Bookaholics book club: Dare you to

Dare you to by Katie McGarry

Pushing the limits book two

Available 7th June 2013

www.miraink.co.uk

What's it about?

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....

Other books in the series
Pushing the limits - Book one
My review

(4.5)

I absolutely loved Pushing the limits last year, Katie McGarry's debut book. Dare you to is more of a companion book rather than a sequel as its centred around a secondary character from the first book and some new characters. I really enjoyed Dare you to, I just didn't feel quite the same amount of tension as I did with the first but it was still brilliant. Katie McGarry has a brilliant way of creating complex characters and then making it easy for you to understand them, she effortlessly brings forth their emotions and fears onto the page, so every time they do something 'questionable' you just think 'Yeah, I can totally see that.' Beth and Ryan are not perfect characters and their love story is not a perfect one either but that's what I like about the authors books, because sometimes falling in love with someone isn't a smooth ride, sometimes you don't even realise it's happening and she does a wonderful job of capturing that imperfect love story which makes all the more brilliant.
Beth and Ryan are both great characters and as we delve into the book we find out more about them, what's happened to them in the past, how they've become how they are. The whole story is told at a gripping pace that keeps you from wanting to put the book down.
It's certainly one I would recommend and as far as I'm concerned Katie McGarry is one of the best YA contemporary writers out there at the moment.

My thoughts on the cover
The couple on this cover, almost kissing in the rain look so freakin hot and I love the image, but I have to be honest, I don't love the title font, its too big and has an old cheesy horror movie feel to it, its even dripping like the book should be scary when actually it's a beautiful story.

Sorry, no favourite quotes as I read an uncorrected proof copy.