lives that were tragically ripped away from them and have now put them on paths they never thought they'd be on. One is trying to remember the night she received her horrendous scares that now mars their body and the other is trying to fight a system that not only ripped his family apart, but abused him in the process. Brought together in their quest for truth, and hope, and a case worker/counselor who won't give up on either of them, both of their lives are about to get a lot more crazy as they both push each other to the limits of love, letting go, and moving on.

Told from alternating points of views, Katie McGarry ROCKED her story telling and the male POV! Not many authors have been able to pull off that point of view, let alone two points of view, but Katie just blew the few who have risen to both challenges out of the water. She nailed Noah's voice perfectly. He's the broken boy who acts like he's from the wrong side of the tracks, but there's so much more to him than meets the eye. I loved that Echo was the one who changed his bad boy ways. Oh yes, Noah is "that" bad boy in ever sense of the way, but you understand why, and you get why he doesn't care what those rumors say about him. Echo on the other hand is an emotional wreck, and and it was so heartbreaking to read her story, and to understand why she became that way. I loved how Katie allowed me to get inside both her and Noah's minds to understand their stories, their motives, fears, desires, and needs.

I love a sizzling character chemistry and well developed romance, wow, does Katie ever deliver on that one! Noah knows how to say all the right words and do all the right things, but Echo throws him off his game a bit. I LOVED that Echo isn't one to give up anything in a moment of weakness. She's someone I really came to admire, because of her strength. I loved that Katie created a relationship between Echo and Noah that is layered, and at times it's simplified and other times it's complex. Katie's intense and raw writing made it incredibly easy for me to not only feel like I connected with these characters on a deeper level than I excepted to, she also made me understand them, sympathize with them and at other times she made the mama bear side of me want to protect them from those who have done so much to hurt them. They're vulnerable, deeply scared, looking for answers, in need of love, hope. In each other they find trust, and understanding, as well a future outside of all the stuff they're dealing with now. Being that they both turn 18 and are about to graduate from HS, I liked getting to see the possibilities that Echo and Noah saw before them. 

Despite some of the horrible things Noah and Echo come to terms with, there are also these fabulous moments of triumph that made me throw my fist up in the air and yell yes, and other moments that made me laugh out loud. Katie truly wrapped up so much into this one story, and did so in away that made her story realistic, and relatable. She made me feel every range of emotions while reading her book, and she layered her story perfectly. I laughed, I swooned, I got a little teary eyed and I felt anger. There are characters in this book who will make you wish you should go shadowhunter on them, because of the things they either do or have done prior to this story starting. But for the few horrible characters, there are also fabulous characters who bring light into some of the darkness, like Noah's brothers. I appreciated the fact that Katie allowed me to see this story from so many different angles. Through Noah's brothers we get to see that just, because Noah thought one thing about his brothers and their foster parents doesn't mean that was necessarily right. That's saying something without giving anything away. That was one of the bitter sweet moments in the book for me.

If you're looking for one of those contemporaries that makes me you fall in love with it's characters, provides you with the right amount of sexual tension that makes the pages sizzle, and leaves you wanting more, than you need to pick up Pushing the Limits. On a note caution, this is not a story I'd recommend to everyone, but it's one that I think a lot of readers will take something away from it. There are some sensual scenes, under age drinking, drug use, mentions of sex and abuse in this story, and a lot language. There's also domestic violence and what's like living in a foster care system that fails. It's a true to life story that doesn't sugar coat the crap that happens when a system fails to protect those most vulnerable, and when a parent does more than just try to take their own. It's a story that reveals the selfishness of one set of parents and a self absorbed step parent, the love a set of foster parents has, and learning to trust in someone you think has it out for you, but really they help you find the voice you never thought you had. At the heart of this story are two teens who learn to love and trust again, and make something of the lives they can once again start living.