Risking It All - Review

Risking It All (Pushing the Limits: The Next Generation, # 1)

By: Katie McGarry

Publication: October 21, 2024 by Katie McGarry LLC

271 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--From Award Winning, Critically Acclaimed Author Katie McGarry comes the Next Generation of Pushing the Limits characters.

Her life has been shattered. His life was never whole. Can one summer change everything?

After a violent carjacking left her bleeding in the street, Macie Hutchins fears she’ll never be the same. She’s not the girl she once was—even if she puts up a good front.

Head down, she tries to survive the sweltering summer—and group therapy sessions—with secrets intact and scars hidden. Both those on the outside and inside.

But Relic Aslanov has always been trouble. Complicated trouble. Dangerous trouble. And his presence in therapy is making Macie’s plan to lie low and cope on her own trickier than her life has already become.

She can’t seem to hide from him, though. And he can’t seem to stay away from her—even when the long-standing rivalry between their families should keep them apart.

But as the summer simmers on, so do the looks, the touches—and the kisses that were never supposed to happen.

As things heat up between Macie and Relic, her white-picket-fence world collides with his wrong-side-of-the-tracks hell, and the truth about the carjacking bubbles to the surface.

When the dust settles and the truth is revealed, will the risk they took be worth it? Or have their pasts already doomed their future?

Katie McGarry sucked me in with her Pushing the Limits series many moons ago. I've been keeping my eyes out for more of her books, so when I saw a release featuring Noah & Echo's daughter as the FMC, I knew I wanted to get my hands on it. I didn't see it on NetGalley or Edelweiss, so I bought this with some Christmas gift cards that I got. 

Macie is Noah & Echo's daughter. And she has suffered a tragedy. She was carjacked and shot. Now she's in trauma group therapy, where no one wants to talk. As a matter of fact, Macie can't talk. Every time she tries to talk about the "accident," she triggers a panic attack. Since the attack, Macie hasn't been able to drive either. Being in the car triggers panic attacks as well. She only has two friends that she still talks to. One is her best friend, who lives next door, Isaiah and Rachel's daughter--Ariel. And Gianna is the other. Ariel spends most of the book out of the country otherwise, the story wouldn't have the conflict it needed in some areas. 

The MMC, Relic, is doing court-ordered group therapy as part of a plea deal after he got caught stealing money from a car. Relic has it rough. His mom left after he was born. His dad has just gotten out of prison. But he is right back in the clutches of a local drug dealer and gangster boss who happens to have ties to the previous series of books — specifically Chasing Impossible. Relic has an older sister who isn't all that reliable. And he has a younger sister that he's trying to protect at all costs. 

Group therapy is where we meet most of the side characters from this story. They are all in therapy because of the trauma they are trying to overcome, process, and deal with. I don't want to spoil their stories, but I will say that I was frustrated with the bisexual(?) character. Basically, a boy who likes to wear girls' clothes. I liked Lev, and I felt terrible for the situation he was in. Yet, I can't say that I support his decisions or choices either. You can disagree with someone without hating them. And you can feel the same about a book character, also. I wish this weren't included in the story, but I'm mentioning it in case it affects other readers' desire to pick up this book. 

Favorite quotes:

-"I'm not honest. I'm a survivalist. Those are two different traits. But here, tonight, I have no reason to lie."

-"You apologize for things that aren't your fault. Don't." "I'm not apologizing, I'm saying that I hurt for you."

Macie and Relic faced an incredibly difficult situation. I was thankful that Relic was as open with Macie as he was. So often, the MMC would try to hide everything he was going through if it were of the nature that Relic was. It was fun to see the old Pushing the Limits crew as adults and parents. 

Risking It All gets 4 Stars from me. I wasn't surprised by the pieces that were intended to be surprises. I liked Macie and Relic. They had a sweet relationship. I enjoyed seeing the old characters from the previous series as adults and parents. And even though I didn't enjoy the pro-LGBT included, I still liked the side characters. I'm curious if we'll get to read more of the children from the original series. Ariel, perhaps. Have you read Risking It All? What did you think? Let me know!

