Review: Pushing the Limits

Author: Katie McGarry
Release Date: July 31, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 392
Series: Pushing the Limits #1
Source: NetGalley
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Summary: 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 muchimpossible.

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 Favorite Lines:

"Luke used to give me butterflies. Noah spawned mutant pterodactyls."

"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 soul 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.” 

Why I Loved It: This books was incredible.  Seriously.  Ok apparently I wrote this review in my head.  I remember writing it.  But apparently I never posted it.  So this review is a little late.  But that doesn't make the book any less incredible.  It was exactly the kind of book I needed at the time.  I've always love contemporary fiction, but my favorites are the darker ones like Ellen Hopkins's books.  This book had just enough grit for me.  Pushing the Limits pulled me in from the very beginning when I got the first glimpse of the existence of Echo's dark past.  Neither Noah or Echo should have mixed.  But there are just some combinations that create a perfection that neither can attain by themselves.  Noah and Echo's horrible pasts made for an incredible and emotional reading experience for me.

Anyone who has read any of my past reviews knows I always go for the bad boy.  Ok most of the time.   But Noah was definitely no exception to my usual tastes.  That boy was smoking!!!  My favorite part about Noah's character though was how complex he was.  He wasn't just a "bad boy."  He had a past too, and his past seriously surprised me.  When I first met him, I thought ok "typical life sucks, who cares, let's smoke some pot" kinda guy.  But as the story moved on, Noah showed so much depth.  His love for his two little brothers and his need to provide and protect them drove him more than anything, and it was so obvious that he was way more than the first impression.  I haven't read a character that I could truly imagine living around me in a long time.  Noah made me love him for more than just being the hot bad boy.  I loved his heart, and his need to protect the people he cares most for.

For once, it wasn't the boy that I couldn't get enough of.  Echo's character was just so raw and real and powerful for me.  I wasn't an observer in her tragedy.  I lived it with her.  We stood together in ignorance as she struggled to figure herself out, to discover what part of her was lost.  There is a night of Echo's life that she can't remember.  It was the night she almost died, and all she knows is that her mom was involved.  She woke up with horrible scars up and down her arms and she can't remember how she got them.   I can't even imagine living with the scars that run down her arms.  Long sleeve shirts in the summer.  No formal dresses.  Rumors surrounding everything I do and everything I am.  Waking to nightmares all the time, and being so afraid to sleep that I live in exhaustion.  

I still can't believe that this book was written by a debut author.  The book was so well-written to me.  There were so many tears and laughs and "awwws" that came from me.  I stayed up outrageously late the last night just so I could reach that last page.

There is no sweet storyline here.  The story will pull so much from you as you struggle with Noah and Echo and their colliding worlds that don't belong together but are beyond perfect when they finally mix.  Contemporary fiction has never tasted so good!