Release date: May 28, 2013 Harlequin Teen
Synopsis:
“I dare you...”
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...
4.5 out of 5 flames
When I finished Dare You To, I realized why I like the Pushing the Limits series by Katie McGarry. I love how she writes about family. In both these books, she delivers with an intimate view of family dynamics, especially when the “family” unit isn’t necessarily traditional or completely functional.
Dare
You To is the story of Beth Risk, friend and family to Noah and Isaiah
from the first book in the series, Pushing the Limits. Beth meets Ryan
Stone for the first time when he’s trying to get her phone number on a
dare from his friends, and something about Beth captures his attention
at that first meeting. There’s chemistry between Ryan and Beth from the
get-go.
When
Beth’s mom lets her daughter take the fall during a fight with her
boyfriend Trent, Beth ends up living in Ryan’s hometown. The rest is
history. You know the story.
The
most interesting aspect of Dare You To was the portrayal of the
different family relationships. Beth’s mother is all kinds of messed
up. When Beth is sent to live with her Uncle Scott and his “not exactly
on board with the whole idea” wife, she’s given a very different kind of
life. What will she choose--a more stable life with her new family or
will she choose her mother and the friends she left behind?
Ryan
Stone has family problems too. Not the same as Beth’s problems, but
every bit as difficult. He’s facing some choices too. Groomed to be an
athlete, he also excels as a creative writer, giving him more options
than just professional sports and causing conflict with his father.. And
then Beth comes into his life, forcing some decisions regarding his
future and his own family.
The
secondary characters supported the story well, especially Mark, Ryan’s
brother and Ryan’s friends from his team. I was glad to hear that
Isaiah would be getting a book, because my heart cracked a little for
him in this story. I’d like to see him get his own HEA.
Writing
a bad-girl / good-guy romance isn’t easy but Ryan and Beth are quite
believable. I loved how they both found their way over the course of the
book and that made their story every bit as compelling as Noah and
Echo’s story in Pushing the Limits. As a matter of fact, before I
started reading I thought Ryan couldn’t possibly be as interesting as
Noah, and it turned out I liked both Ryan and Beth just as much, if not
just a tiny bit more.
Dare
You To is a poignant follow-up to Pushing the Limits. The second half
of the book was really well paced and very satisfying. The heart of the
story is Beth and Ryan, as they fall in love and learn to trust
themselves and each other in the process, and by the end of the story,
you know they do. It definitely left me with a good feeling.
I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.
Contains: violence, drug use, and sexual content.
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