Top Ten Books I Want Santa to Bring

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week's topic is Top Ten Books I Want Santa to Bring

1. Frankly, My Dear Clara (London Dreams, # 1) by Kristi Ann Hunter
2. Risking It All (Pushing the Limits Next Generation, # 1) by Katie McGarry
3. Saved by the Matchmaker (A Shanahan Match, # 2) by Jody Hedlund
4. A Lady of Conscience (Somerset Stories, # 5) by Mimi Matthews
5. There Goes the Groom (A Romance of Rank, # 3) by Esther Hatch
6. Persuaded by the Sea by Amanda Taylor
7. Praying the Scripture for Your Children by Jodie Berndt
8. Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom for Parents and Children from Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers
9. Committing to the Cowgirl (Colorado Cowgirls, # 1) by Jody Hedlund
10. Awaking Wonder: Opening Your Child's Heart to the Beauty of Learning by Sally Clarkson

Which books are you hoping Santa brings you? Let me know!

Ten Books for Back to School

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Books for Back to School.

Ok so it's been twelve years since I graduated high school. (I know I'm totally giving away my age here.) I guess college can qualify here too, but that wasn't really my college experience as once I started I never stopped until I finished. And even then I graduated from college more than 5 years ago. Point being, it's been a while since I did the back to school thing. But I'm including my favorite books with high school and college settings here.

1. Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry, # 1) by Simone Elkeles (review coming soon)
2. Catching Jordan (Hundred Oaks, # 1) by Miranda Kenneally
3. Slammed (Slammed, # 1) by Colleen Hoover
4. Easy (Contours of the Heart, # 1) by Tammara Webber
5. All Lined Up (Rusk University, # 1) by Cora Carmack
6. Reason to Breathe (Breathing, # 1) by Rebecca Donovan
7. Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, # 1) by Katie McGarry
8. To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, # 1) by Jenny Han
9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
10. Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, # 1) by Richelle Mead

What are your favorite back to school books? Let me know!

Chasing Impossible - Review

Chasing Impossible (Pushing the Limits, # 5)

By: Katie McGarry

Published: July 1st 2015

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library (as a gift for pre-ordering Nowhere But Here)

( Goodreads )

Goodreads description--Tough and independent, 17-year-old Abby lets very few people into her inner circle. It’s common knowledge in her Kentucky town that she deals drugs, but not even her closest friends know why. But when a deal goes south and Abby’s suddenly in danger, she finds herself reluctantly forced to lean on daredevil Logan—a boy whose restless spirit matches her own.

Logan has his own reasons for wanting to keep Abby at arms’ length. But he never expected to find in her the one person who might help him face the demons he’s tried so hard to run from.

Together, Abby and Logan will have to make a decision: let their current circumstances weigh them down forever…or fight for the future they both thought was impossible.

Abby has been a character since Crash Into You. She and Isaiah have been friends from way back. Isaiah is probably the closest person to her (that we know about), yet she’s slowly let more people into her life recently. Rachel, Isaiah’s girlfriend, and her brother, West, and all of the people who come along with them. I’ve been intrigued by Abby. She’s crazy. She says the weirdest things. And she’s a drug dealer. Can’t say I’ve ever really read a book where the main character was a drug dealer. So I wanted to know more. What’s it like inside her head?

The answer to that question wasn’t as weird or as crazy as I expected. When we start Chasing Impossible, Abby is realizing that she’s about to get drawn into the world of dealing so much deeper than she wanted to be. Her employer is showing more interest in her because she’s done her job too well. Because things are never simple when dealing with the illegal, Abby gets pulled into turf war issues. Shots are fired. Sides are blurred. And Abby isn’t sure where she stands anymore. What she realizes more than anything is that this isn’t the life she wants for herself. It never really was, but it was a means to an end.

Logan’s been attracted to Abby for a while. They play a lot of games of pretending and dares, but they’ve never crossed any lines. Yet, Logan can’t help but get pulled into Abby’s troubles. She needs help, and he’s the person standing the closest when everything breaks loose. Logan’s been keeping a secret of his own. It’s not quite the same thing that Abby’s dealing with, but it does help him understand how to relate to some of the things she’s going through. Logan’s life has to be controlled and so any time he can he finds a way to cut loose and do something crazy. What’s crazier than falling for the girl who sells drugs?

I think I’ve established that I’m a Katie McGarry fan. I find myself hooked into her stories and her characters. And I care about what happens to them. But I wasn’t completely sold on Chasing Impossible. Being inside Abby’s head wasn’t as crazy as I expected it to be. She’s dealing with a lot on her plate, but I didn’t buy it all at the same time. Logan and Abby’s relationship was easy to understand. I was rooting for them, but I felt like they progressed to the love stage a little too quickly. Deeply caring for each other I could buy, but love I found a bit skeptical. I can totally see where they could make their way to that place eventually, but not yet. And then there was the ending. Things wrapped up a little too neatly for me. I have a problem with cookie cutter endings. I like happily ever afters, but Chasing Impossible had one of those endings that felt a little too perfect for me.

