 |
| Goodreads |
Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
Published August 3rd, 2012 by MIRA Ink
Source: publisher via NetGalley
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Goodreads Summary: "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.
My review:
A teaser and a tearjerker, you book, you. Just what I expected from all the rave reviews I've seen. While it did not leave me an emotional trainwreck as said reviews suggested, it still glued me to the screen and stayed with me like few books did.
I meant what I said up there. The author knows what works and plays those cards-strategically, whenever the plot starts to drop, there's a hot or heartbreaking scene to hook you back up, but also, she plays them well. I was both swooned and teary-eyed.
I liked both Echo and Noah and their stories, and there's no denying the chemistry between them. The appeal of these two is not reduced to the romance only. I found them both interesting individually as well. Echo is struggling to make sense of her messed-up family, but I liked how she outgrows her confusion and learns to put herself first. Noah, on the other hand, reminded me very much of a guy who was in my class for a short time in high school and had similar struggles like Noah. Beth got under my skin, so did Isaiah.
If I don't consider myself mindblown, it's for two reasons. First, Noah's constant appraisal of Echo's boobs. Way too often, just like his calling Echo his nymph or siren. It made it hard to believe that he really cared for her on a more than physical level. Second, the hot-heartbreaking-hot-heartbreaking pattern becomes repetitive and starts to feel like emotional manipulation. Anyway, McGarry does a great job avoiding cheap and cheesy, so I let it be and enjoyed the story.
