Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Expected publication: July 31st 2012 by Harlequin Teen
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads summary:
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.
Review:
For this review I’m gonna break it down into three parts: The female lead, the male lead, and both of ‘em together.
Echo:
This girl seems to be a mystery wrapped up in a conundrum. Her father is super controlling, she hates her pregnant stepmother and her past is frequently alluded to in her therapy sessions.
Katie McGarry unravels it masterfully, revealing pieces of Echo’s past bit by bit until we finally get the full picture. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I really felt my heart aching at Echo’s perception of how others saw her and her frustration with her inability to recall a horrific night.
Noah:
There’s not much mystery when it comes to Noah; he’s pretty upfront about how he sees the world and what his plans for the future are. He wants legal guardianship of his brothers when he turns eighteen and when it comes to that issue, he sort of wears… what’s the teenage non-alcoholic equivalent of beer goggles? I guess “rose-colored glasses,” but that term just feels wrong for tough-guy Noah.
It’s the one issue where he’s got a bit of a naivete thing going on (because lord knows, he’s a pretty big pessimist). And as with Echo, as his personal struggles were resolved, I was a bit choked up. His love for his brothers comes through that strongly.
L’amour:
For most people this seems to be the biggest draw of Pushing the Limits. I see a lot of words like “steamy” and “hot” thrown around in regards to it.
There’s not a whole lot I can point at when I can say why it didn’t work for me. Sure, Noah’s constant reference to Echo as “his siren” and a tendency to sexualize her got a little annoying, but it was basically typical romance fare. It just wasn’t what I think of as sexy. And that’s okay because the rest of the novel gave me plenty more to enjoy.
Overall rating: 4/5. The romance didn’t work for me, but the characters and their personal struggles were so strong that I didn’t mind. If you’re not in it for love… I think you’ll probably still like this one. I did.
