Book Review #625 - Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits #1) by Katie McGarry

My Rating: 4/5


Source: Bought


Buy: The Book Depository


Goodreads

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. 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.

I started reading this book around 3 months ago and got around 100 or so pages into it and wasn't feeling it so put it down. Fast forward 3 months, I had to grab a book quickly to take out with me and randomly chose this one. I started reading from where I had left off and found I couldn't put it down. 

From the above, I would say that this book is one that you have to be in the right mood for (for me anyway). 

Both Noah and Echo were both flawed, interesting, amazing people and even though I couldn't relate to what they were going through or had gone through, I could relate to them as characters. 

This book covers a lot of heavier issues such as abuse, drugs and mental health. This book covers all those issues really well and it really shows the quality of the writing. 

The characters in this book (not just Noah and Echo) were all so authentic and I loved the amount of depth in each of them - I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the series in order to discover even more about the secondary characters. 

I loved the split narration - this is one of the few books that I have read where the story has actually benefited from this. The split narration allowed there to be two separate stories. 

Noah's story is more to do with self-sacrifice. After his parents die, Noah struggles with whether to fight for custody of his younger brothers and ruin the possibility of college in his future or accept that the foster parents his brothers are placed with can provide them with a life Noah never could.

There is so much more to Echo's story - especially her difficult family situation. Not only is she dealing with the recent death of her beloved brother but she has repressed memories of the night her mentally ill mother attacked her leaving her with severe physical and mental scars. 

I found Echo's story slightly more interesting. I didn't know very much about repressed memories and this book showed what a terrifying thing that is to have.