Pushing the Limits

By Katie McGarry

They say be a good girl, get good grades, be popular. They know nothing about me.

I can’t remember the night that changed my life. The night I went from popular to loner freak. And my family are determined to keep it that way. They said therapy was supposed to help. They didn’t expect Noah. Noah is the dangerous boy my parents warned me about. But the only one who’ll listen. The only one who’ll help me find the truth.

I know every kiss, every promise, every touch is forbidden. But what if finding your destiny means breaking all the rules? A brave and powerful novel about loss, change and growing up, but most of all love.

The Pushing the Limits Series

1. Pushing the Limits

2. Dare You To

3. Crash Into You

4. Take Me On

5. Breaking the Rules

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jul 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781408957431

Katie McGarry

Katie McGarry is an award winning and critically acclaimed young adult novelist. The author of Only a Breath Apart and the Pushing the Limits and Thunder Road series is currently living out her real life love story in Kentucky with her husband and three children. Katie is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Reviews for Pushing the Limits

[sedelia_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book about two troubled teens trying to work through their issues and figure out their futures? Yes, please. Pushing the Limits is filled with drama, serious issues, and some very touching moments. Dealing with themes such as friendship and family, this is something that I think everyone can relate to.What Katie McGarry does is perfectly set up a situation with two characters that are impossible not to like. Told from both of their perspectives, I rooted for Echo and Noah from the very beginning (individually and as a couple). What I liked about them is that they are two responsible teenagers in very bad situations. These weren't even situations they brought upon themselves, but things that just happened and made a major impact on their lives, forcing them to deal with horrible things. I hate when authors portray teenagers as shallow and whiny; McGarry gives her characters something real to be troubled about and has them fight for what they want instead of sulking in their misery.And my goodness, does McGarry know how to craft an un-put-downable story! Don't even try to stop reading at the end of a chapter, because it won't happen. I would promise myself to only read a few chapters, only to find a few hours later that I've read a quarter of the book. It's a fast read that goes by even faster, because you won't want to stop reading. The characters sucked me in, and I found myself always needing to know what happened next.There were some problems with this novel. For one, the adults didn't seem very realistic to me. They were too over-the-top, not willing to listen to the teenagers or talk the problems out with them. While I'm sure this happens, I would have liked there to be a better balance. For most of the novel, it seems like the only two adults that really care are the therapist, Mrs. Collins, and Echo's former art teacher. Also, the connection between Echo and Noah got too strong too fast. I did like that the relationship took some time to develop, but it only took a couple of short meetings for Noah to start obsess about Echo. And there are some incredibly cheesy moments, but they are interspersed with some really sweet ones, so there is a balance, at least.Because of those problems, though, I had a hard time deciding what to rate this novel. While I was bothered by some things, I liked the characters, the themes, and how nicely the story unfolded. What it came down to was the fact that I enjoyed every second of reading Pushing the Limits, and I couldn't put it down. In the end, that's all that matters for me.*I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*

[eomalley_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Katie McGarry’s young adult début novel, Pushing the Limits, is a contemporary romance about two broken teens who desperately want to rediscover “normal” and learn that “normal” is really what you make of it. It’s about growing up, falling in love, and discovering your own voice – and sometimes having to push the limits to do so. I loved it.

Told in the first person with alternating points of view between good-girl Echo Emerson and bad-boy Noah Hutchins, Pushing the Limits is an edgy, emotional look at two teens whose lives fell apart their sophomore year of high school in two very different and tragic ways. I was happily surprised to find out I was getting both points of view, since the book description strictly focused on Echo. I have found over the last couple of years that I enjoy getting into the heads of multiple characters and seeing their thought processes as events unfold (I think it’s because I’m actually a bit nosy in my everyday life). From Echo’s opening statement of what she WANTS to say in therapy – but can’t – I was caught up in this book and found it very difficult to put down. And once I entered Noah’s thoughts I was a complete goner. The narrative flows with just the right amount of description and detail to picture the characters and their surroundings, making them easily relatable. I felt comfortable with Echo and Noah, and hurt right along with them as they faced the fact that their old lives were gone and “normal” was a thing of the past.

Characters are drawn realistically and distinctively, from Echo and Noah to Noah’s littlest brother Tyler. Yes, there are definitely clichés with the good-girl/bad-boy dynamic, but I thought they were handled smoothly and the tragedies both characters faced helped balance them out, as did the sizzling chemistry of the leads. There was a lot of growth in both characters as the story developed, and the places they started at were not where they ended up. Both have to make some very difficult, adult choices and I liked the way those choices played out. Assisting them with their development was my favorite character after the two leads, their clinical social worker Mrs. Collins. The way she gently guided them through their troubles to a point where they could actually see future possibilities was nicely done by McGarry. Mrs. Collins also provided a few moments of humor with her lack of driving skills – Noah’s reactions whenever he got in a car with her made me laugh, helping relieve some of the tension built up by the emotional resonance of the story.

