Review: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Title: Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2)
Author: Katie Mcgarry
Published: 1 June 2013
Source: HarlequinTEEN Australia
Reviewed: Sapphireddragon
SapphiredDragon Rating: *****

Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry

Goodreads | Book Depository

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....

Review: 

There are some novels that you know you are going to love after reading just the first page or two.  Dare You To is one of those novels, and not just because the first novel of this series, Pushing The Limits  by author, Katie McGarry, was one of my favourite reads of 2012.  The voice of this novel captures you from the moment you read the first page of the first chapter.

What I love about Katie McGarry's novels is that she does not sugar coat her stories or her characters. Her story  lines are gritty and her characters real and there are no happy endings for happy endings sake.  The ending of this novel ( and I am not going to tell you what sort of an ending it is, happy or otherwise) stay true to her characters and storyline.  There are terrible situations and hard choices, and deliriously happy moments and devastating ones and they all go together to make this awesome novel.  Some of the outcomes you can see coming, some not so much but it is the journey that is in between is what keeps you reading on, gripped to the story.

However it is not just the storyline that is so good about this novel, it is the characters as well. Beth, we first met in Pushing the Limits and Ryan is a brand new character but right from the beginning I think I loved them both.  What Ms McGarry excels at is making us feel both for and with the characters.  Her writing of them evokes many of the emotions that these characters feel.  You can feel the goodness and strength in Ryan and the rage and sadness in beth when we first meet her in this novel and then we get to experience as well as witness the journey both of these characters go on.

At the end of the day, this is a novels is something you experience as well as read.  You are in the story from beginning  to end regardless of whether you have the book in front of you or not. Being the mother of a fourteen month old, I try not to stay up to late most nights but my attempt at putting down this book overnight failed miserably as I lay in bed thinking about the characters and the story and ended up getting up and reading another 100 pages before attempting to sleep again and I couldn't wait for my daughter's afternoon nap the following day to finish the story.

If you loved Pushing The Limits, then you will absolutely love Dare You To.  Actually I would recommend Dare You To to pretty much everyone.

I give this novel 5 stars!!

Sapphired Dragon xx

In My Mailbox #61

Welcome to  In My Mailbox, a meme run by The Story Siren where each week over 200 bloggers post on their blogs the books they have bought, received to review or won in the past week.

To find out more information, get involved yourself or see what's in other bloggers mailboxes this week head over to The Story Siren or to find out what is in my mailbox this week, keep reading.

Don't forget to comment and post your IMM link or just let me know what's in your mail box this week.

Awesome week this week.  Got some amazing titles and got to meet on of my favourite authors, Kylie Chan and have her sign her new book, Dark Serpent (Celestial Battle #1).  You can read more about my experience at the signing over on Book Bites later this week.

For Review(via HarlequinTeen Australia): 

Was so excited to receive this ARC!  Pushing the Limits was one of my favourite reads of last year so I cannot wait to read this one :-)

Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry
"I dare you..."

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....

Pre-Order:Book Depository

Won (via Summer of Supernatural): 

What's left of Me (The Hybrid Chronicles #1) by Kat Zhang

Goodreads | Book Depository

I should not exist. But I do.

Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t . . .

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable-hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet . . . for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

Purchased (via Book Bites): 

Dark Serpent (Celestial Battle #1) by Kylie Chan

Goodreads | Galaxy Bookshop

John and Emma head to Wales to try and work out who — or what — Emma is. But rather than providing a clear path to their long hoped-for marriage the answer could tear them apart forever. Emma will be forced to betray either John, her beloved Xuan Wu, or her past and birthright. To make matters worse, John’s celestial home at Wudangshan is under attack from the Demon King. Can John find the Emma he knows and love, and save Wudangshan from demonic destruction?

Library: 

Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Goodreads | Book Depository

Wings (Wings #1) by Aprilynne Pike

Goodreads | Book Depository

Secret Lives (Darke Academy #1) by Gabriella Poole

Goodreads | Book Depository

Vulpi (Thyla #2) by Kate Gordon

Goodreads | Book Depository

So what was in your mailbox this week?

On My Wishlist #8

Welcome to On My Wishlist!


On My Wishlist is a meme that was originally created by Book Chick City and is now hosted by Cosy Books where we can showcase (and squee about) books that are on our individual wish lists whether already released or still awaiting publication.


For more information or to get involved yourself, head over to Cosy Books and check it out!


Lastly, don't forget to comment and let me know what books are on your Wishlist this week.

Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry
"I dare you..."

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....

Pre-Order: Book Depository

Comment: I LOVED Pushing The Limits so I cannot wait to read this book set in the same time/town but with other characters :)


What has gone on your Wishlist this week?