Favorite Quotes

'Once upon a time, there was a man as great as the gods...... But even the great can tremble with fear. Even the great can Fall.

Mary E. Pearson, Kiss of Deception

Monday, August 19, 2013

Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry


Grade: 4.5 Butterflies
Series: Pushing the Limits #2 (review for first book HERE)
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: Hardback, 456 pages

Goodreads sumary

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....



This is a really late review. For some reason I just couldn't write this review, it took me forever. I think it's because this book was great and fantastic! I loved it and I can't really say anything else.

The best thing in this whole book was the writing. I don't often talk about writing style in my review, unless it was really bad or really great and Katie McGarry's writing is outstanding! It puts you right in the center of everything, you don't just read the words you feel the words.You can feel what the characters are feeling, you want what the characters want. Those first few chapters that where describing Beth's situation just killed me. The emotions are so raw in this book. And it was amazing to read, never before have I read a book where you are so affected by the emotions the characters are feeling, not even in her first book, Pushing the Limits. It was brilliant!

The plot in this book was so great!! It wasn't a fast paced book or action-packed, but because of the writing you feel so connected to the characters and you feel so sorry for their situations, that you are captivated by the plot. You need to know what happens next for Beth and Ryan. You need to know if Beth will run or not, if Ryan will enter the contest or not. You just need to know what happens next for these characters, which made this book unputdownable. This plot was amazing!

Now the characters. Like I've said the writing really makes you connected with Beth and Ryan. And you felt so sorry for their situations, my heart just bleed for both of them. However, in most reviews you see about this book a lot of reviews didn't like either Beth or Ryan in the beginning. And when I was reading it I liked them both and I was like "how can any one dislike them", then Beth started thinking about Echo. In Pushing the Limits we really get to know Echo and the awful situation she's in and I really liked her as a person. And I hated it when Beth though of her as the "Psycho Girl". Every time Beth thought of that I wanted to go in and slap her, because Echo went threw some terrible things and I hated how Beth used that as a way to hate her. In the end though I liked Beth, I liked how she grew as a person and everything, but I still couldn't love her because of how she saw Echo.

However, I really loved Ryan. He was awesome!!

One of the only major problem I had with this book was the relationship. First off I want to say I do like Beth and Ryan together. I thought they where perfect for each other and you could just feel the chemistry coming off the pages. That was just great to read! However, I didn't feel like it was personal, it was like there wasn't enough depth to it. I felt like that they weren't in each others lives at all. Yes, Ryan know of things about her past, yes Beth know about his home situation, but they never really talked about it. It was like how Beth kept telling him that he and his life was perfect, when they weren't. And she kept saying this to the very end, when she should know that it's not. There was a few scenes where their lives interacted with each other, but I guess I never really read the depth that those scenes where suppose to put on their relationship.

Overall, I loved this book! I thought it was even better than Pushing the Limits. It was outstanding!! And if the relationship had just a little bit more depth to it I would have given this book 5 Butterflies. But even with that, the writing and the plot made this book an outstanding read.

This book got...

4.5 Butterflies
Beautiful, this is a great book. 



Happy reading









1 comment:

  1. Fabulous review Kimberly!! You always seem to put down the thoughts I forget to add to my review. I agree with everything that you put down! Writing is awesome, not overly action packed but you are still swept away with the story! Good job!

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