Author: Katie McGarry
Release: November 26, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Series: Pushing the Limits
Pages: 474
Review: Five Stars!
The amazingness of this book was spectacular! I got it on release day and started it the day after. It finished it at 1:30 in morning. Less than 24 hours after starting. It was that good. Crash Into You was everything that Dare You To wasn't. The first book, Pushing the Limits, was perfections incarnate. Dare You To was good, but just didn't interest me as much. Crash Into You basically exploded into my mind and wouldn't let it go. I had to know what happened next. I'm not a huge contemporary reader, there are only a few on my shelves, most by the same couple authors (Katie McGarry, Ally Carter, and Simone Elkeles). But Crash Into You blew them all away! It focuses on drag racing and cars as its central theme, something I'd never read about before. I swear, I learned more about cars in that one book than I have in my entire life.
The book is dual POV, between Isaiah and Rachel. Rachel is awesome. She is kick-butt, she has a bunch of awesome over-protective older brothers, and she knows way more about cars than I do. She had a slight problem with panic attacks though. And have I mentioned her family life? It kinda stinks. The one thing I hate about Rachel is that she refuses to tell her parents about her panic attacks, which are a risk to her life. I wish that she'd just realize that, despite how much she wanted to please everyone else, she had to put herself first. Her parents could only be happy if she was. Her family comes out of a good place, and they really do love her, but they have a really hard time of showing it.
Isaiah is, I can't even. He is simply spectacular. We've known him since book one, and the entire time, we the readers have been wanting a happy ending for him. Isaiah grew up in foster care, which has not treated him well. He's best friends with Noah, the protagonist of book one. Isaiah can fend for himself, and knows cars like nobodies business, but he has a hard time admitting he needs help. He also doesn't know the full story, and tends to make hasty judgements. Overall, I find Isaiah an awesome character, who grows into a wonderful person by the end of the story. He's complex, which is something I love to read about. The romance between him and Rachel was a bit sudden, but it also built at the same time. It was like an insta-attraction that built into something more.
Has anyone heard the Avril Lavigne song 17? If not, check out the lyrics here. This song is basically Rachel and Isaiah's relationship. The feel of the song is how they are. How they're living free and in love. A few of the lyrics really stood out to me though. "Flicking lighters just to fight the dark. My favorite place was sitting in his car." "We were running red lights." The first line immediately makes me think of when Isaiah gave Rachel his lighter, which had great sentimental value to him. The whole purpose of the story was cars, and that was where they would hang out together. We were running red lights could reference the drag racing, or just plain ole driving that Rachel would do. What do you think? Do any other songs come to mind?
The end of the book (before the epilogue). I swear, my heart stopped. I did not believe that Katie McGarry would do that to me. I had only recently suffered through the end of Allegiant, and my heart was still healing. Thankfully, the author saved my heart from total destruction and the book did not end in weeping, though it definitely hit the feels in the heart. The writing of the novel was superb. It couldn't have been done better. Oh, and I forgot to mention Abby. She was easily my favorite character in the novel, and I demand that she get a novella or novel all to herself! She was in such deep trouble, I just had to see how she dug herself out. Actually, I have a list of characters I want to see with their own story, with Abby on top, closely followed by Logan and with Ethan coming in for a close third. The characters are so original, deep, and intense. The plot was non-stop action, and I couldn't help but squeal when old characters came back into the story. There was a lot of squealing. Basically, read the book. It will be worth every second you have it in your arms. Crash Into You easily gets a full five stars!
Author Bio:
Katie McGarry was a teenager in the age of grunge and teen boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. She is also the author of Pushing the Limits, Dare You To, and the novella Crossing the Line.
You Can Find Her At:
Website
Goodreads
Synopsis:
From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane
The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.
Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.
But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.
You Can Find it At:
Amazon
YES 17 by Avril Lavigne works perfectly!
ReplyDeleteGreat review, you were thinking the same things as me in my review!
Em @ http://theyabookbutterfly.blogspot.com/