While Pushing the Limits is a very emotional read, the story itself doesn’t exactly push any limits. Echo’s story is where most of the boundary stretching occurs, as bits and pieces of the tragedy she has blocked from her mind slowly shake themselves loose and we learn right along with her the truth of what happened to her – which is pretty horrific. Noah’s story, however engaging, treads the familiar territory of a child caught in the system who has been betrayed too many times by the adults who are supposed to be helping him. McGarry has told the story very well, though, and also manages to introduce us to Beth, a character who looks capable of truly pushing the limits in the next book of the series, Dare You To. One of Noah’s best friends, she is a bold mess of insecurity going through some serious horrors of her own, which we get glimpses of here.

Something I want to point out is that Katie McGarry is going for a very realistic feel with these teens which means “hooking up,” alcohol, drugs, and harsh language are a part of this story – and this is in addition to the demons Echo and Noah have to face. I’m not really a fan of excessive use of the F-word myself, but I never had a problem with it in regards to Noah and his friends. The harsh language felt right and even, at one point, humorous as Noah attempted an incredibly messed up apology to Echo. If this is the type of stuff that offends you as a reader, though, then you may want to look elsewhere for your next read.

Katie McGarry has made a very impressive début with her YA contemporary romance, Pushing the Limits. With well-developed characters, a flowing style, and plenty of emotional punches, this edgy story of two teens discovering how to cope after “normal” has passed them by may not stretch a lot of boundaries but is a captivating read all the same.

[milaxox-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Simply amazing :)

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pushing the Limits is the story of two formerly "normal" teens, seniors in high school, who suffered traumatic losses and are now in therapy. The therapist brings them together by assigning Echo to tutor Noah, and Noah and Echo discover they can’t resist each other. But can their feelings overcome their pasts, and the pressures from their schoolmates? We find out through alternating chapters presenting each of their points of view.Discussion: There’s some very entertaining dialogue in this book. At one point, Echo runs outside without a coat, and Noah runs after her:"‘A cold wind swept across the patio, causing me to shiver. Noah shrugged off his black leather jacket and tossed it around my shoulders. ‘How are you going to tutor me if you get fucking pneumonia?’I cocked an eyebrow. What an odd combination of romantic gesture and horribly crude wording.”There’s more to this story than romance, of course. And in fact, the author does quite a good job with exploring the effects of loss, and hurt, and psychic pain, like in this passage:"The worst type of crying wasn’t the kind everyone could see ... No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it. A section withered and became a scar on the part of your soul that survived. For people like me and Echo, our souls contained more scar tissue than life.”As for the bad boy aspects, one thing I have noticed about these sorts of romances is that generally, the so-called “bad boy” usually is just misunderstood - yes, he’s hot-looking in a way that looks like danger, and he may have even gotten into trouble before (usually while he was actually trying to be noble), but really, he has a heart of gold and is a good, respectful guy. Frankly, I like that take on the bad boy - it’s having your cake and eating it too. And there’s another aspect of the bad-boy romance this book plays up, which is the strong-guy-finding-out-he-can’t-live-without-the girl trope. Noah thinks appealing thoughts that tend to prompt swoony reactions: "We’d read about sirens in English this fall; Greek mythology bullshit about women so beautiful, their voices so enchanting, that men did anything for them. Turned out that mythology crap was real because every time I saw her, I lost my mind.”“I wrapped my fingers around her fragile hand. Touching Echo felt like home.”“Echo was becoming essential, like air.”Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? I’m not sure. This idea of unconditional worship of a woman by a man doesn’t seem realistic, but then, maybe I’m just jaded.Evaluation: I enjoyed this teen romance. It has a good back story, and nobody does anything too objectionable. Well, except for some of the adults. Sub-topics include an important and well-treated theme of what constitutes a family. Note to Parents: There is “bad” language, but no sex. The book offers a positive perspective on respecting girls’ right to choose.

[claudiagc-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The following is an incoherent rambling. You've been warned.

Why did I wait so long to read this book??? It's so good. Full of angst and all kinds of unexpected twists and turns. It would have been so easy for the book to slide down into some clichéd mess but the author did a wonderful job of creating a story that is filled with trepidation and dismay but still gives hope and this craving for "just normal".
This book wrecked me. Honestly, I was a mess after finishing it. But the good kind (if there is such a thing). The one where you think not everything is hopeless and futile.

