Fighting Dreamer

My Thoughts: Pushing the Limits has achieved what not many books have been able to do - it made me cry. More than once. 

This is a captivating young adult contemporary novel from a promising debut author. Katie McGarry has a great voice and a natural sensibility for writing damaged characters. 

Both Noah and Echo were amazingly drawn. Echo is beautiful, like her namesake the mythological nymph, but she is hiding scars, both inside and outside. And Noah is the same as Echo, only he keeps his "scars" well-hidden behind the facade of the tough, bad boy. 

They were damaged, but not beyond repair. They were survivors, fighting for something better, at first unknowingly, then later deliberately reaching for each other. Their slow healing - alone and together - was real, painful and beautiful.

The other great thing about Pushing the Limits were the side characters. Beth, Isaiah, Aires and the truly crazy, but at the same time surprisingly capable Mrs. Collins are all going to stay with me for a long time. On the other hand, I couldn't stand Echo's parents, their behavior didn't help Echo at all. They saw her struggling, but utterly failed to help her. Thank God for Mrs. Collins! She was exasperating, but her methods worked for Echo.

The story - particulary Noah's - pulled my heartstrings and had me in tears. Still this book wasn't as heavyhearted as I was prepared for. The tears were mostly the results of the powerful writing style. Reading the blurb I imagined a slightly different story. A more darker one. And I admit I would have liked it a touch more darker. I didn't feel the author pushed the characters to their limits.

And there were a few things about Echo's past, and the way she reclaimed her memories, that didn't make sense to me. And I'm not saying that I didn't like it, but the ending was just a little bit too rosy.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed Pushing the Limits, and I'll definitely read the next book, Dare to You. It's going to be Beth's story and from the preview it looks like SPOILER***she is not going to end up with Isaiah.***SPOILER end

Title: Pushing the Limits 

Author: Katie McGarry 

Blurb from Goodreads: 

"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. 

Published:

August 3rd 2012 by Mira ink

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