Pushing The Limits

Pushing The Limits

by Katie McGarry

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.

  

Here it is! The review for Pushing The Limits! As I said in this week’s dare I have never read straight up, realistic, romance novels which, is strange now that I think about it since I am currently writing just that. It freaked me out just a little when I finished it the fact that I had just gone against every fiber of my reading being by reading the one genre I had promised myself I would never read let alone enjoy because the girls that are obsessed with all of those cheesy romance novels and are constantly swooning over the characters drive me out of my mind, and I was not about to be like them. Yet here I am reviewing a romance novel and totally swooning over it. Pushing The Limits was great I loved it every last word of it. The plot was tastefully done, filled with just enough twists and turns but not so much that you got bored. The characters, well, you just can't help but love them. Echo's tragic story tugs at your heart strings while her strong personality and social problems make it so that the reader can still relate to her despite her not so relate-able situation. Noah is much the same although his personality doesn't immediately win you over like Echo's probably because you don't really see his true personality until later on in the book because he keeps his "guard," so to speak, up. It was beautiful to see Echo and Noah develop, learn to love. In addition, probably my favorite development/transformation, was Echo *spoiler alert* eventually finding the courage to bear her scars for all to see despite what it may do to her social status and the storm of rumors and harsh words that the sight of her scars would cause. Sorry for the spoiler I really try not to put any in but I just couldn't help that one. McGarry's writing style impressed me not because of it's intricacy or detail or anything but rather the way that it allowed the story to take over and breathed life into it, so that the focus was not on the words itself but on the intricate story that they wove. Pushing The Limits was a great read over all and I would definitely recommend it to teen girls and readers that are into this kind of genre. I give it a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Briana