Pushing the limits

**4.5** I really loved the story and found myself loving the characters but in the beginning I didn't like echo until I was slightly passed the middle.

So I just reread this book about a year later. And I have to say I love it way more this time around.
It follows the story of Noah and Echo two troubled souls who are struggling to find normal again.
The characters were wonderful I have to say I'm particularly fond of Noah. I loved how each character was portrayed and that we got to see both their sides since each one had a story of their own to tell.

I never read romance books, but it was free and I needed something to read on the plane and this was pleasantly surprising. Full, complex characters and a sharp story make this more than just a teen romance novel. Definitely worth the read.

3.5 Stars

There were too many characters in this story line, I felt like some of them are not necessary for the story. There were also a lot of extended family not needed for it to work, I loved the idea of them restraining but giving in to the future. Loved Mrs. Collins and I still am in doubt with Ashley.

I felt like the story line was in chaos and the only thing concrete is that Echo and Noah should be together. And then what? I'm a little confused who's who, who's foster parents is who, who this school mate is and all that. Echo's name background was cool though.

Also their storyline was okay, was more into Noah's because of his brothers and how he was eager to get them. –

I might not read the sequel in the near future, but let's see. :)

Not my cup of tea. It was a rather...stale read. I couldn't connect with either of the main characters. Echo was a doormat for almost the entire book, Noah was just dull, I was tempted to skip his POV completely.

What irked me the most was that they were supposed to be these extraordinarily bright kids with a ton of potential (we're told that Echo was a great artist and had great academic results and that Noah was also very intelligent despite doing not so good in school), yet there's nothing to back that up. You can't see it in their interests, nor in their choice of friends, nor in the conversations they have with each other. Their vocabularies are much too rudimentary for kids with above average intelligence and a fairly decent education. But this probably stems from the author's own limitations. I wouldn't have brought this up if she hadn't insisted on portraying them as exceptional when they had mediocrity spelled all over them, academically and emotionally speaking.

Echo's amnesia was so far fetched. And when her father argued with her social worker that she shouldn't push her to remember because the last time she tried to do it she almost “broke her mind.” I LOLed so hard on this one. So that's what doctors use as a technical term these days, “to break one's mind”?

She also had craptastic friends and don't even get me started on her choice of boyfriends. How could a girl that “smart” fall for a guy like Luke? All he ever said to her was something “Oh, babe, you look so hot. You know I love you, babe. Let's have sex. Hahahahah. (Picturing Beavis)” What could he possibly have to offer other than being nice to stare at, because apparently he was “so hot”? Then we take Luke, we add a tragic past, some scars, a bad boy attitude, we tone down the douchebagerry and voila, we have Noah, lover boy number two. Very classy.

Their love was so nauseating. He kept calling her baby this, baby that, “you look so appetizing” etc. Yuck! I couldn't even feel any chemistry between them, let alone love.

The only thing I liked in the entire book was that Noah decided to go against his selfish feelings and not take his brothers away their foster parents, which was actually in their best interest.

Some “lovely” quotes:

I gazed into her beautiful green eyes and her fear melted. A shy smile tugged at her lips and at my heart. Fuck me and the rest of the world, I was in love.I'd fill her up and make her realize she'd always be empty without me.Say the word, baby, and I'll rock your world.Look at me, baby. I know you love me. Three nights ago you were willing to offer everything to me.No apologies. I could kiss you right now.Judging by the look in his chocolate-brown eyes, he meant it.Don't. I think I'm gonna puke. I loved the way his lips turned up–part mischievous smile, part man of mystery....I added a fucked up thought to another fucked up thought and I created a pile of shit.Baby, you've got enough strength and tenacity to takedown drug dealers. You'll be fine.I waited for my pulse to stop beating my veins like a gang initiation, for the blood to leave my face and for my lungs to not burn as I gasped.My siren had sung to me for way too long, capturing my heart, tempting me with her body, driving me slowly insane. Now, I expected her to pay up.

Waves of nausea

Hab die ganze Nacht gelesen,
Das Buch ist gut geschrieben, aber mich stören dann doch so paar Dinge.

Gute Nacht.

It's quite nice, except that the synopsis is too dramatic than the content. I thought that Echo's dad would forbid her to be with Noah, but no! Their relationship is flowing like water, without any big obstacles. But still, it's nice. :)

Where do I start? Seriously, Pushing The Limits is everything I want in a book. Great characters, solid plotting, and the type of story that makes you want to cry and smile in equal measures. This is contemporary writing at its finest. No mermaids, no werewolves. They aren't necessary here. All the reader has are Echo, Noah and their stories, and you know what? It's perfection.

I truly don't believe that there will ever be two characters that I will love so wholeheartedly as I love Echo and Noah. Both broken in their own ways, these two fit together perfectly. Echo Emerson is a shell of the girl she once was. The death of her brother, the loss of her mother, and the inability to remember how she got her terrible scars, all eat at her on a daily basis. Meanwhile Noah Hutchins is lost in his own world. Fighting the foster care system and trying his best not to get close to anyone. If there's one thing Noah knows, it's that getting close to someone means you can get hurt.

Then, they meet. Did I mention the word perfection? There's no insta-love here. Just a slow progression of two people who go from being wary of one another, to slowly trusting one another, and finally to having that pure feeling of contentment every time they're together. Echo and Noah have the type of romance that makes you sniffle and giggle in the same sentence. I'll be the first to admit that I have a massive crush on Noah Hutchins. Don't let his bad boy persona fool you. There's a great guy under there. So great in fact, that he's my new favorite male character. I dare you not to swoon.

