BOOK REVIEW - DARE YOU TO by KATIE MCGARRY - PUSHING THE LIMITS # 2 - HARLEQUIN TEEN

By: Katie McGarry

Published By: Harlequin Teen

Released : 28th MAY 2013

Details : ARC Digital , 479 Pages

RATING: 5 I DARE YOU TO STARS!!

Blurb: Goodreads

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...



BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

I knew Beth’s story was going to rock my heart. What I didn’t know until I read the blurb and saw the book cover, was Isaiah wasn’t going to be in Beth’s heart the way he wanted her to be.

Assumption. Much.

I have to say, after reading Beth’s story, Isaiah’s book, ‘Crash Into You’, book # 3 can’t come quick enough, this book has left my heart wide open ...waiting to read Isaiah’s HEA.

It won’t close up until I read his story.

Isaiah really made my heart break in this book, the way Katie wrote Isaiah in ‘Pushing The Limits’, had me loving him. I loved his passion for cars, his friendship with Beth, his loyalty to Beth.

In this book ....... oh, be still my bleeding heart.

“I’m okay with silence, Beth.”

........ ”I need you.”
“I’m here.” And we sit in silence.


Isaiah just had me so upset over his love for Beth. I cried for his protectiveness, his love, his strength and loyalty....for the best friend he wants so bad.

For Beth who he thinks he wants...needs... more than a friend.


His eyes shut at the word friends and his jaw jumps as if I said something to hurt him. But we are friends. He’s my best friend. My only friend. 

Katie had me so torn between Ryan, who is this great guy who through a dare meets Beth, and Isaiah, her best friend.


This girl is sexy, but she’s also a handful. If I hadn’t accepted the dare, I’d toss her into avoid-like-the-plague territory. 

Beth being Beth makes it very hard for her walls to come down. She has Noah and Isaiah and her mess of a mother ,and now she has an uncle who has come to claim her...to in effect help save her... his name is Scott.

I LOVE Scott, he has an understanding of Beth’s life. His much older brother is Beth’s dad. Scott the boy who made good from the only thing he knew how to do, baseball.

Ryan and Scott have something in common, a love of baseball.

Ryan has a lot of skeletons in his closet he must free himself from.

Scott has tried to free himself of most of his skeletons, now he has Beth’s closet to help her clean out.

Big job!

Beth is stubborn, a fighter, loyal to those she can trust, except now love gets in the way and messes with Beth’s anger and distrust, messes with her plans.

Ryan is just a beautiful guy. I have to tell you, Katie had to convince me that Isaiah was not the guy for Beth. I soooo wanted Isaiah to be Beth’s ultimate saviour because Isaiah has always been there for Beth.

Her rock.

Her friend.


“When you kiss guys, do they drop dead from the venom that spews out of your mouth?” 

Ryan is who Beth needs. The life she needs. Isaiah has things he must do to free himself.


I’d love to kiss her right now. Not the type of kiss that makes her body come alive. The type of kiss that shows her how much I care - the type that involves my soul. 

I loved having Noah pop up. He and Isaiah are such loyal guys to have on your side. Even when one of those guys is making the reader grab for tissues as he wants so bad to be Beth’s ‘Knight in Tattooed Armour.’


With one touch, Isaiah could ground me. Keep me from floating away with his arms as my anchor. His steady beating heart the reminder he would never let go.


As I walk past him, Isaiah wraps a hand around my arm. “One more thing.” His eyes darken into shadows. “Call me. Anytime. I swear to you, I’ll answer.”

Gahhhhhhhh!! You are killing me Isaiah.

I loved all the sub characters, Chris and Lacy. Logan, he is an interesting character I want to know more about. Does he have a story to tell us ...Katie?? I feel like you were hinting to me that he does. Or do I just want to read one?

Strap yourself in, ‘Dare You To’ with it’s very apt title will have you grabbing for the tissues, your heart can’t help but grieve for what unfolds in this book and you will be very impatient for ‘Crash Into You’, especially when Katie gives you a teaser at the end of ‘Dare You To.’

There is going to be a scene in this book, a few, but one in particular, that will have you just loving Ryan that bit more, and you will probably go ‘Awwwwwwwww’ out loud and that...... is when you will know why Ryan won you over.

I read this book , January 10th and I really haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I just adore Katie's writing. She has such a way with pulling the reader in and not letting us go until the last page. 

I am patiently.....or not so patiently waiting for Crash Into You. Due for release November 2013.

For some reason I have this thing about Isaiah. 

Well done Katie, I might just well be a Katie McGarry addict.

Michelle