Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

This book is part of my 2013 Young Adult Contemporary Challenge.

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Dare You To
Katie McGarry
Series: Pushing the Limits #2
Publication date: May 28th 2013 by Harlequin Teen
Rating: ★★★★★

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If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does....

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all....

Like a lot of people who have been following the series, I was so confused when I read the blurb to Dare You To and saw that this story was about Beth but not about Isaiah. From the little insight we had about Beth's life in Pushing the Limits we already knew Isaiah and her were super close, so it was really not a stretch to think this book would be about them.

Well...

It wasn't.

It was still about Beth. It was still about how the only real concept of family she has is two boys and the basement of someone's house, how dealing with an alcoholic mother who has an abusive boyfriend made her a more than a little skeptical and closed off, how she's used to people only wanting to use her and then forgetting all about her.

And then there was Ryan.

Ryan had what others thought it was the perfect life: he had money, popularity, and a bright future ahead of him. But life at home was not like everybody thought it was with Ryan's parents barely speaking to each other, his dad pressuring him into a career he doesn't know if he wants for himself, and the painful absence of his brother during family dinners.

Beth and Ryan couldn't be more opposites, but as they say: opposites attract.

What follows is Beth trying to evade Ryan's every move, believing that if she lets him get too close to her she's only going to end up hurt. It makes for a very frustrating plot device, because every time you think something's going to finally happen... Beth runs!

It's understandable, though, especially with what's going on in her life. We also learn more about her family and have the introduction of her uncle Scott, who plays a really important part in getting Beth the help she needs. Noah and Echo make an appearance, not letting us forget what we already went through to get to Beth's story.

I actually liked this book a lot more than I did Pushing the Limits. The realness of all the characters and the situations they found themselves in hooked me from the beginning, and I couldn't put the book down until I found out what happened to all of them. It was one fabulous written sequel, and I can't wait to read what comes next.