Book Review: Dare You To (Pushing the Limits 2) by Katie McGarry

Dare You To ISBN: 9780373210633

” I dare you . . .”

So much of life seems to start with a simple dare.  Ryan Stone and his friends are spending the evening daring each other to collect phone numbers when Beth walks in.  Beth looks hard, and there is no way that Ryan will get her phone number.  Beth, you see, is hiding a secret.  If people knew what her home life was like, they would take her out of it at once.  An uncertain future seems more terrifying than the things that are happening at home, no matter how bad they are.  Soon the two find themselves being drawn to each other in an intense, passionate romance but can they dare themselves to love and be open.

Dare You To is a companion novel to Pushing the Limits, this is the second book in this connected trilogy.  The books aren’t sequels per se, but they tell the stories of various characters.  If you haven’t read Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry, you should do so now.  It’s okay – I’ll wait here.  See? I told you – Pushing the Limits is an intensely awesome contemporary romance, and Dare You To continues in that same vein.

Beth is a sarcastic, difficult character at first.  She has walls, but there are good reasons for them.  But she also is strong and loyal and, when she allows herself to, dreams big things.  In many ways Ryan is a typical jock who knows that he can melt girls like putty in his hands.  But Beth, that is a challenge.  As their relationship grows, they must each allow themselves to be open.

There is some beautiful imagery here: birds in barns, rain water.  I am not going to lie, I am not very romantic and it made me get a little weak in the knees.  But this is more than a romance, it is a powerful contemporary that looks honestly at teen lives and emotions. Crash into You, book 3 in the Pushing the Limits series, is scheduled for release in December 2013.  This series is HIGHLY recommended. Dare You To is scheduled for publication in May of 2013, that gives you plenty of time to read book 1 if you haven’t already.

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Filed under: Book Reviews, Contemporary Fiction, Dare You To, Katie McGarry, Pushing the Limits