Pushing the Limits [Review]

Stats:
#1 in Pushing the Limits series
397 Pages [Kindle]
Published: 1 August 2012
ASIN: B00835RMNM
Find it on Goodreads


Synopsis:
"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

So wrong for each other...and yet so right.

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.
 

My Thoughts:
Echo is a senior in high school who is just trying to make it through the rest of the school year. Her sophomore year of high school, she was in the popular group and had a boyfriend. Then something happened that her mind won't let her remember that turned her world upside down. She returned to school as an outcast. No one would talk to her, just whisper about her new scars and how she got them. Most thought she tried to commit suicide. All Echo remembers is that it had something to do with her mom who her father and nanny-turned-pregnant-stepmom have a restraining order against. Not remembering what happened with her mom plus the loss of her older brother who was killed in combat in Afghanistan, Echo needs someone...anyone...because she is alone.

Noah is part of the system. He lost his parents in a housefire and was put in a foster home. He's a typical bad boy womanizer with lots of inner turmoil and secrets. He used to be a very bright student that excelled at everything, but after losing his parents, he let all that go. To get back on track, the school's new social worker insists that he has a tutor. His tutor is one of the brightest kids in the school and also in dire need of a job to fix her late brother's car...you guessed it, Echo!

Katie McGarry writes a great book. Her characters had depth and their story evoked many feelings from me and a need to find out what happened next. I am a freak for stories with any kind of amnesia and the way this memory loss was recovered in bits and pieces had me at the edge of my seat. Echo was easy for me to like...and connect with, as was Noah. I felt like the back and forth extremes of their relationship was honest and realistic.

Personally, the only thing that threw me off was the pothead part. I've never heard of a stoner refer to weed as "pot" and I giggled a bit at that. The "killing brain cells" cracked me up too. I would hate to think everyone who is using it for medicinal purposes is also killing their brain cells...*off my soapbox*

*Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.


Previous Review:
Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke [here]

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