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Loading... Pushing the Limits (edition 2013)by Katie McGarry
Work detailsPushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
None. Not the authors fault i think this book is written ... Ok but i am bored of this style of story. (  ) jodes101 | May 9, 2013 |  "You ready for a new normal?" —Echo I 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. (  ) NeysaKristanti | May 5, 2013 | Even though everybody and their mother has written a review of this book, I will add my two cents because Netgalley was awesome enough to provide me a copy and I want to show my appreciation. So while others have raved about the steamy interaction between Noah and Echo, I will express how I felt about the other aspects; their tragic and mysterious pasts. I found myself rushing through the book to figure out what happened to Echo as the reader (and most of the characters) were kept in the dark the most of the way. McGarry is upfront about who did what to Echo but the story behind it all was told in glimpses. We discover her past with Echo and not a moment before (well, for those readers who speculate as they read and can generally guess the outcome, this does not apply to you...but i'm not you). The suspense was great. Noah's story, on the other hand, had me in tears. I do not watch tearjerkers nor read them because I get too emotionally involved. Noah and his past hit me like a bellyflop in a pool and left me in pain. Thankfully, the stings of bellyflops fade just as Noah's pain fades little by little. He has quite a bit of maturing to do thoughout but when he finally can see what's in front of his face, we all end up happy. Wonderfully written and alternating between Echo and Noah's point of views is a bonus. This is a very mature young adult novel with a lot of language and mature topics but the cover can tell you that. Thanks again to Netgalley for the copy and thank you to Katy McGarry for writing a book that kept me up till dawn because it was too good to put down. (  ) CLovestoread | Apr 27, 2013 | Sweet story. Ah, young love... ( ) KrisinKW | Apr 22, 2013 | Not even Echo Emerson knows what happened the night she went from being a popular girl with a jock boyfriend to an outsider with scars on her arms. All Echo wants is for things to be normal again. When Noah Hutchins, the school’s resident bad boy, ends up in her life, she finds her world being turned upside down. Though on the surface they don’t have anything in common the two find a solace in one another and begin to work through their respective pasts. Katie McGarry’s romance-psychological drama novel aimed at teens has plenty of appeal factors: sympathetic characters, a compelling plot, and some steamy make-out sessions that will hook readers. In addition to all this, McGarry’s novel is frequently quite compelling, and readers will be turning pages as they try to guess at what has happened and what will happen. The novel is clever in that it uses the romance as a means to explore the deeper issues relevant to its characters. Many readers will find this irresistible. That’s not to say the novel is without its faults, though. McGarry’s novel is way too long and could have excised a great deal of the middle section of the book. Even ignoring this, the novel has a tendency to get a little purple with its prose. Noah, in particular, is prone to referring to Echo as his muse, and it starts to get a little weird. Despite these things, however, the novel remains a fairly strong debut. The novel deals with some heavy topics, including abuse, foster care, and bi-polar disorder. Particularly well done are the alternating voices of Echo and Noah, whose narrations remain fairly distinct throughout. There’s some satisfying things at the end of the novel, but everything doesn’t end too neatly, which means readers who like their stories a little darker should walk away fairly satisfied. A compelling romance with some psychological twists. Recommended for fans of Simone Elkeles. Read for the Cybils Round 1 Panel. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry. Harlequin Teen: 2012. Library copy. (  ) Clem_Bojangles | Apr 17, 2013 |
 I never went to bed last night and I just slept for an hour or two this morning but ever since I woke up I was avoiding this moment. I simply can't do that any longer but I have no idea how to start describing the raw emotions that racked my heart and soul while I was reading the book. I know that these are strong words but if you don't get it then you haven't read the book. This morning after my tears dried up I was trying to sum up something that will make you guys understand how much I loved this book but I'll just improvise now... If I had to describe the book in a few words they would probably be real, believable, easy to relate to, emotional, heartbreaking! It made me smile, it made me cry and it settled in my heart as my favorite book so far. Definitely the most meaningful book I've read in a while! It's really and unbelievable read. The way Ketie McGarry has described her characters, the world she's build around Echo Emerson and Noah Hutchins, that it was so easy to slip into their lives and experience everything right along with them (and when I say everything I mean it, the love, the heart-wrecking pain, the anger...). The two main characters, were so different from each other at the time they met. Before their lives fell apart they were pretty similar but right now they are both living and their own personal hell, going trough it day by day. They were wrong for each other but the connection between them was so strong, due to the fact that they felt that pain I mentioned earlier. The both new loss and the were there for each other liken no one else could be for them. Echo was the girl everyone new about, everyone talked about, everyone wanted her life and then she lost everything she cared about in just a few months. Her life changed inevitably after her brother's death and the horrible accident she can't remember. Now her life consists of having very little sleep, doing what her father wants her to do, pretend she's normal at school and hiding her scars from the rest of the world. Simple, but that routine changed very quickly when the gorgeous, incredibly sexy and completely off limits, Noah Hutchins walked into her life teasing and trying to rattle her cage. That's when everything changed again for her, maybe this time for the better... When you look at Noah, you see the sexy body, you see him as a stunner, a guy who uses girls for sex and that's all. But deep inside he is scarred just as Echo is on the outside. His fate was to lose his parents in a fire and his brothers to the foster system. A system he hated and fight with everyday. His one goal in life is to save money, find a semi-good job and take custody of his brothers. He can't stand the fact that he can't see them and he is hurting but by the way he acted with everyone you wouldn't be able to understand his pain. Only Echo did, she was the only one besides his friends that managed to break through the wall around his heart and she stole it away with her siren smile and guarded actions. What I loved most about the book was the sincerity of the characters. Noah had a f****d up life and swearing was his a constant part of him. He rebelled and he messed up and he was far from perfect but he was real. I particularly love one of his lines and here it is: "It had been so long since I'd let myself fall for someone. I gazed into her beautiful green eyes and her fear melted. A shy smile tugged at her lips and at my heart. Fuck me and the rest of the world. I was in love." I don't know what is it about bad guys that makes them so appealing. There is something amazing in each of them. In the end they turned out to have the biggest. kindest hearts and maybe that's because they've already been trough hell and the tough demeanor was his way of coping. But they always doubt themselves when it comes to being with the good girls and they always try so hard to prove that they're worthy. That makes them so sweet and gentle and pretty much every girl's dream. They don't even see the goodness inside themselves. Noah was just like that, trying, having doubt, expecting that Echo will snap out of her momentary daze and she'll leave. Little did he know, how much she loved him. Everything in Noah made me smile from how good he is with Echo, and his brothers, to his love for Beth and Isaiah, to his tattoo as a tribute to his family(oh that tattoo alone made me cry). And here's the quote that broke my heart: "I want my mom and dad," I couldn't suck in air. "I just want my family back." It really is impossible for me to describe just how I feel about this book. It was the best book I've read in a while, so full of love and heart-wrecking pain. It was an emotional roller-coaster and constant struggle but the characters fought their battle and survived! I loved every single second of it! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!
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