Young Adult Romance "Pushing the Limits" by Katie McGarry

Title:  Pushing The Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher:  Harlequin Teen
Publication Date:  August 1, 2012
Genre:  YA Romance
Format:  Kindle 503 KB  |  Paperback 304 pages

Buy this book on Amazon:  Kindle Edition  |  Paperback 
Author's Website:  http://www.katielmcgarry.com/ 
Author's Goodreads Profile:  Katie McGarry

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

"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.

My Thoughts...
Ok, I am a fickle book reader and reviewer...every time I read a new book that I like it's my new favorite!  I know it's just the rush of each story and the emotions that get tied up into it, but I really did love this book.  Noah is just awesome...one of my favorite book teenagers and yes, I realize that I also say that a lot!

Echo is an emotionally and physically scarred 18 year old.  Something traumatic happened to her and she doesn't remember what it was.  She has bits and pieces of the memory, but her family doesn't want her to remember for fear that the memory will break her emotionally.  Noah has his own traumatic past.  He's a foster kid with a bad reputation that is mostly unwarranted.  He's had trouble in most of his faster homes, but what he wants more than anything is to graduate and get custody of his younger brothers.  

Echo and Noah are both outcasts in school.  She is the crazy freak who always wears long sleeves and gloves.  He is he bad boy stoner.  They share a school therapist, Mrs. Collings.  Echo wants to earn some money to fix her brothers old car and Noah needs to improve his grades so Mrs. Collings sets Echo up as Noah's tutor.  By forcing them together she is helping each of them, but she doesn't expect them to work together to get private information from her that will help each of them with their problems.  Echo wants to remember what happened to her and Noah wants more than supervised visits with his brothers.  They also didn't expect to fall in love.  Will they be able to help each other get past all the bad stuff in their pasts so they can move toward a better future?

There is a lot of emotion in this book and it did have me in tears at times.  I loved the characters and I knew that I was going to like the book from the very first line.

“My father is a control freak, I hate my stepmother, my brother is dead and my mother has…well…issues. How do you think I’m doing?”

I highly recommend this book if you like YA Romance that's bordering on New Adult.  It's a great story and it's really well written.  It seems like a lot of the books I have been reading have been written with alternating 1st Person POV's and this one was like that.  It pretty much alternates from chapter to chapter with Echo and Noah.  I didn't like this method for a long time, but now I almost want all the books I read to be that way so that I get a little glimpse into each character that goes a little deeper that a 3rd person POV.

I know that there is going to be a 2nd book in this series, but it doesn't center around Echo and Noah. Their part of the story is wrapped up in this book pretty nicely.  The next book centers around Noah's foster sister Beth.  I didn't care for her as much in this story so I hope she redeems herself in the next book!  I know that I will be reading it for sure.