Review: Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

Name of book: Pushing The Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Publication: July 31st, 2012 - Harlequin Teen
Genre: YA Contemporary
Source: ARC, provided by publisher...

"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.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter,  New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series.

-- My Rating --

(Not just Five cupcakes, I would give it 10 if I could... :P)

-- My Thoughts --

     I just found one of my most favorite books of 2012!  When you read all of  these positive reviews, and when you adore the cover, you will put some expectations on the book. And how wonderful is it when those expectations are met? I put some very hard expectations on this book and fortunately , the author went way past them.

     Echo Emerson remembers nothing of that day, but since that day she changed from Miss.Popularity into the outsider with the "freaky" scars on her arms. Always wearing long-sleeved sweatshirts, Echo covers her heart the same way she covers her arms. The fence she has put around her heart was always there. Well, up until she gets to know Noah Hutchins.

     Noah Hutchins is known as a girl-using loner, but that's not all he is. As if losing his parents wasn't enough, he has lost his brothers to foster care, too. Noah hates long lasting relationships, and he wants nothing to do with attachments. Well, up until he  gets to know the pretty Echo Emerson.

     Echo and Noah's lives collide when they are both having their therapy sessions. Because of all they have both been through, they have both put up walls around their hearts. And it will take a lot from them to be able to break down those walls.

     Will Echo ever remember what happened that night? Will they ever be able to be normal again? And how much will  Echo and Noah push the limits?  A ride on a roller coaster of  happiness and grief, love and hate, heartbreak and betrayal, in this breath-taking standalone, Pushing The Limits.

     I love this book! I had to wait a day to write this review, just to collect and organize my thoughts, or my review would have consisted of only three words (I love this!) It was the book that I have been waiting to read for so long. I can't say how grateful I am to receive a copy from the publisher, thank you!

     The pace is really quick, and the setting is wonderfully described. Oh, the characters! I fell in love with all of them, well, except the bad ones. Echo is the screwed -up heroine, but she is determinant and stubborn, I would love to have Echo as a friend. I loved Echo's voice.

    Noah is heart-breaking protective, loving, and sexy! The definite dream guy! And Lila, Echo's best friend is so loyal and girly, just a copy of me! What I liked is the characters were not stereotypes, they were distinctive and independent.

     OK, enough babbling. No matter how much I write, I will never be able to express this. I am still recovering from how much I devoured this book! All I want to say is grab a box of tissues and read this! Believe me, if you haven't already read it, then you are missing out a HUGE masterpiece!

     

Here are my favorite teasers:

     "Forgetting every rule I'd created for this moment, my hands wandered up her back, twining in her hair, bringing her closer to me. I wanted Echo. I needed Echo." - Noah

     "My insides had melted when Noah produced his wicked grin and gazed at me like I was naked. Luke used to give me butterflies. Noah spawned mutant pterodactyls." - Echo

     "Her shoulders never shook. No tears streamed down her face. 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...." - Noah