[neysakristanti-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"You ready for a new normal?"—EchoI actually didn't think this book was good the first time I saw it on Goodreads. But after a few months of its publication, many people recommended this to me, telling me how good and amazing this book is, and so, I decided to give it a try.Pushing the Limits told us about Echo Emerson and Noah Hutchins, two people from a very different background, yet with a same broken past. Echo, her body covered with scars made by her own bipolar mother, remembered nothing about the night her mother almost killed her. When she disappeared for a month after the incident, her social standing suddenly took a major turn from the school it-girl into a freak.Noah Hutchins, your typical bad boy who was jumping from one foster home to another, was trying hard to recreate the family he once had. When his parents died from a fire that destroyed his house a his life, he swore that he would never trust any other adult.But when fate put Noah and Echo to meet, would they found what they had once lost in each other, or would they broke and became irreparable this time?The plot of this book was very great. The event alternate between the past and the present, and it was told in the right amount and in the right time it became quite a nice twist to the story. I also love how the flashback that often happened when Echo was having a breakdown, or when Noah was reminiscing his long-lost childhood, it later became a major plot point or a revelation.The story itself was a hell of emotional roller coaster. One time it was all happy and bright, and then bam, it was all gone. It was sritten quite nicely, and it was very easy for the readers to became deeply involved with it.Echo Emerson, as our main character, was very interesting and very believable. Her personality was well-developed, and it was easy to symphatize with her. Although her past was vague and pictured only by a sentence or two, it was unveiled little by little as the story goes, and by the time it became clear what had happened to her, the reader already had some kind of connection to her that made them felt what she felt.And another thing that made her extra lovable was that she had some flaw as well that made her seemed very human. She was selfish and blaming other for what happened, but also some redeeming traits, and it was very easy to picture Echo as someone who was truly a human and lived in this world.Noah Hutchins, our other main character as well as Echo's counterpart, was very interesting especially for his gloomy past. I love how he, as a guy, actually had some feeling, and could cry and laugh and feeling heartache and all that. And when he showed his true feeling, that was actually a contrast with his scary appearance, he was very sweet and believable. And it was very refreshing to see that he would always put his family first even when he was totally in love, not becoming all dumb and oh-I'll-do-anything-in-the-name-of-love.Beth, Noah's foster sister, was interesting and well-developed as well. She was just like Noah, but when she was sober, her personality was very believable, especially when she felt insecure and barked at everyone close enough to Noah or her other foster brother, Isaiah. Her fear of being abandoned was very raw and honest, ad even though she was kind of annoying, I couldn't helped but to feel sorry for her when her miserable life was revealed.Owen Emerson, Echo's father, was one character I found very interesting. He was the one guilty for what had happened at Echo, bot on her past and her current life. He was originally pictured as a coldhearted and controlling father, but as they story goes, the reader got a glimpse at what he was truly like and what he truly felt deep down on his heart.One thing I'm just a bit not fond from this book was Echo's mother. She was first introduced as a beautiful, artistic, and unfortunately bipolar. Her personality, when told from Echo's perspective, was actually quite interesting. But when Echo finally met her at the end of the book, her personality didn't quite match Echo's description. And although she was portrayed as a selfish woman, she didn't had any redeeming personality that made her believable enough.Overall, if you love contemporary story that dealt with broken past, family, friendship, love, and learning to trust other when the world seemed like hell, you should definitely try this one. One of the best contemporary book I've ever read, and you really won't regret trying this book.

[jwitt33 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My Opinion: Wow!! What an amazing debut from Katie McGarry! I had heard so many good things about this book and was really looking forward to reading it, and I have to say, the things I heard didn't do this story justice! I was drawn first to the mystery of how Echo got the "freaky" scars on her arms, since she had blocked it out I figured it must be something pretty bad, and it was, but what had me reading obsessively and flipping pages as fast as I could was the love story between Echo and Noah! These were two extremely emotionally damaged teens who you would never think would be able to begin to heal each other, but they end up working so well together that by the end of the book you can't imagine them NOT being there for each other.The story is told from two POVs: Echo's and Noah's. I love it when alternating POVs work this well because you really get to know the characters on an intimate basis since you are in essence in their minds and thinking their thoughts along with them (I don't know if this makes much sense, but if you've read a book where it works, then you'll know exactly what I mean!). Both Noah and Echo come from dysfunctional families and at the beginning of the book they are both distrustful and almost selfish in their desire to keep their problems to themselves, but as the story unfolds, they both grow and change so much, and it was such a joy to watch! Katie McGarry is exceptional at keeping the big reveal a secret until she hits you with it at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Pushing the Limits and really look forward to reading Beth's story in Pushing the Limits #2, Dare You To. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good, emotional contemporary YA romance :DI received a copy of this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

[katebond-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So there are a lot of things that I really liked about this book. I thought it did a pretty good job of showing the good and bad of our country's foster care system. I liked that the love story never veered into that dumb Westside Story neighborhood of him being from the wrong side of the tracks blah blah blah...because he was only in that position because his parents died while he was in high school, forcing him from middle-class suburbia into foster care hell. It's a different take on the usual classist bullshit, and that was nice.

The character voices worked for me, although I'm reeeeeeally tired of the whole two-person first-person alternating by chapter thing. In general (although it's less of a problem in this particular instance), the male voice tends to read a little false when written this way. I will say this, though: It is VASTLY preferable to when an author writes the entire novel from one character's perspective and then gives us a snippet at the end of a few scenes re-told from the love interest's perspective (as in the Lux novels and Fifty Shades of Grey). I fucking hate that shit.

