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

Dare You To 

Author: Katie McGarry

Series: Pushing the Limits
Pages: 479

Genre: New Adult

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Amazon pre-order: Dare You To

Release Date: 7^th June 2013

Synopsis: (Goodreads)

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. "Dance with me, Beth."

"No." I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again....

"I dare you..."

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..

Review: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

We first meet bad mouthed, troubled Seventeen year-old Beth Risk in Pushing the Limits and I thought Dare You To would actually be Beth and best friend Isaiah’s story but we see her paired with Baseball jock, Ryan Stone.

At the beginning of the story we see Beth take the blame for something she didn’t do and has been placed in the custody of her rich uncle Scott who she hasn’t seen in quite a long while; their relationship is tense but he is just what she needs and he is determined to set her on the straight and narrow, starting off by attending school and setting strict rules.

Beth drove me bonkers! I don’t think I have come across a more stubborn, defiant and inflexible character in a while; it took me a long while to take to her feisty approach, in saying this, the life she has had to live and her upbringing and past has played a big role in her attitude and her self-doubt but I wish she could have budged just that little bit and respected those she was closest to and herself a lot more than what she did.

Ryan Stone doesn’t believe in losing and after he loses a dare from his friends to get Beth’s phone number he is determined to pursue her in his quest to win, you could see from the onset the little game he played with his friends wouldn’t go down well but he didn’t take into account the attraction he would feel towards her. I really liked Ryan as a character, he was protective and supportive and the perfect person to go up against head-strong Beth.

This couple couldn’t have been more different, but they both knew pain – for varying reasons and seeing them work up a trust and understanding was really sweet! Ryan helped Beth to heal, she was broken and he needed a bit of support himself. Despite not being Beth’s biggest fan, I did enjoy the interactions and the smexy chemistry between this unlikely duo.

I really liked the secondary characters, in particular Lace, I enjoyed watching her friendship with Beth grow. My heart broke for Isaiah and I really enjoyed the progression of the relationship Beth came to have with her Uncle Scott – it was also nice to catch up with Echo and Noah again.

A small gripe I had was the way the situation with Ryan's brother was handled, it was a let-down and overplayed - his parents were unbelievable in their thinking and in this day and age it actually made me cringe.

I enjoyed Dare You To but I didn’t love it as much as Pushing the Limits, maybe it was because of my feelings towards the infuriating main character who I didn’t have a connection with although I did sympathise with her but other than this I enjoyed this story. 

Overall, Katie McGarry’s writing is engaging; Despite my issues it's a great addition to the Pushing the Limits series - it had a lot of drama, pain and emotion that kept me entertained, I am definitely eager to read more books by this author.

About the author: KATIE MCGARRY was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie would love to hear from her readers. Contact her via her website, katielmcgarry.com, follow her on Twitter @KatieMcGarry, or become a fan on Facebook and Goodreads.

Books in Order:

Pushing the Limits

Crossing the Line

Dare You To

Crash into You