Pushing The Limits Review+Giveaway

Author: Katie McGarry
Release date: July 31, 2012
Pages: 384
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
How I got it: For review from publicist 

"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. 

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.

With two solid characters and a suspense-filled plot, Pushing The Limits proved to be a solid contemporary read, though I definitely didn't love it nearly as much as some people have.

Not that there weren't minor things for me to nit-pick at. Mcgarry's writing was the victim of my picky tendencies this time. Some things just didn't sound right to me, and some of the things Noah thought felt kind of strange and/or awkward. Also, I felt like the time-jumps felt strange and left me wondering how long it had been since the last chapter. Because of said time-jumps, it was hard for me to tell how much time Echo and Noah had known each other and if their insta-love was as insta as it sometimes seemed to be.

So yes, that threw me off a little, but the rest of the book kind of balanced that out. I liked both Noah and Echo as individuals and I liked them together, too. The ending was totally predictable but also what I wanted, so I was happy.

I think Mcgarry has a great future in the YA world, especially as her writing develops over the course of her career. Pushing The Limits proved to be a pretty good start to that career.

Plot: Alright.

Characters: Liked them.

Writing: Not the greatest, in my opinion.

Ending: Predictable but nice.

Mature content: Some mentions of sex, swearing, and violence.

Overall:

I may or may not talk to you instead of reading, that depends if I like you.

I found parts of Pushing The Limits absorbing and exciting. Other parts? Not entirely. If it still sounds like something you'd enjoy, check it out from the library.

Other reviews:

Katie's Book Blog

Good Books and Good Wine

Novel Thoughts

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