This is a sweet, wrenching love story in the vein of Gayle Forman's If I Stay and Where She Went. Just try not to think too hard about the logic of anything anyone does. Like, why didn't Noah's parents have a life insurance policy or ANY kind of plan in place to protect their children? And why did anything that any adult did relating to Echo make absolutely no sense what-so-ever? And since when is smoking pot such a big deal?

But like I said, it makes you feel things, and the dude is super-dreamy, and if you're in the market for a new YA novel without supernatural elements, you could do a lot worse than this little romance.

[vtlucania · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was one of the best book I have read this year. Noah and Echo have to work through some real issues while living in the real world. I was attracted to this book because it was about real people, no vampires, wizards, witches, warlocks, shapeshifters, etc. Noah is a great guy not because he is the hero of the story he is the hero because he has had to grow up and deal with some real difficult issues that would ruin most kids and adults. Echo learns to be a strong female because of Noah who pushes her in a way no one else has-I am guessing that is part of reason for the title. My fear is the second and third books in the trilogy will not live up to this one. I really hope I am wrong. Great job on this one Katie McGarry!

[jodes101 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not the authors fault i think this book is written ... Ok but i am bored of this style of story.

[michealabeth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So makes my list of favorite books. <3Somebody recommended this book to me when I asked for books like the Perfect Chemistry trilogy by Simone Elkeles, and they were SO right. This book could belong in the Perfect Chemistry series; it's just that good.It was pretty close to perfect. The humor, the sarcasm, the amazing love story that turns out to be Noah and Echo. It's beautiful. Very realistic. The characters are faced with actual real life problems like Noah being in foster care and Echo dealing with why her parents divorced along with both of their dark tragedies. :)

[brenda14_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great characters with amazing chemistry and flaring passion. Not only those it have intense scenes it also has funny and cute moments.

[tanat-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Review to follow......fantastic story and writing.

[thehidingspot · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There are times when I finish a book and I can't help but think to myself: why did you take so long to read this!? That's exactly what I was thinking when I finished Katie McGarry's Pushing the Limits. This book has a compelling premise and a seriously swoon-inducing romance between two flawed and very different individuals who somehow seem absolutely perfect together.Pushing the Limits alternates between Echo and Noah's point-of-view, which works perfectly for this premise and these characters. Since both have their own set of complicated problems and difficult pasts, it felt important that both characters had an opportunity to share their POV regarding both the issues they're currently facing and the growing feelings between them. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't end up preferring one narrator over the other; they complimented each other well and I found myself excited to hear the other's take on situations and conversations.It's been quite some time since I've read a novel that focused on romance. I was feeling a bit burnt out and uninspired by those that I'd been reading; I wanted a romance with depth but all I felt like I was really getting was fluff and bad matches. Pushing the Limits reawakened by love of romance. Echo and Noah - and their story - made me want to fall in love again. McGarry's story evoked the excitement of first real, deep, complicated love that we all inevitably feel... and as horrible and distracting as it can be when you're going through it (as Echo and Noah clearly illustrate), there is something epic and wonderful about it as well!I highly recommend this first Pushing the Limits book from McGarry. The second book, Dare You To, has just released and I'm super excited to see if McGarry achieves the same level of emotion with her sophomore offering as with her first.

[capnrandm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes I like a book because it makes all the right moves, sometimes I like it despite that. PUSHING THE LIMITS was an emotional roller coaster that I loved, despite possessive boys, petty, sexually controlling women, and a father/daughter/stepmother dynamic that was both volatile and melodramatic. I lived the story despite all these issues, for Mrs. Collins if no one else. GOING TOO FAR And JELLICOE ROAD are still my favorite "teens dealing with difficult issues" books, but PUSHING THE LIMITS was a really enjoyable book.

[ritastradling · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars.

Okay... It's finished. Now, I can get back to my life. Wow. Great characters. Sad lives. Beautiful book.

[ashley29-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I recently read the second book in this series, Dare You To, and honestly I liked the second book better. Beth was a much more interesting character in the second book compared to Echo. I didn't have either negative or positive feelings towards this book. At times I was just a little bored and skimmed parts.Noah Hutchins, is your typical bad boy. Bad attitude, bad grades, messy family life, etc., but when Echo Emerson starts to tutor him, he starts to change. His grades improve, attitude gets better, etc. Echo became an outcast of her friends after her "accident." Pretty much all of her friends eventually abandoned her, except for Lila. Lila was her only friend that I could actually tolerate in the book. Grace and Luke were both terrible friends and once Echo decided she could confront her scars and wear short sleeves in public, they both abandoned her again.You can tell when reading this book that both characters honestly do care for each other, but both have crazy stuff going on in their lives. This might have been why the book was depressing at times. Even though Echo's secret was tragic, I found Noah and his brothers the more compelling story in the book. Echo's lack of memory did provide a unique spin to the good girl vs. bad boy storyline.

