A Review for Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry

Posted by Donna
Release Date: May 21st, 2013

Finished Date: January 9th, 2013

Publishers: Harlequinn Teen
Source: For Review 

Format: Kindle

Pages: 304
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

"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.

The Review: Katie McGarry has done it again and created another heart-breaking and emotional story and turned it into something beautiful and truly unforgettable. This time around we see Beth - a misunderstood girl that always tried her best to protect her low life mother, one who always puts Beth last in her life. When Beth takes the blame for a stunt her mother pulls, she's arrested and is rescued by her Uncle, who she hasn't seen for years. Taking her away from everyone she loves and enrolling her in a new school, Beth's Uncle becomes the strict parent she's always needed in her life but he also provides her with the family love she's been missing out on too. It's here she meets good boy Ryan - one whose addicted to dares and Beth just became his latest dare. But will Beth pull the wool over his eyes and beat him at his own game? And can she really re-start her life over - one where she leaves everyone she loves behind or will she die trying to protect her mother?

I haven't had this feeling for ages, you know the one, where you feel compelled to stay up late into the night to finish a book and when you do finish, you can't form a coherent sentence. Well that's how I felt with Dare You To. I so needed a book like this to enter my life right now. I've read a few great books lately but nothing that has completely blown me away and left me wanting more but Dare You To provided me just that, and it proves why I love about reading so much. 

Beth was a favourite of mine from Pushing the Limits, she comes across as bad girl who will happily says what she thinks, whenever she likes. She's honest, protective and feisty and even though she comes across as the bad girl, she's really a girl who puts on a front. She feels like she has no other choice. Now Ryan, he's the opposite to Beth. I'm not sure what I was really expecting from his character - a jock who was mean to people but boy, was he surprising. He was sweet, caring and not the typical jock I was expecting. I ended up really falling him as a character. I also loved Ryan's friends - again they were characters that surprised me because they were so nice. And of course, I can't forget Noah, Echo and Isaiah. Isaiah literally - my heart broke for him. His relationship with Beth is one based on friendship and I know a lot of people were thinking WHAT, when they found out Dare You To was Beth and Ryan's story but I'm kind of glad now, because we get his story in Crash Into You. I'm guessing it's due for release in 2014 - maybe? But hey, I can not wait!

All in all, Katie McGarry's Dare You To oozes with sexual tension, swoon worthy quotes and a love story that leaves a mark on your heart. It's a story about loss, love, sacrifice, betrayal and hope and it's one that will stay with me for a very long time. I highly suggest you pick up some of Katie's work if you haven't before. 

Thank you to Harlequinn & NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book.