From The Review Pile: Pushing The Limits

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Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

Whoops! I meant to do this yesterday. Better late than never?

This arrived the other day and while reading the press release I have to say that some parts sound great and some parts not so much. The cover doesn't grab me at all, but I've said before that I just don't like covers with people on them very much, and the tag line isn't exactly inspired but it's not awful either. I also don't like when things are described as "insert title here meets other title", it just doesn't really say anything to me.

Anyway, I'm being picky. The story itself does sound pretty interesting and I do like stories about characters from backgrounds that you don't see very often, in this case therapy. But there are some other points that I find a little lacklustre. The bad boy thing has been done so many times before and I hope that Katie McGarry puts an interesting spin on things. I know that teenage girls tend to adore the idea of bad boys but surely even they get tired of reading about them over and over again? 

It is sold as "dealing sensitively with gritty themes of loss, love and change...a deeply compelling novel which challenges readers to abandon preconceptions and reconsider what 'normal' means" which does sound really good so hopefully it lives up to expectations! I am looking forward to reading it because overall it sounds very intriguing.

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.