Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Expected Publication: July 31st | Harlequin Teen
Age: YA Contemporary
Pages: 384
Acquired:  Borrowed  [ARC]
Overall:
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"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.

My Thoughts:
When I first read the summary of this book, I had my doubts that it would hold as much depth as it promised. And boy I was wrong!
This story is told from the perspective of both Echo and Noah and though it feels like, from the summary, the focus is on Echo, it was Noah who won me over with this book. His story and heartbreak broke my heart that I actually shed tears a few times through out.

The focus on this book isn't just romance, but there is some and it was hot, but family and trying to move on from the past yet you can't let it go!
Echo had experienced something in her past that even she doesn't quite understand and therapy isn't helping like it is supposed to. But when she gets a new therapist and happens to run into Noah, her past catches up with her quickly but she isn't quite sure she can handle it.
Noah's past seemed, from the beginning, to me, to be a bit more... drastic and scary. Not to give too much away; fighting for his brothers brought me to tears every time he was near them. I related to his side of the story more. 
Their love for each other was strong and their friends just proved to be warriors as well as enemies in a lot of their battles to stay together and to fight for their past.
I loved Noah's friends (and Beth will have her own book next). Echo's friends were a little less friendly, especially Grace, but fortunately she did have that one friend who stood by her side from the beginning, especially when Echo decided to finally expose her scars. (Both physically and emotionally.)
Aside from the main characters, their therapist was my other favorite character in the book. I loved the way she cared for Noah and Echo and pushed them the right way, never losing site of her responsibilities and what was right for them!


This is a contemporary style book that has the romance, and the real life issues, but still contains that lovey-dovey that we all love! You'll laugh, cry, get royally pissed and then finally sigh when you read the last chapter--maybe get a little choked up as well.


I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read Beth's story!

Plot:
Characters:
Ending: ½
Writing:
Cover: ½

Author Info:
Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.
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