[booksovertv · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Favorite of the year!

Pushing the Limits is a well written tear jerking page turner. With every turned page I was more impressed. My heart went out to Echo and it breaks for Noah. They are both courageous albeit naive. In this novel there was a bit of everything a reader of Contemporary Fiction looks for and expects, well done!


I would like to thank Netgalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[katieheflin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the first contemporary books I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It follows Echo who is a shell of her former self. She used to be popular, out-going, studious, and ambitious and after the incident she is riddled with scars and doesn't speak to anyone except her best friend. She eats lunch in the library, she stopped painting, and lives with her father and his new wife who was Echo's former babysitter. Everybody thinks Echo is a weirdo and she does herself but they don't know the secret, that Echo did not try to kill herself but her mom may have, but Echo doesn't exactly remember what her mom did or did not do. She just knows her mom is in a home for the mentally insane and her father won't talk about. Her father is a looming figure, constantly on Echo's back to do better, be better, smarter, and faster…more ambitious. And worse of all, Echo's best friend, her brother Aspen is dead. Died while serving in the army and she has a big whole in her heart because of this. She has his old car though and needs help getting it fixed up and her dad thinks it's a waste of time.Enter Noah. He's the bad boy with the bad image. Drug user with tattoos and a rough home life. He's actually a child survivor of a fire that killed his parents and him and his younger brother were thrust into the world of foster homes. His younger brothers live with one family and Noah doesn't trust them. Noah's lived in several foster homes and has gotten in physical fights while protecting other people, but people only assume he's the aggressive one. While working on trying to eventually win custody of his little brothers, the counselor tells him he needs a tutor and hooks him up with Echo. Neither like each other very much but soon Noah's friend is fixing Aspen's car while Noah and Echo study. Soon they're hooked on each other but first they need to overcome their greatest obstacles: Noah gaining custody of his siblings and Echo coming face to face with what really happened on the night she got the awful scars.

[becky_jean_12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Contemporary romance—especially YA contemporary romance—isn't really my thing, so I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It has its flaws, but the author manages to avoid cliches and keeps the characters interesting.

So, what does this book do well?

Firstly, in a land of insta-love YA novels, the romance here is surprisingly well-developed. Granted, our main characters are teenagers, so there's a certain amount of attraction from the get-go. Even so, both characters are cautious about jumping into anything, and spend plenty of time getting to know each other.

Secondly, our female protagonist, Echo, doesn't let any boy bully or pressure her into anything she doesn't want to do (sexual or otherwise), a pleasant change from the date-rapey love stories running rampant in YA right now. Since I just recently finished Kresley Cole's Poison Princess, a novel in which our main character is willing to sleep with her boyfriend to keep him from dumping her, I appreciated Echo's backbone here. I don't really care whether my YA characters have sex or not (I know some readers do), but hey, rape culture gets under my skin anywhere I read it.

Thirdly, the characters are complicated and well developed. It usually seems like one character is the flawed one in these types of stories, while the other one is the perfect person who shows us what true love really is. Here, both characters are pretty messed up. And sometimes, their outside issues take precedence over their relationship, which was realistic. Mostly, though, Echo and Noah are stronger together than they are apart, which was a positive take on things.

Unfortunately, the complex characters sometimes are a little too messed up, to the point where it pulled me out of the story. Not only is Echo's brother killed in Afghanistan, she was attacked by her mother, AND her father is a neglectful asshole. Not only were Noah's parents killed in a horrific fire, his foster families are abusive assholes, AND he does drugs. At times, it can get a little soap opera-y, making Noah and Echo feel more like characters on a page than real, actual people.

That being said, both Echo and Noah grow and change by the end of the novel, and although Ms. McGarry tackles a lot of issues in one novel, there's more hits than misses.

[readsalot81 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gut wrenching. Heartwarming. It brought tears to my eyes. What a marvelous book.

[aoibhealfae · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I've been trying to finish this book and it kept being in my DNF-ed for ages. In fact it took me two years and I've been reading the galley version of this book and I still have a hard time digesting through this book. Most of the time I expected its due to the formatting but most of it is because I really don't like and care enough for the story nor for the characters nor the style.

The copy I'm reading doesn't have the necessary part to make the separate narrative to carry its individual distinction. I found myself being confused by a dual narratives. Often I was in the guy's head and then suddenly everyone addressing the narrator as Echo and vice versa. They nearly have the same voice and it seem melded together. I guess maybe it was due to them being tortured and scarred souls or something. Maybe its a good thing since if the writing itself took an effort to read, its easier to see where the nice things are. But apparently I still find myself being too emotionally uninvested in these two characters nor with the story.