I do have to say that if anything, Chasing Impossible solidified my opinion that Isaiah might just be my favorite guy out of all of the Pushing the Limits characters. And that’s tough since Noah was my first love from the series. Isaiah is just always in the mix. He’s always involved. He’s really the center of the group (since we branched off into West and Abby’s stories). And he’s always about protecting those he cares about. And every now and then the wise words that make all of the difference come from his lips.

Favorite quotes:

-”But you can’t protect someone who decides to play with live explosives.”

-“I’m a ghost. I always have been. Occasionally, I just pretend to be real.”

-“I’ve learned that none of us are really aware what we’re capable of until we’re confronted with the options.”

It is my understanding that Chasing Impossible is a limited time release for those people who pre-ordered a copy of Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry. Considering how many people I’ve already heard say that they need to get their hands on this, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I expect Katie McGarry to release Chasing Impossible through some other means eventually. Otherwise there will be a lot of complaining and whining among those who didn’t get the memo. Because Chasing Impossible wasn’t released through a traditional publisher, I did find some mistakes—grammatical and even the wrong character name at one point—but I didn’t let that affect me too much.

Chasing Impossible was an enjoyable read from Katie McGarry and I’m glad that I’ve read it. It makes a nice addition to the Pushing the Limits series and of course makes me want more—Chris and Lacy, Ethan? But it had some flaws and issues for me as well. Not my favorite in the series but still enjoyable. Chasing Impossible gets 3.5 Stars. Have you read Chasing Impossible? What did you think? Let me know!

Last Ten Books I Received

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Last Ten Books I Received.

1. Lead (Stage Dive, # 3) by Kylie Scott
2. Chasing Impossible (Pushing the Limits, # 5) by Katie McGarry
3. The Selection (The Selection, # 1) by Kiera Cass
4. Beautiful Sacrifice (The Maddox Brothers, # 3) by Jamie McGuire
5. PS I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, # 2) by Jenny Han
6. Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E Smith
7. Stealing Third by Marta Brown
8. The Elite (The Selection, # 2) by Kiera Cass
9. Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown
10. The Lies About Truth by Courtney C Stevens

What about you? What are the last ten books that you received? Let me know!

Breaking the Rules - Review

Breaking the Rules (Pushing the Limits, # 1.5)

By: Katie McGarry

Published: December 8th 2014 by Harlequin Teen

304 pages

Genre: YA/NA, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library (from Husband)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--A summer road trip changes everything in this unforgettable new tale from acclaimed author Katie McGarry

For new high school graduate Echo Emerson, a summer road trip out west with her boyfriend means getting away and forgetting what makes her so... different. It means seeing cool sights while selling her art at galleries along the way. And most of all, it means almost three months alone with Noah Hutchins, the hot, smart, soul-battered guy who’s never judged her. Echo and Noah share everything — except the one thing Echo’s just not ready for.

But when the source of Echo’s constant nightmares comes back into her life, she has to make some tough decisions about what she really wants — even as foster kid Noah’s search for his last remaining relatives forces them both to confront some serious truths about life, love, and themselves.

Now, with one week left before college orientation, jobs and real life, Echo must decide if Noah's more than the bad-boy fling everyone warned her he'd be. And the last leg of an amazing road trip will turn... seriously epic.

I love Katie McGarry’s writing. She hooks me. She sucks me in. She gets me to care about the characters on the page. And I usually love every word of it. But Echo and Noah had their happy ending. I’m always nervous when characters I love get their happy ending in one book, I think that’s the end of the story, and then bam more conflict, more fights, and more drama. So I was scared about what Echo and Noah would face in round two. Yet, (this is only a spoiler if you haven’t read Crash Into You) we know that Echo and Noah are together and happy later on in the series. Breaking the Rules takes place after Pushing the Limits but before Dare You To and consequently before Crash Into You. So I at least went into Breaking the Rules knowing that no matter what conflict Echo and Noah come up against they make it out on the other side together and happy. I can’t tell you how comforting it was to know that.

