Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Pushing the Limits #1

"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."

It's hard for me to sum this book up, give it an acceptable review without just telling what the book is about. But I'll do my best.

Two teens with "troubling" pasts. Echo has issues with her Father, Mother, and step-mom. Dealing with the loss of her older brother, who died in Afghanistan by stepping on an IED, and having no memory of the night that her arms were viciously scarred. And with an overbearing father who makes every decision in her life from what classes she takes to who and when she hangs out with. And dealing with a step-mom who used to be her nanny until, Ashley, slept with her dad and got pregnant. Not to mention that all her friends seem to be completely focused on Echo being who she was before the night she no longer remembers. Everything to them seems about getting Echo back with her Ex and being "popular" again. Social status to them is everything, but what Echo really wants is to remember what happened to her and to have her brother back.

Noah is known for being somewhat of a man whore. He is dealing with being shuffled around the system since his parents died in a house fire 2 years before. Struggling with not seeing much of his younger brothers and then facing the prospect of them being adopted and being shut out of their lives forever he starts to make poor decisions when it comes to coping. Echo and Noah's shared psychologist sets Echo up as Noah's tutor to encourage him to do his school work. At first, their plans are just mutually beneficial, they both want to have a look at their files, but they slowly start to fall for one another. Noah's starts as being purely a physical attraction to her, but when he gets to know her better and realizes how much they really do have in common and that she's not just some spoiled rich kid who has it easy.

This is quite possibly one of the more realistic romance novels I've read. Sure I can't relate to either person's situation in the slightest, but this book is full of things that happen to people all the time. The way the romance between the two characters happens is very sweet and romantic, and very believable. Sure there's no fire and sparks the way most YA-fiction romance novels go, but it is more real, and therein makes it more believable. I don't know if I'll be reading the rest of the series. This is one of those book series where all the characters are different in each book. I kind of prefer to follow where the characters from the first book are headed instead of saying goodbye to characters I am still getting to know. I do recommend this book, though, the characters are real, and the dialog is believable, nothing really cliche is said, it sounds like real people talking. It's kind of a breath of fresh air in a sea of overused cliched words.