I have enough problems in my life as a teen and I was a wreck as a teen (frankly who wasn't) and I've been all socially outcast in three states, being called something I'm not and whole balloon of drama and stuff and I've tried using the counselor approach several times in my life and it didn't work for me since I have issues with people who think they can read people professionally but I sort it out eventually and I have my own reading and writing to keep me sane and a therapy. But curiouser, neither the characters doesn't connect with me. While most think it was too realistic or deep but all I see was superficiality and fictional characters with their personality spread thinly and in a dire need for attention or decent bitch slapping. I like the male POV but soon the narratives was too nonsensical for me to make sense of everything. I simply don't care about the unnecessary dramas.

Seriously, Kafka's Metamorphosis at some point did have the whole "everyone and everything is against you for absolutely some weird no reason" alienation right but when you constitute it into one brooding guy with some issues and a girl who are too focused with herself and concerned about people around her to function properly, it does make the necessary attention span went out of the roof. I guess I know why some of these contemporary YA (or chic lit or its new name the New Adult) never click with me.

And I have a problem with books with too many characters in it. I read too many books and known too many people so names tend to come in one ear and out the other unless you hook me to a real person with a face on it. But as soon as I lay my eyes on a chapter of this book, the book exploded into a serious case of too many people and too many drama. I know it was common for stream of consciousness things but all these characters without unique descriptives are just name lists rather than actual characters.

While I appreciate a good deal amount of fictional romance in my otherwise romantic loveless life, the great girth of this book seem to revolve on the unnecessary drama element and loads of talking and touching and expressing feeling at the emotional level that plot took a minor role over the character dramas. While I understand family drama completely but maybe my experience with teenage angst was on different level that the book didn't synchronize with me at all. I guess to me the book have the same level as every Malay contemporary dramas people make these days with its stick people spending too much of their time and soul on each other and down to some psychological illness that maybe or may not be realistic. Honestly, that was plain excruciating for me in writing form as it does in real life. There is a bigger world out there and the world don't revolve around singular pronouns and apparently some mean people too. The book is relevant to a degree if what you seek was the drama part but on the overall execution part, it was poorly done. Too repetitive. Too boring. Too predictable and very unexciting. I know some Harlequin and bodice rippers that are better at these kind of cliched dramas that sometimes did touch my medium sociopathic heartstrings but for its length and effort, its too hyped to make the experience worthwhile.

The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[vanyadrum · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

NOTE: Thanks to Mira Ink (Harlequin UK) and Netgalley for providing me with the ARC of this book.

Oh My Goodness! Pushing the Limits was such an emotional roller coaster! There were highs and lows and passion and broken hearts! It was all that a reader would want from a great novel!

The writing style was perfectly constructed grammar and semantics wise. It was nicely edited, and even I (being the grammar error hound) couldn't find anything out of place. Which, believe me, says a lot. I loved that both POV's were unique. There are books where the POV's sound exactly the same - here they were different. We have two main characters, and they're more than happy to talk for themselves. And for each other.

Several scenes brought me close to tears, and believe me I would've cried, had I not read most of the book in the office. I felt the hurt, the passion, the LOVE, as if they were my own. Echo and Noah implanted themselves in my heart, and I believe they will remain one of my favorite fictional couples. Oh, let's not forget those other scenes that made me rock with laughter! I almost lost it in front of my boss, and had to increase the volume of my music just so he won't hear me cracking up!

Okay, so let's talk characters:

*Echo Emerson was the lost girl. She needed confidence, she needed strength, but most of all she needed her memory back. But, that could cost her her sanity. And still, she was brave enough to risk it, because what is a person with no memory? Especially when that memory holds the key to one's peaceful night sleep... I loved the way Echo changed, evolved and grew during the span of this novel. She started out as a shy, insecure, scared girl, who needed not only moral support. And then a certain boy's influence, along with her own fighting personality, lifted her up to an entirely new level. Her insecurities were forgotten, her selfishness and stubbornness were forgotten and she found a way to find the truth, to forgive and forget. I was completely blown away by Echo's mature way of thinking. She was one female I would never forget.

*Noah Hutchins was the bad boy with bad reputation and even worse habits. He drank, smoked pot and went from one girl to the next. Because his life wasn't easy. Being transferred from one foster home to another, after the tragic incident of his parents' death, had marked him forever. He used to be a basketball star in his early high school years. Now he was a failure. The only motivation for him were his two younger brothers, who lived in a different foster home. His only dream was to graduate, take custody, and raise them the best he could. Noble, but could a high school graduate handle such a burden? Thanks to the influence of two very caring people, Noah's life turned upside down and inside out in just a couple of weeks. He grew up, and finally there was progress for the better. I loved his personality and caring nature, even though he'd carefully wrapped it up in the usual bad boy facade. Totally swoon worthy is all I can say.

*Mrs. Collins was one annoyingly good therapist/social worker. She was so good understanding people's problems and helping them in unimaginable ways, that I couldn't help but love her. She went out of her way to help both Noah and his brothers, and Echo's troubled mind. I loved how she didn't buck under Echo's father's influence. She was totally hard core, and I loved her for it.

