Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Release Date: 7th June, 2013

Publisher: Mira Ink

Pages: 352pgs

The Story

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. "Dance with me, Beth."

"No." I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again....

"I dare you..."

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does . . .

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all . . .

The Review

A big thanks to the publisher on netGalley for accepting my request in reading this book early!

Whoa. Whoa. WHOA. Okay so I absolutely loved Katie McGarry's debut, Pushing the Limits, as did others judging by the many, many high praising reviews it received and it too had become one of my favourite contemporary YA titles from last year and one that was pretty much unforgettable for me. But just when I thought her sequel and companion book to the series could never ever beat my epic love of her debut book and its featured characters . . . I was clearly wrong - DEAD WRONG - in all respects and I totally mean in ALL respects possible because my mind was blown!

DARE YOU TO continues the Pushing the Limits series with Beth, a very misunderstood teenage girl who we were introduced to in the first book. Now coming from a deadbeat family with a mother who couldn't care less about her and with no father present, Beth has a very little chance of a great life. But when she is arrested for something her mother and her mother's lowlife boyfriend did (only Beth takes the blame for it), Beth is soon reunited with her wealthy Uncle, someone she hasn't even seen since she was a kid and whom decides to let her live - or rather force her to live - with him and his new wife. As she's taken away from everything she knows dear including her best friend Isaiah, Beth is quickly enrolled into an entirely new school and meets the golden boy of the town, Ryan, someone who doesn't mind a good old dare. So when Beth becomes one of Ryan's dares, she is soon challenged in every aspect of her new life - in family, friends, and most importantly, in new love. But the question is: Is Ryan the perfect start to her do-over life or is just the beginning of even more trouble for Beth and her family?

Despite what I felt for the first book in the series, never have I felt this way about another contemporary YA book before! You know, the way where you just sit there in one place, on a bed, and keep on reading a book until you finish every single page of it . . . even if it means no food or water in-between those chapter breaks? Yeah . . . that was the exact feeling I got from this book and boy this book was totally worth my time! DARE YOU TO deserves more than this blabbing review because the book releases all sorts of emotions within me - the emotions that had everything to do with the sexy tension, the sizzling chemistry, the sometimes exuberant characters, and a strongly-driven storyline. And in the end, I guess what surprised me even more when it comes down to this book was that I LOVED this sequel way more than the first book, Pushing the Limits, and who would have thought, right? I know . . . I had no idea Katie McGarry could outdo herself with this one!

I think what made this book shine even more than it already did was the dual-perspectives that was told from the characters, Beth and Ryan. Both of the narratives told from these two main characters, I find, was so . . . intense and yet so emotional too. It was almost as if these people were actually real to me and were among my own company of friends, so that's a very rare feeling to get from a book alone so the author clearly did something very right in that respect. 

Now Beth for me was someone so rough around the edges and doesn't know love at all - even if it hit her right in the face - and yet she possessed every single quality that I love in a good, strong and a very inspiring main character - honesty, loyalty and a feisty personality - and when she is with her potential love interest, Ryan, her character just keeps on getting better and better. As for Ryan, he was another character I could respect and he's exactly what I love in a love interest - someone who isn't all what he seems but is caring for the most part. I just absolutely loved him to death. LOVED him! I mean, much like with Beth's character, Ryan did everything right for me and it's great to see his own company of friends to be . . . well . . . really good friends and not total idiots.

Overall, I could go on and on about this book. Forever even. I mean, DARE TO YOU delivers more than just a regular YA contemporary storyline . . .  it actually breaks you down in all of the emotion it contains and in the best possible way too. So if you loved and had many 'feels' for the first book in the series, Pushing the Limits, then be prepared for its sequel. It's a real heart-aching and an emotion kicker, and I can't wait to get Isaiah's side of things in the third book continuation of Crash Into You, which should be coming out sometime next year! Can't wait!

The Rating

5/5 stars