This book messed my emotions all up. It was a rollercoaster ride. AND I FREAKING LOVED IT. I was so invested in Echo and Noah's lives that I couldn't stop reading. My heart ached for both of these characters in ways I still don't yet understand. I want more Echo and Noah now!!

LOVEDDDD ITTTT !!!! it had an interesting concept and amazing characters. :D

Originally posted at: http://girlzandtheirbooks.blogspot.com/2012/06/review-pushing-limits-by-katy-mcgarry.html

Ok, there I was, searching through Netgalley, looking for what I could request, and there it was. Hmm... should I? Let me look on Goodreads and see what other people have said and read the summary. *Looks* only one of my friends had read it!! I couldn't believe it...*reads* hmm...sounds pretty good! Request! YAY!!!! I got it!! *Starts reading* HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL!!! Right from the get go, Ms. McGarry had me glued!

This book was flipping amazing!! I loved the alternating POVs from Noah to Echo and from Echo back to Noah. Granted, with the Netgalley ecopy I got....it was hard telling when Echo's stopped and Noah's began but I got through it. There was no way that was going to stop me from reading this book! (btw..reading from Noah was absolutely no doubt the best!) ;)

Katie McGarry had the bad-boy-with-a-broken-past down packed!! She literally got the perfect boy description! Noah was an amazing character! Man! Did I love this boy or what! My favorite part of the whole book would have to be shared with Noah. A certain little scene involving a little boy, his award, his book, and his hero. O. My. Goodness! That was the cutest scene ever!! It had me close to tears! (happy tears ya'll!) Sure Noah has the f word in his vocabulary....sure he was a druggy....sure! he is a social outcast and known for his one-night stands! But that is just the facade he puts up to hide his pain and loss. There is so much more depth to Noah and I loved reading into his mind. Especially when it came to his brothers and Echo!

And as for Echo? Great too! I loved the way her name had to do with her mom's stories. Weird name. Yes. Cool meaning. Duh! Man, this girl has had it tough the past two years. And not just because of her social decline: popular chica to out right freak! Sad how people do that. Just because someone misses some school and comes back with long sleeves everyday doesn't automatically mean she attempted suicide or cuts now. But that's how it is isn't it? We make assumptions and we don't care if those hurt the person. Sad. Anyways! Yes there is a reason Echo came back with those long sleeves everyday and secluded herself. She was attacked...by her own mother. Her mother tried to kill her. As of that wasn't tough enough....Echo doesn't remember that day. I feel bad for Echo but I also love her that much more. How strong she is. A role model indeed.

Now...put Echo and Noah together..... Echo+Noah=perfection! Probably the cutest couple since Ash and Meghan!! Katie does an extrodinary job with character description!! Each character you understood in some way. Each character was "hand crafted".

This is one of those book where you have way too many thoughts (all positive) to put into this review. I will probably just ramble haha Ms. McGarry did a phenomenal job! This book will pull on the reader's heartstrings and leave them wanting more. I sure as hell did!! I couldn't put the book down! I loved following Echo and Noah and seeing them face their troubles and grow together through their troubles!

This is a book everyone needs to read and love. Everything from the writing, the characters, the puzzle of Echo and Noah's life, the reader's journey to reveal each individual puzzle piece and put it all together, the romance, the heart brake, the tears, the laughs( and there where lots! McGarry does NOT disappoint in humorous wit!), the the smiles, the oo's and ah's, the way Noah's words make you melt and feel all tingly inside ;)


Pushing the Limits has everything! And I am serious when I say it leaves no disappointment! I would recommend it to anyone and everyone! So get your copy in June! Then thank me later... ;)

~Rating:
So, lately I have decided to not rate as generously. Meaning: your gonna see a lot more 4 and 3 stars. Yes, I'm cracking down hard on how often I give out 5 stars so you will know whether or not it is absolutely amazing or not. A book should only get 5 stars if it's well deserving of the title right? I am going to start sticking more true to the meanings I have givin to each star on my Rate Page.That being said....here's my rating of this book....

FIVE FULL STARS!!!!

HELL YES! This book deserved these 5 stars!!!
So....You all need to buy this book when it comes out at the end of July!
No doubt about it!!
This book is a must!!

Thanks for stopping by!
~Jaiden

I enjoyed it. I look forward to the sequel later this year.

Read this on our cruise. Better than I expected it to be, actually.

I couldn't put it down! I love Noah and Echo- their stories were so heartbreaking and real.

Pushing the Limits RATING: 3.5 stars-ish.
 
I was never one to read contemporary YA. I think I simply got my fill when I was younger as we have a YA series written by famous teen book author (at least in Portugal) Maria Teresa Maia Gonzalez. She wrote numerous adventure type books featuring teenagers but she also wrote a series (called Profession: Teenager) in which she explores several subjects and problems that teens generally have: image in high school, bulimia, broken homes, among others. I always thought she had a very realistic outlook on these issues and I loved her books when I was younger. 
 
American contemporary YA is different. It generally follows the same structure: you have a boy and a girl one or both are troubled and they end up together and supporting each other through their problems. While I like this formula as much as the next person, the thing I loved most about Gonzalez's books was that romance was usually not needed for the characters to move forward; they do it by themselves. Also, in some books, the changes the characters go through aren't going to make everything peachy and sometimes they even make wrong choices. 
 
So why am I talking about another YA series in my review for Katie McGarry's "Pushing the Limits" you ask. Well, I just want to establish the background; the possible reason why I don't find "realistic YA" as enticing as many other people do. While they do bring up serious issues, I feel these books are so formulaic I end up not paying enough attention to the issues they address. 
 
"Pushing the Limits" suffers from the same problem. I mean it is obviously a love story so I don't get why exactly both characters need to be so troubled. And their issues are so... strange, or Echo's are anyway, a convergence of events so bizarre that it is probably quite rare in real life. 
 
Still, while the cliches abound, McGarry does know how to write. It was a compulsive reading but I must say I was disappointed with the cliche characterization of most of the characters (especially Noah). Where is the cute, awkward geek in these books? He never gets to be a hero! I want YA fiction with a game geek and/or an otaku for a change... I'm kind of tired of pseudo-bad-boys who sleep around and are "reformed" by the heroine. Oh well :P 
 
But it was a nice read anyway. Echo and Noah's voices were realistic enough, likable enough and the issues were well explored. 
 
Overall: a typical contemporary/ realistic YA book that failed in its characterization and fell into the same old formulas for this kind of book. However, the writing was very good and Noah's choices at the end made him a lot more likable to me. It was a good book, but more of a romance book than a "let's explore teen issues" book.

I very much enjoyed this book. Dual POV, almost an enemies to lovers, and lots of trauma to work through. Both want to take the shortcut to get their answers but instead work together to put in the work. The tension and flirtation between the two is great and I loved the banter. This is the type of high school relationships I like to read about. Also I loved how we were in the dark with echo about her trauma and it was slowly revealed as she was trying to remember.

it starts great, but somewhere in the middle it gets a bit slow and the end it's kinda... blaaah. The whole happy ending does not suit itvery much, considering how the novel develops. I think the end lacks a bit of dramatic depth.