Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Series: Pushing the Limits #2
Release Date: May 28 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: Hardcover/egalley
Pages: 456
Source: Library/NetGalley
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Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
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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....

 

 

Well right off the bat I can say that I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as I did the first one. This one was a little less believable. There is some weird, almost obsessive, qualities to the boys in this book. Also, I am team Isaiah for sure.   

This is the second book in the Pushing the Limits trilogy and alternates two points of view just like the first book. Although this doesn’t follow the same couple it does happen after the events in the first one. Dare You To follows around Noah’s friend/somewhat sister from the first book, Beth. We still get to hear from Isaiah, Echo, and Noah. And because this is Beth’s story we of course get much more of her Mom and her wonderful boyfriend, if you remember them from the first one.

When something happens between her mom and Beth so if forced to go live with her uncle and his wife. Throughout this book we learn very disturbing details about Beth’s life and what led her to where she is these days. I liked Beth’s character in the first book, so being able to go more in depth with her was nice. Even though Beth is so hard and fierce looking from the outside you get to see how caring she really is. Some of the decisions that Beth made concerning her mother drove me absolutely crazy. As it did with everyone else in the book. I made for a good story line though.

You also get to see her thoughts on Isaiah. We got to see some of Isaiah’s thoughts in the first book during discussion between him and Noah. I was actually a little bummed when reading the synopsis and finding out it wasn’t a story between the two of them. Although Isaiah is almost creepy in this book with some of the stuff he says to her. Like calling her “mine.”  Speaking of calling her “mine,” we also have a new character named Ryan introduced in this story. He has a habit of using that phrase even though at some moments they were even together as a couple.

Ryan is the all-star ball player. He is the jock/popular guy of his group and he is the complete opposite of Beth. His family life is not nearly as neat and tidy as his family lets on in the public’s eye though.  There is definitely some drama on his end of the story line and his mom and especially dad, made me so angry some times.

On the last day of summer during a dare between him and his friends, he is introduced to Beth. When fate intervenes and they are brought together again the dare continues but it gets harder. Much of the first part of the book is about this dare. Until suddenly he drops the dare because he claims he doesn’t hurt people he cares about.

I was not a big fan of Ryan, although he wasn’t really that bad of guy. He came across very cocky and when always say that he never lost. Even when it came to discussing Beth. I found that weird. However if the book turned out how I wanted it to, it probably would’ve been a little too predictable. The normal story gender roles are pretty much flipped in this story. You rarely see a good boy/bad girl combo.

Loved the writing in this book as I did with the first one and because of the last encounter that Beth had with Isaiah in this book, I can’t wait to read his story. Isaiah is quite a sexy boy in my mind so any story with him as a focal point will definitely be read by me!

 

My Rating:

 

 

 

*This book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.