What is really impressive about Pushing The Limits though is how well it deals with so many different issues all at the same time. Echo and Noah may be facing two very different backgrounds, but their problems are deep. Problems that range from high school issues, to the foster care system. Their lives are the type of gritty reality that a lot of teens face, and most people don't want to acknowledge. Life for these two is far from normal. It's this that teaches them that sometimes, just sometimes, you have to make your own normal.

There really aren't enough words in the world to describe my feelings for this book. You should know that love is all I have for Katie McGarry and her characters, and that I am so happy that I took the time to meet Echo and Noah. I hear that there's another book coming out from one of the other character's point of view! If Pushing The Limits is any indication of the brilliance that will be within those pages, I can't wait.

I've been confessing a lot as of late... so why not throw a few more confessions out there.

I happen to come across a bunch of books that get A LOT of publicity from readers and bloggers. Being a lover of books you can't help but to get excited too when you see all the excitement EVERYWHERE. However, a lot of those same books entice me only to be epic fail leaving my faith in other readers waning.

Pushing the Limits happens to be one of those books receiving a lot of publicity and hype AND worth every bit of it! It was EPIC.

This is not your typical teen romance but so much more. What you will find is an incredibly well written story with amazingly developed characters in a world that is all too real. You will walk along side Echo and Noah as they each travel down their given path, discovering bits and pieces of their lives in hopes of feeling whole again.

Both of their stories are compelling and filled with horrors you wouldn't wish upon anyone much less children. Echo and Noah realize that they are not exactly the same, yet not so different. With that said they found acceptance in one another and in that acceptance, comfort and courage to fight their demons. Their love is sweet, needed and believable.

In the end you can't help but feel for them. Although you know that things are far from perfect, you hope that there will be a better tomorrow for them, a tomorrow full of normal.

Congrats to Katie McGarry on her wonderful debut! She is officially one of my favorite authors. I cannot wait to read her next book, Dare You To, featuring Beth, one of the many great characters in Pushing the Limits.

My last confession of the day: having just finished Want by Stephanie Lawton and now Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry... I walk away feeling even more weight on my shoulders. I'm praying that continue to be a good mom no matter what and that I never ever put my child through what the main protagonists have been put through in these books.

Peeps, children really are precious gifts and we should treat them as such, whether they are ours or not.

ARC provided by Harlequin Teen via NetGalley

I wasn't too interested in Pushing the Limits, one I don't read much contemporary fiction and two the cover kind of screams romance but I got the ARC at BEA and so much people who had read advanced copies were giving Pushing the Limits positives reviews, including one of my favourite authors so I decided to give it a shot. This novel is so much more than a romance.

Told from alternating points of view Pushing the Limits is about Echo, who ever since an attack she can't remember that left her arm permanently scarred is trying not only to remember what happened to her so she can move on but is also trying to deal with the grief of losing her brother Aires who died overseas on deployment. It's about Noah, who after a fire kills his parents has been shipped from one foster home to another and only wants to be reunited with his little brothers again. It's about two people's struggles with overwhelming issues trying to find hope and happiness.

Pushing the Limits was both a deep and compelling read that had me glues to the pages and desperate to find out how the story ends. Katie McGarry knows how to create realistic characters and she knows how to get me to care about them. Both Noah and Echo are the reasons I did not want to put this book down, not only did I want to find out how their individual stories pan out but I wanted to see their relationship out and to find out what would become of it. Echo is a girl who was betrayed be someone she should have been able to trust above everyone else and because of the aftermath she hides herself from the world and has become a shadow of her former self. Noah is the result of the failings of the Foster Care system, there is barely anyone he will trust and he is both hurt and angry. It took me a while to like Noah; I could sympathize with him sure but because of his reputation for doing drugs and sleeping around with girls it wasn't until about one hundred pages in that I started liking him as a character but I eventually did and in the end he was the character that had me crying and wanting to comfort.

Pushing the Limits is not a fluffy light read but nor will it bog you down and fill you with angst. Pushing the Limits is both real and hopeful and a stand out début.

(Review originally posted here at Fictionally Inclined.)

I wanted to read Pushing the Limits the second I stumbled across it on Goodreads, and thanks to NetGalley and HarlequinTeen, I even got to read it early. This is one book I am happy to promote. From the intriguing synopsis to the steamy cover, it elicited high expectations on my end, and it did not disappoint!

I knew when I was going into this book that there were going to be “issues.” What I did not expect was how much these two really were going through. Echo with her amnesia regarding an event that led to the scars on her arms, her insecurities, and her family; Noah with his brothers and the foster system. This book is told in alternating points of view, and it works very well for the story. I got nearly equal parts Noah and Echo's story (though there was a little more of Echo's, I think). There was also an unexpected side story with Noah's friends Isaiah and Beth, and I'm so excited that Beth is going to get her own book (Dare You To, coming sometime in 2013)! I definitely want to know the whole story there.

I loved the romance between these two. They were not looking for real romance at this point in their lives, and they especially did not expect it of each other. Yet they both found how much they needed each other, especially in the middle of the chaos of their respective lives. The chemistry between the two was spectacular, and the relationship that developed was believable and beautiful (despite the annoying number of times they called each other “baby”).

One thing I appreciated about this book was the true emphasis it placed on family. Noah's love, devotion, and sacrifice for his brothers brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. Echo also had to learn how to deal with everything that was happening with her family, and to realize that maybe things were not how they had seemed to her. Both Noah and Echo had even more growing up to do than they already had in their difficult lives, and I rooted for them, watching them progress every step of the way.

Pushing the Limits was a realistic, but ultimately encouraging, read. Even though there was a lot of heavy stuff going on, the book was never difficult to read as a result. Katie McGarry kept up a great balance of reality, romance, and, on occasion, humor, which made the book immensely readable despite the heavy subject matter being addressed. It also had a more grown-up feel to it than a lot of YA, so I would recommend it to readers of YA as well as adult fiction.

review to come :)