*Owen and Ashley Emerson, Echo's father and stepmom gave me the impression, initially, that they didn't really care about her. She thought so too. Until the truth was revealed. I truly felt sorry for them and then happy at the same time. I'm glad they didn't turn out to be the cold people I thought them to be.

*Carrie and Joe, Noah's brothers' foster parents, were perhaps the only characters my intuition was right about. I was glad things turned out the way they did for them. They deserved the outcome, every single bit of it.

There were other prominent characters, but if you want to learn more, you GOTTA READ THE BOOK! PUSHING THE LIMITS rocks, and you won't regret buying it! Have fun reading!

[wjbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome, totally completely beyond Awesome.. I wonder if we could come up with another term: breathtaking, awe-inspiring, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, stunning.. could we use anymore words??!!I knew I was missing out with this series, and I can not wait to start the second book. Hopefully, I can get caught up and be up-to-date with the series. I can not wait to see what will be in store for me as I take the journey to find out about Noah, Echo and all the others.The road of emotions you will ride through is so overwhelming, but I can promise you it is worth it. It is worth even the tears that will be shed, and the smiles that will broke through, I promise.Echo was pretty amazing. She has flaws, and issues. Throughout this book you will come to realize who she is, find out what black hole has been in her mind, she will also figure out how to find herself.Noah has a dark side, but he is also lost for many of reasons. He definitely values his family, and he doesn’t want nothing to stop his love for his brothers. I am glad he got to see the truth before the darkness took everything he ever wanted.Everyone in this book has a purpose/importance, and I loved watching the characters come together. I loved that life wasn’t perfect, people made mistakes, and love didn’t just happen. Love did happen, but it wasn’t the “swoon” love at first. I loved how they had to battle each other, and learn to let go before the other one could fall. Falling is not all about falling in love, but it is also about falling into getting to know yourself, your well-being and what makes you whole. Okay, enough of me rambling, just go get this series! “Let him be, Beth. Sometimes you can’t help who you fall for.” – Isiah ― Katie McGarry

[destinyisntfree · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. So I was a bonehead and had requested the later books in this series without having read this one. So, when this one popped up as 31 cents on Kindle, I jumped right on that.

To give you a bit of perspective... This was about 400 pages, I finished this in less than 24 hours. I cannot believe I did that, but I also couldn't put this book down no matter how hard I tried. I stayed up until 4 in the morning reading. Then I read when I should have been doing, um, other things. Granted, it is Bout of Books week, and I have a goal in mind for a number of pages to finish this week, but I am certain the result would have been the same regardless of what time it was.

Echo and Noah's stories are both heartbreaking and awe-inspiring. The amount of heartbreak in this book brought tears to my eyes on so many occasions, I have no idea how I have tissues left in my house.

The character development in this story was spot on, and I could imagine being a part of the story, sitting down and having coffee with the characters and being a part of their lives. I could imagine living through the experiences, both the beautiful and the horrifying. It felt so real to me, I imagine the story and the characters and the events will disturb my sleep for at least a night or two.

Want to know what happens and how the story ends? Get the book. Seriously, you really need to read this one. I don't care who you are, this book is a must read for everyone. There is a bit of language, but the story wouldn't have worked without it. It needed to be there. I don't say things like that often, but in this case, it's true.

Read the book, then come back and tell me what you think. I love hearing from people about stuff I have read.

[literaryperuser · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Both Noah and Echo carry a great burden. Echo is trying to remember and Noah is trying to forget. Echo suffers from amnesia after an event that left her physically scarred. No one will tell her what happened for fear that she will suffer from a psychotic break. She feels alone in a house filled with the ghost of her dead brother, the shadow of her manic depressive mother, the pressure of her controlling father and the irritation of her former nanny turned new stepmother. Echo wants to remember what happened to her. She wants control over her own life. But mostly, she wants someone to love her most and put her first.Enter Noah, a senior that cuts class, smokes, gets high and spends his free time with a less than savory crowd. What people don't know is that before a fire killed his parents in his sophomore year he was just like them, a basketball star with great prospects. Now he is in the foster care system that has failed him. So, he works to earn money. He is determined to graduate high school, get an apartment and a job so that he can get custody of his two younger brothers. He is steadfast in his mission that his brothers will not undergo the pain he had at the hands of inept foster parents.Can Echo and Noah give each what they really need? Or will their time together just destroy what little sanity each has left?McGarry writes a wonderful romance that shows that their is strength in surviving tragedy. Her characters have depth and learn about themselves even when it seems like the world is pushing them away. A fabulous read.

