Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Synopsis:
"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.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series

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.

Publication Date: July 31, 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Source: Thanks so much to Harlequin Teen for making this title available though Netgalley.


Review:

I can't remember the last time I cried actual tears while reading a book. Pushing the Limits kind of crept up on me. It just kept ratcheting up my emotions (in a good way) and hitting all the right nerves. I ACHED for these characters. I felt their pain. I love a book that kind of beats me up along the way. But don't get the wrong idea, this isn't a depressing book. It's very profound and touching and beautiful. I loved it! Echo is an amazing MC. Omg. Looking back after finishing the book her tra...moreI can't remember the last time I cried actual tears while reading a book. Pushing the Limits kind of crept up on me. It just kept ratcheting up my emotions (in a good way) and hitting all the right nerves. I ACHED for these characters. I felt their pain. I love a book that kind of beats me up along the way. But don't get the wrong idea, this isn't a depressing book. It's very profound and touching and beautiful. I loved it! Echo is an amazing MC. Omg. Looking back after finishing the book her transformation is breath-taking. Book perfection. She has lived through a traumatic event that she can't remember and it defines her life. She's stuck back in that black hole of not knowing and although she wants to move forward she's basically just living a shadow of a life. Trying to be normal. Noah is another great character. He's got his own issues that are holding him back and keeping him from being the person he wants to be. Their mutual school counselor throws them together and they pretty much rock each other's worlds. They recognize the broken parts of each other and are drawn together like magnets. What was great to me was that although these were two dysfunctional characters, their relationship was amazingly functional. They made each other better. The tension just builds and builds in this one and tied me up into so many knots along the way before finally smoothing them out. I love those moments in books where you just keep reading faster and faster to get to the resolution. I have a hard time stopping before that point :) This is such a beautiful and satisfying-to-the-soul kind of read.