Review & Giveaway: Pushing the Limits

Pushing the Limits
Katie McGarry
July 31, 2012
Harlequin Teen
384 pages

Synopsis: 
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.

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Review: 
I have had this book sitting on my shelf for almost 2 months and it just wasn't calling out to me. Then I started reading all the excellent reviews it was getting, so decided to give it a shot. I got about halfway into this book when I started wondering if I was reading the same book as all those people out there who loved it. Then I kept waiting for it to pull me in. It never did.

It took me a loooong time to get through this book. It was just so heavy, I didn't enjoy immersing myself in it. I'd read 2-3 chapters and then stop, when many times I'll read half a book before I want to stop. It wasn't bad by any means. I liked the realistic nature of the plot, and the fact that the characters had real (but not by any means ordinary) problems. The writing was technically good, it was well edited, I just didn't find myself caring all that much. I never felt connected to any of the characters,and the romance aspect was just missing something. The character I liked the most was Echo's dead older brother who is only mentioned in the past tense. The structure of the book with the constant POV changes between Noah and Echo made things worse - I would start to get involved in the book and then a new chapter would start and I'd have to pull away to figure out who I was hearing from. More than once, I actually found myself having to go back to the first page of the chapter so I could remember who's POV I was reading. It became very distracting. It felt like a very well-written after school special to me. I can see it winning all sorts of school and teacher awards for it's theme and messages, but nothing the romance-lover in me would swoon over.

Pushing the Limits:  3/5 stars.
Cover: 4/5 stars
Audience Rating: PG-13 (mild language, violence, mentions of sex and drugs)

I received a copy of this from the publisher at BEA 2012 in exchange for an honest review.

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