Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. “Dance with me, Beth.”
“No.” I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again….
“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….
God, Katie McGarry. You are ruining my life. Not only did Dare You To cause me to not pay attention in class (because I just HAD to read during class. There was no way I was waiting til I got home to read), but also… my standards in guys are getting way. too. high. KATIE MCGARRY YOU ARE RUINING MY LIFE AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT.
In case you didn’t already know this, I loved Pushing the Limits. Like, loved loved loved it. It’s one of my favorite books of all time, and one of the few books that have made my cry a huge, sobbing mess. I rarely ever cry for books (I get teary-eyed more often than crying), but Pushing the Limits was just… incredible. Heart-wrenching. Absolutely fantastic. So if you haven’t read it, you should definitely check it out. But Dare You To is quite different than Pushing the Limits. It has a whole different feel to it that is still simply amazing. We have already been introduced to Beth in Pushing the Limits, and her story is with Ryan. I was pretty surprised when I found out that Beth wouldn’t end up with Isaiah (whose book I am SO EXCITED to read!!!). But of course Katie McGarry would find a way to make everything work out in the end. And it did!
Beth, at the start, is basically… a bitch. She’s very mean and pissy to everyone, including her uncle, Scott, and Ryan. But the thing is, I still liked her character. Yes, she gets very frustrating because of her hesitance and reluctance to have a relationship with Ryan, but I never hated or disliked her for her bitchy behavior. And honestly, her attitude is pretty reasonable, considering her mother is a drunk, a drug abuser, in love with her abusive boyfriend, and doesn’t give a crap about Beth. Beth’s deadbeat father left when she was young. She had no adult to take responsibility for herself and had to grow up on her own. So she’s definitely a tough girl. What I loved and was sad to see go away is Beth’s friendship with Noah and Isaiah. Once she moves in with her Uncle Scott, he wants her to cut all ties to her old life, including Noah and Isaiah. She meets up with them once or twice (and we get to see Echo!!!), but overall, she knows that she’s done with her old life. She’ll never have any best friends as awesome as Noah and Isaiah, but she can’t keep living in the past anymore. She has to move on, and Ryan is a huge part of that process.
Ryan Stone. *swoon* Ryan is probably one of the sweetest, most incredible boys I’ve ever read. He’s not a bad boy. He’s a good guy through and through. I never expected to like reading about a jock, and a baseball player at that, but Ryan is just… amazing. I fell completely in love with him and his heartwarming gestures. Katie McGarry is able to write him in such a way that he has depth, that shows us how much he loves baseball, and that he’s so much more than a jock. And he loves to write too! Rarely do I ever read about a guy who loves to write and can write well, so it was a nice and refreshing change, one that made Ryan all the more endearing.
And that bottle of rain. So. Damn. Sweet. My heart was going wonky for him during that scene.
One thing I love is that Beth is very straightforward. From Pushing the Limits, we know that Isaiah is in love with Beth, but we’re not sure if she feels the same way. In Dare You To, once she meets Ryan and finds a connection with him, she knows that she’ll never return Isaiah’s feelings, because she loves Ryan. And I was so glad that she got that. She shot Isaiah straight down, didn’t allow him to be strung along on a love that would never work. I really liked that about Beth, admired and respected her for it.
I loved seeing both Beth and Ryan grow and mature throughout the book. And the ending was so intense! So did not expect that. Basically, I loved everything about Dare You To, and am so so so excited for the 3rd book in the series to come out! I am 1000% sure that Isaiah’s story will be perfection.
Reading Order: Pushing the Limits series
#1 ~ Pushing the Limits: Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads
#1.1 ~ Crossing the Line: Ebook • Goodreads
#1.5 ~ Breaking the Rules: My Review • Ebook • Goodreads
#2 ~ Dare You To: Shirley’s Review • Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads
#3 ~ Crash into You: My Review • Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads
#4 ~ Take Me On: Ebook • Hardcover • Goodreads
Booklovers For Life 