Review: Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits #1) by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
My rating: ❤❤❤❤❤
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release date: July 31st, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Summary: After one horrible night that she can’t even remember, Echo Emerson goes from popular and dating jock Luke, to being gossiped about and hiding in the library at lunch. All she wants is for everything to go back to normal.

   Noah Hutchins is a classical ‘bad boy’; bad attendance, different girl every week, smokes pot. But he also has a secret, and he seems to understand Echo like no one else does.

   What happens when the two meet?

My thoughts: I think this might be one of the best books I’ve read this year. Maybe even one of the best books I’ve read ever.

   I got this by my best friend a while ago, and I’ve been planning on reading it, but other books came first. I have no valid reason for putting this book off, and I admit that now, I regret it.

   I’m going to start with Echo. Echo is feisty, not afraid to tell Noah off, although using sweeter words, and even with what she went through, she’s not broken. Sure, she has some serious issues, but she’s not a hopeless case. She is always striving to make her father proud, which results in perfect attendance and good grades, and she has some issues with authorities. She has a pretty tense relationship with her father and stepmother, and blames Ashley, her stepmother, for breaking up her parents. Throughout the book, she is trying to choose between the normalcy she misses, or following her heart, even if it means ‘not normal’.

   She’s trying to remember what happened that night, but is also terrified to remember. I think Echo was a very real, relatable character. Although I hope not many people have the same family-issues as Echo, I know that many people have family-issues, and I think it was really inspiring read about how she was handling hers, and I really admire her for how she was dealing with everything. When many people probably would’ve given up, she continued to fight to get her life back together and to remember that night.

   Noah doesn’t exactly have the easiest life either, but I’m not going to say what his main problem is, because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I think that his not-so-easy life is why he started smoking pot and possibly why he started using girls, too. Throughout the whole book, I felt sad for him, and for everything he’d gone through, and was still going through. He doesn’t care about school, and therefore skip class a lot. He understands Echo, and he doesn’t judge her or jump to conclusions like everyone else does.

   Throughout the book, they both really grew, and I felt like I was going through it all with them, like I was there with them. I was truly captivated.

   The plot was good, it moved along pretty quickly, never got boring, and I loved the dialogue, especially between Echo and Noah. It was entertaining and captivating, touching and taught me a thing or two.

   And the message, that no matter how broken you are, you can always fix your life. Just because you have some setbacks doesn’t mean you should give back. Life can always get better, if you just try. You don’t have to do everything on your own; it’s okay to ask for help.

   So I’d strongly recommend this to everyone, but especially teenagers who, like Echo and Noah, has ‘issues’. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

Praise for Pushing the Limits:

“A riveting and emotional ride!”—New York Times bestselling author Simone Elkeles

“McGarry details the sexy highs, the devastating lows and the real work it takes to build true love.” —Jennifer Echols, author of Such a Rush

“An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!”—Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of Alice in Zombieland

"Pushing the Limits is an accomplished debut, a perfect choicefor readers who thrive on edgy, riveting storytelling." --Bookpage

"Real aches and real love in Katie McGarry's sensitive, complex, always surprising, really excellent first novel." -- School Library Journal