Title: Crash Into You
Author: Katie McGarry
Series: Pushing the Limits #3
Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: November 26, 2013
Pages: 489 Pages
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
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.
I would just like to say a huge thank you to Harlequin Teen and Netgalley for supplying me this eARC, because I literally screamed and jumped with joy when I got approved, and I dove into it immediately.
Isaiah Walker is a seventeen year-old foster kid who has secrets a lot of secrets about his past, and a "bad boy" image that others fear. Rachel is a "goody two shoes", yet she's keeping a lot from her parents. When these two meet, sparks fly, love grows, and suddenly, two souls become one. Through each other, they discover their strengths and weaknesses, and draw strength from one another in order to grow as a person.
I wasn't exactly a fan of Isaiah in
Dare You To, but then I was excited to hear his side of the story because he deserves it. I didn't like Beth in
Pushing the Limits either, but I understood her in Dare You To and came to love her. Same is true with Isaiah. Despite his tattoos and bad boy image, he has this gentle, caring, compassionate and understanding side to him that I know every girl would love. To be honest, I wasn't able to stop thinking of Isaiah days after I read this! I got Isaiah hangover!
Rachel shows the image of a good girl, but then inside she has the passion for cars and speed. If there's one thing I learned from life and books, it's that sometimes, pretending is harder than not pretending. I admire Rachel because she loves her family dearly, and is willing to make sacrifices for them, and for me, family is very important.
As always, Katie McGarry has yet again written a romantic gem that not only focuses on romance, but also on the reality of life and the lessons needed to get by. Somehow, someway, I can always relate to Katie's characters, even though we don't exactly have the same situations. We always have connections, and that's what makes it all the more amazing!
Crash Into You, for me, did not top Dare You To, but nonetheless, I loved it (DUH) and it is a different kind of amazing in its own way.
There are two things I learned from reading Katie McGarry's books: One, do not judge a person by their outer appearances. Her characters almost always are not who people think them to be, which taught me not to judge others because we haven't tried to be on their shoes yet. Second, it's not knowing that others are worse off than you that make you feel better. What makes you feel better is that others are experiencing the same thing you are experiencing, and being able to relate to one another, even if it's a fictional character, is the most therapeutic experience ever!
If you haven't read a book by Katie McGarry yet, I suggest you start now! I swear you'd thank me for it later on. ;)
“You can ignore me, Rachel, and you can try to treat me as a friend, but none of that will erase the fact that I think about kissing you every second I’m awake and dream at night of my hands on your body. And it sure as hell won’t erase that I’m terrified by how much I like you.
“When I’m with you, even my past seems like a bad dream,” he says. “I’ve sat on this hill a hundred times, and all I used to see were lights that represented places where I wasn’t wanted, where I never belonged. Now, when you aren’t with me, I look east and know one of those lights represents you, and I don’t feel alone anymore.”
“I don’t want to be without you. I like who I am with you, and I don’t want to go back to who I was before.”“I love you, Rachel. So this will work. No matter what or who stands in our way.”
Labels: 4.5 Stars, ARC Review, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
