Review: Take Me On by Katie McGarry

Published by: Harlequin Teen
Release date: 6th June 2014
Series: Pushing the Limits #4
I got it from: NetGalley
Goodreads summary:
Acclaimed author Katie McGarry returns with the knockout new story of two high school seniors who are about to learn what winning really means.

Champion kickboxer Haley swore she'd never set foot in the ring again after one tragic night. But then the guy she can't stop thinking about accepts a mixed martial arts fight in her honor. Suddenly, Haley has to train West Young. All attitude, West is everything Haley promised herself she'd stay away from. Yet he won't last five seconds in the ring without her help.

West is keeping a big secret from Haley. About who he really is. But helping her-fighting for her-is a shot at redemption. Especially since it's his fault his family is falling apart. He can't change the past, but maybe he can change Haley's future.

Hayley and West have agreed to keep their relationship strictly in the ring. But as an unexpected bond forms between them and attraction mocks their best intentions, they'll face their darkest fears and discover love is worth fighting for.

My review:
Just when you think she must have reached her peak, Ms McGarry goes and does it again, showing us that she still has much more up her sleeve to offer. 

Pushing the Limits is the very best type of series. Each book could, theoretically, be read as a standalone - each is a self-contained tale of two people. In a way. But with McGarry it's all about the peripheral characters, and that's where you need to get intimate with the series as a whole. Sure, you could just read about West Young, the poor rich boy with attitude, but unless you've read Crash Into You, you really won't appreciate all the references to West's sister Rachel. And you can't get the most out of Crash Into You without having first read Dare You To. And so on. With each book in the series, McGarry adds a little more to her world, creating a complex ensemble cast that make the series as a whole worth much more than the sum of its parts. 

It's not just about the different couples either. With each book, McGarry gifts us with a little insight into a different kind of life. Crash Into You was a crash course in drag racing, and Take Me On is a slice of the world of cage fighters. Now I'm not into fighting, either inside or outside the arena. Violence does not appeal. However. McGarry is very good at her job, very good indeed, and so I found myself completely sucked in by her little band of fighters. The intense loyalty these guys (and girl!) feel for their family, their strength and tenacity, the way they deal with their harsh life and still come out as deep-down good people, it's hard not to love them. 

Hayley is an interesting character, hard to get close to as she lives inside her own head a lot of the time and won't let anyone else in, but McGarry draws her out bit by bit, and is rewarded with an amazing MC. This kick-boxing girl, who's been through hell and is still finding her way out of it, she's a strong one, but she doesn't realise just how strong. She doesn't get at first that accepting help isn't necessarily a sign of weakness. She's made mistakes, and she thinks she needs to fix everything all by herself. But then West Young crashes into her life. 

I was surprised but very happy to discover that Rachel's troublesome brother was going to be the focus of this book. Suspended from school for fighting and being caught with girls too many times to count, West is your typical off-the-rails rich boy lashing out at the world. He parties too hard, doesn't study enough, picks fights and gets away with it because of who his family is. But when he takes it a step too far he has to face up to some harsh realities. A chance encounter with a kick-ass beauty and a thrashing later, he's in way deep. Hayley tries to keep him away from the mess that is her life, but the boy has pride, and he won't step away. 

Hayley plus West equals hot. West is more than willing to get as close as possible, but Hayley has been burned before and tries her best to keep him at arms length. Sweet gestures and constant but gentle wooing is a hard combination to fight though, especially when packaged in such an attractive form. So get ready for a steamy, addictive adventure with a lot of fight.

Review: Dare You To by Kate McGarry

Published by: Harlequin Teen
Release date: 28th May 2013
Series: Pushing the Limits #2
I got it from: NetGalley
Quote:"The words sting, but I struggle to keep the pain from surfacing. What more should I expect? He's everything that's right with the world. I'm everything wrong. Guys like him don't go for girls like me."

Goodreads summary:
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...

My review:
It took me a while to decide whether Dare to You should be classed as Young Adult of New Adult. I decided on Young Adult in the end, as the characters are still at high school and there's not a whole lot of steamy sex scenes. That said, there is a fair bit of intimate action and the whole feel of the book is somewhat New Adult-ish - the issues that the characters have to deal with and the way their lives play out, and the formulaic on/off romance. So I'm still a bit undecided - please feel free to let me know what you think!

The New Adult aspects of the book made me have a hard time putting it down - I'm becoming a little bit addicted to the intense relationships and messed-up lives of the NA character set. I found the whole 'using a dare as a plot device' thing a bit jaded and over-used - it's not exactly a new idea - but McGarry makes good use of it and allows it to be a fun starting point while not over-egging it too much. After all boys will be boys, and they do stupid dares that sometimes hurt people. Ryan did a lot of growing up between asking for Beth's number for a dare and the end of the book, and let's face it - it was necessary. There's a reason why YA heroes are usually old before their time - teenage boys are annoying! Especially jocks.

Now, I haven't read McGarry's other book in the series - Pushing the Limits. While I was reading, that didn't bother me - the two books focus on different characters within a group, and while there are references to the characters in the other book in each of them, they stand alone as stories in their own right. But, having read others' reviews, I might have felt a bit differently about the whole Ryan vs Isaiah thing if I had read Pushing the Limits. To me, Isaiah was a slightly annoying side-character. I get that Beth has known him for a long time and he's been there for her when she needed him, but I also think that he's a bit too needy himself, and has been taking advantage of Beth when she's been in a bad place. So sorry to all you Team Isaiah people, but maybe I'll feel differently after I read Pushing the Limits.

There are some pretty hefty issues dealt with in this book - Beth's mother is a drug addict and alcoholic, and the mother's boyfriend is really bad news - so much so that Beth can no longer live at home for fear of her safety. When her uncle rescues her and takes her to live with him, Beth is torn between the opportunity to start a new life, one which might take her places, and looking after her mother who can't be relied on to look after herself. Beth's uncle's tactics are serious - no contact at all with her mother. He's seen what getting caught up in that life can do, and he wants to give Beth the opportunity to get out. Of course, by forbidding contact he only pushes Beth back towards her mother harder. Uncle Scott isn't the brightest, but his intentions are good.

Everything about Beth and Ryan is wrong - these two people should not be together in any way, and yet there's no denying the chemistry between them. There's also that thing going on where they each make the other a better person. When Ryan's with Beth he's not just a jock, and she gives him the strength he needs to deal with his own problems - which shouldn't really be problems at all. When Beth is with Ryan she can actually start to see that there could be some good in her life. As is to be expected, these two young people are each messed up in their own way. Beth more so - she's had a hard time so far, and it's made her so utterly convinced that she can't have a chance at a good life, that she actually fights against it until she's forced to face it. It's hard for her to trust anyone, which is understandable but drove me a bit crazy. It's always the way though - you're screaming at a character to sort themselves out and do the right thing, but if they did that in the first place then the book wouldn't be what it is.

Ryan's little issue threw me to start with - I'd forgotten just how narrow-minded some Americans can be, but then when Beth found out and we saw her attitude, and Ryan's reaction to her attitude, things started to fall into place. For me Ryan was a lot harder to understand than Beth. I haven't had to deal with anywhere near the problems that Beth has, but my mindset is still closer to hers than Ryan's. I've never even known a jock, so I don't really have a point of reference apart from US teen movies! So to start with I didn't really get him, and I didn't especially like him. But by the end, I knew that he was the one for Beth.

It's emotional, it's gritty, and it's addictive. Now I need to get me a copy of Pushing the Limits!