Book Review: Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Mira Ink (3 Aug 2012)
• ISBN-10: 184845077X
• ISBN-13: 978-1848450776

They say be a good girl, get good grades, be popular.They know nothing about me. I can't remember the night that changed my life. The night I went from popular to loner freak. And my family are determined to keep it that way. They said therapy was supposed to help. They didn't expect Noah. Noah is the dangerous boy my parents warned me about. But the only one who'll listen. The only one who'll help me find the truth. I know every kiss, every promise, every touch is forbidden. But what if finding your destiny means breaking all the rules? A brave and powerful novel about loss, change and growing up, but most of all love

Once upon a time, Echo had it all. Perfect grades, best friends with the popular girls, and had the best looking boyfriend. But almost all of that is taken from her overnight. Echo becomes the freak, the girl who eats in the library because people stare in the cafeteria, the girl who must cover up her arms so know one sees the scars.

Forced into therapy, her new councillor tries to help Echo regain her memory of the night she got her scars. Everyone says it was her mother, but Echo can’t be sure. Her life becomes one big battle to please her father, to be the perfect daughter he once had. But only when she meets Noah, the loner who smokes a lot of pot, does she realise what she missing. Together they both work through their issues and help each other out the other side.

Despite his uncaring and lazy attitude, Noah is fighting a battle of his own. After the fire that killed his parents, Noah and his brothers were placed into foster care. All the wants now is to get out of school and win custody of his brothers so they can be a family again.

Noah and Echo were both damaged in their own way. When they stumble into each others lives, neither quite knows what to make of the other…or whether they can trust them.

Pushing the Limits is edgy and dark with a heart-pounding romance at its core. It was refreshing to read a YA novel with a bit of back bone, and very motivated characters. I was on the edge of my seat with this one, torn between a desperate need to know how it finishes, and wanting it to last forever.

Definitely not one to be missed.