ARC REVIEW: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author:  Katie McGarry
Pages:  384
Series:  Bared to You (Companion Novel)
Publisher:  Harlequin Teen
Date Published:  July 31, 2012
Format:  eBook
Source:  Received from publisher via NetGalley
Buy It:  Amazon or B&N

"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.

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Fave Quote:

"The worst type of crying wasn't the kind everyone could see -- the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes.  No, the worst kind happened when your sould wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it.  A section withered and became a scar on the part of your soul that survived.  For people like me and Echo, our souls contained more scar tissue than life."

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Pushing the Limits is definitely going at the top of my favorite reads of the year!  This book was gritty and dark and absolutely amazing.  It's told in alternating points of view, which I tend to enjoy.  I like that I got to know who Echo and Noah really are.  

Both Echo and Noah have been through terrible ordeals in their pasts.  First Echo's brother is killed overseas, and then something happens that leaves her covered in scars and other than the fact that her mom had something to do with it, she can't remember what caused them.  Her father is overbearing and a control freak and she hates her stepmother.  Noah's parents died in a house fire and since then he's been passed from one foster family to another.  He's a dark bad boy that's always getting high and using girls.  All Noah cares about is turning eighteen so that he can get his younger brothers out of the foster system.  When their counselor/therapist, Mrs. Collins, asks Echo to tutor Noah they become an unlikely pair in a mutual attempt to steal information from their case files.  Echo wants to know what happened to her the night she got her scars, and Noah wants to know where his brothers are.

This is an emotionally raw story.  There is so much pain shared between these two, and even with the supporting characters.  Both Echo and Noah are strong characters even though they've been through so much turmoil in their lives.  Even when they break down it's a part of the healing they need to go through to move on with their lives.  The romance in Pushing the Limits is very genuine.  This is no love-at-first-sight-fall-madly-and-deeply kind of romance.  The attraction between Noah and Echo is sweet, but it's better because it's more than physical.  It's also about the way they support and care for each other when they reach the bottom.  It's tough, it's emotional and it's real.  I absolutely adored Mrs. Collins.  She is a great supporting character that gives the story a level of comedy while also moving the main characters forward in healing.  It's immediately obvious that she really cares about Echo and Noah in a way neither of them have ever had with other therapists.  I love that each and every character has major growth throughout the story.  None of them are without flaws and emotional scars, but they are all working to push themselves to be someone better.  Pushing the Limits was a beautifully written, dark and emotional read, and I loved every minute of it.

4 Stars * * * *