[dawn94-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of Echo, a high school senior whose life took a drastic turn 2 years ago. She may have blocked out the memories of that night, but they still affect her greatly. When she begins tutoring Noah, the bad-boy stoner with the leather jacket, she can't imagine ever "being" with him. They come from two different circles, after all. But, as time goes on, the pull they feel toward one another only increases. There's much more to this book: Echo working through her repressed memories, Noah working to get custody of his brothers, how these things affect their relationship with one another. I was completely engrossed in the story, reading it in less than a 24-hour period. I liked the main characters, as well as the side characters. There was a believability to it all. And the fact that all the storylines were wrapped up in ways that I fully approved of was an added bonus. :) I highly recommend this book to fans of Young Adult Romance (and it's only 31 cents for Kindle right now)!

[staciesnape-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Warning: May contain spoilers Echo Emerson was the girl in school that everyone wanted to be and every guy wanted to date, but when she up and left for months, only to return with scars on her wrists and arms, she's an outcast. Her father doesn't listen, her step mother (once babysister) is pregnant and her mother is no where to be seen. Why? because she's the one that hurt Echo.Echos mother suffered with bipolar disorder since she and her brother were a kid, but after coming of her meds to paint one day, Echo wakes up in the hospital with no recollection of how she got there. One thing is certain though, her mother tried to kill her. In the space of 6 months Echo not only lost her mother but her brother too, who died in the army, leaving nothing behind for her but a car.Noah Hutchins, once a model student and basketball player, is a stoner guy in foster care after he's parents died in a fire leaving him and his 2 brothers orphans. Fleeting from one foster home to the next because of violence, Noah is willing to what ever it takes to get back on the straight and narrow in order to hopefully get his brothers back, who at the moment he only gets to see for an hour of supervised visits fallowing his last fight.Thrown together by the schools new guidance counselor, Echo starts to tutor Noah, she does it for money to do up her brothers car, and Noah needing to get his grades up. Both have been through hard times in the past two years, but by becoming friends and finally learning to trust someone, they learn to not only deal with it but move on. They find love, friendship, acceptance and Echo slowly gets her memory back while Noah figures out its ok to let people inMy thoughts? it was a very well written book dealing with horrific things. The characters each have a little story of their own and you really get a feel for all of them. (well.. apart from some of Echo's friends. But they aren't really a big issue in the book). One of my favourite characters was Beth, even though she did annoy me at times, and one of the reason's why I haven't said much about her is I know the next book is about her so I'm going to save what I have to say about her till then.

[sunset_x_cocktail · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Contemporary romance isn't my thing. I like my YA romance with a paranormal or more recently a dystopian plot. However, last year I picked up a contemporary YA (Where The Stars Still Shine) and I loved it. It turned out to be one of the best books I read all last year. I kept seeing Harlequin Teen retweeting things about this series, so I figured what the hell.

I'd give it a shot. And I'm glad I did cause wouldn't you know? I loved it to pieces. Fantastically written, gripping plot. I liked Echo right off though it took me a while to warm up to Noah and I still think he's a bit of an ass, but I did wind up really liking him. The story was amazing, and difficult at times. And I must admit I shed more than a few tears.

There was some wonderful descriptive writing. Engaging characters. Thoroughly engaging and amazing story. Looking forward to the rest of this series.

[bonniemarjorie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pushing the Limits is a contemporary YA story about romance and friendship and dealing with loss. Echo was involved in an accident with her mother but the trauma was so strong that her mind has blocked it completely. All she wants to do is remember, but is she strong enough to handle the truth? Noah is still dealing with the loss of his parents in a house fire and is struggling to survive the foster care system. He was separated from his two younger brothers and all he wants to do is obtain custody of them so they can all be a happy family again. Echo and Noah have both suffered in life but are complete opposites of each other, yet they fall for one another just the same.I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: YA contemporary is not my go-to genre. This book sat on my shelf for years because lets be honest, that cover screams nothing but high school! romance! angst! drama! to me. I was surprised that while the romance (and yes, all the angst and drama one could ever hope for) is a major part, the story possessed a depth I was not expecting. Echo and Noah were individuals that had been forced into growing up sooner than necessary due to incidents in their life and Pushing the Limits is their coming of age story that treads the line between YA and NA and will be well-liked by fans of both.Pushing the Limits was entertaining and I read it fairly quickly, however, it didn’t manage to generate much in the way of opinion. I was overall a bit indifferent about Echo and Noah’s story. While I appreciated the complex and separate side stories of both characters, it was all too melodramatic for me in the end. The romance was given some time to develop so instant love wasn’t a real factor, but once the romance started it, the seriousness between the two progressed at the speed of light. There were the obligatory ‘I love you’s’ thrown around and the constant use of ‘babe’. While the characters stories possessed depth I didn’t feel that their romance did. The story suffered in pacing during the second half and would have benefited from a trim in length as it only succeeded in adding more of the already abundant melodramatic flair. Excessively long yet still compulsively readable, it disappointed by ending too predictably. I seem to have nothing but negative things to say, yet I did enjoy the read overall. It’d be worth it to give the author another shot to see how she progresses as a writer.