Echo and Noah are still the same Echo and Noah I came to love in Pushing the Limits, but both characters come with a lot of baggage. Both have scarred pasts (literally), and both have endured even more since finding each other. And as anyone who’s been through any kind of pain in their lives (which is everyone, right?) knows…painful experiences are…well…painful. And Echo and Noah can’t just skip over that part. Noah has to face the demons of guilt he feels over his parents death and knowing that his mother has a family that she kept from him. And Echo has to face her grief over Aires death and try to find some way to move forward toward forgiving her mother. All of that is on top of Echo and Noah figuring out how to pursue their separate dreams (art and college) while somehow, someway staying together through it all yet not holding the other back at the same time. Essentially, it’s a complicated equation.

There were times when both Echo and Noah frustrated me in this book. Not to the point of wanting to put the book down or loving them less, but enough for me to want to rough them up. We all make dumb decisions, right? And sadly it’s those decisions that we usually end up learning the most from, and that was true for Echo and Noah. Those times when I wanted to smack them, they kind of wanted to smack themselves. So that helps.

Katie McGarry did a great job of pulling in catch phrases from Pushing the Limits that really made me feel like I was back in Noah and Echo’s heads…like how Noah calls Echo his siren. And how Echo thinks Ms. Collins reminds her of a Labrador retriever. It’s the little things. Speaking of…here are my favorite quotes:

-”I’ll never let you get so far in front of me that I can’t catch you.”

-“The sole reason a constellation exists is because it’s a sum of its parts. To lose one of those parts…it’s painful and irreversible.”

-”I don’t want to lose the way you look at me—like I’m something…someone.”

-I bite my tongue, wishing I could utter the words, I love you more now, and it scares me. Please, please, please never leave.

-“I get it.” “You don’t.” He slams his palm over his chest, over his heart. “They left me too!”

-“God sifts us all like wheat. He refines us like flour. He works through the good in our lives and through the bad.”…

-“Tell me where she went, and I’ll take you.” “Naw,” says Isaiah. “You give us the keys, I’ll drive, he’ll save the girl and I’ll let you live.”

I loved the section with Noah’s uncle that I started to quote (next to last) above. I wanted to quote that whole paragraph, but decided to save it for you to just read in the book itself. So often characters in these books don’t believe in God (Noah battles with that himself), and often times I feel like that is a direct result of the author themselves not believing in God…or maybe it’s just the popular thing these days…or maybe it’s just easier for the author not to have to include God in a story that isn’t really ABOUT God. Whatever the reason for most YA books leaving Him out altogether, I absolutely loved that Katie McGarry included this section. I didn’t feel like she was pushing God on the reader. Noah still isn’t convinced what he thinks or believes, but I just loved that it was included.

Also, since Breaking the Rules has more adult themes than Pushing the Limits and Echo and Noah take things farther physically, I felt like Echo’s response to that aspect of their relationship was one of the most genuine that I’ve ever read. I think these are the things that every girl thinks and feels. And I find it utterly unrealistic that anyone can go from insecure and scared to confident and fearless in one jump. So I loved how honest this part was.

All in all, I really enjoyed Breaking the Rules. While I was emotionally involved, Breaking the Rules didn’t quite pull the emotion out of me that Pushing the Limits did. The writing was solid. I still love the characters. I can’t wait to read more of Katie McGarry. Breaking the Rules gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read Breaking the Rules? What did you think? Let me know!

*Also, I loved the small snippet of Nowhere But Here included at the end. I’m stoked to read more about Oz and the new series.

Upon Further Review: Believe Tiny Limits

Upon Further Review is an original feature here at Somewhere Only We Know. I have always loved re-reading my favorite books, and I wanted a way to incorporate re-reading into my blog. Thus From the Ashes and Upon Further Review were born. From the Ashes is where I re-read a book that I have never reviewed before and finally review it. Upon Further Review is where I re-read a book that I've already reviewed and see if my original rating stands or not. This is also the time for me to discuss any new revelations that my latest re-read has brought to my attention.

*So I’ve been in a bit of a reading funk lately, right? October was not a good reading month for me. And so I thought that re-reading some books that I already knew what to expect, how they end, and that I knew I would enjoy would be a great way to motivate me and move me out of my reading slump. (*Disclaimer: I did re-read Ten Tiny Breaths well before the reading slump began, but I just hadn’t typed an Upon Further Review post about it and felt like this was the perfect time to include it.)Here's my original review of Believe, my original review of Ten Tiny Breaths, and my original review of Pushing the Limits.

Believe (True Believers, # 3)

By: Erin McCarthy

Published: January 21st 2014 by InterMix

232 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Robin used to be a party girl… until she got black out drunk and woke up in bed with her best friend's boyfriend. Now she's faced with being THAT girl, and couldn't be more disgusted with herself. She can't even tell her friends the reason for her sudden sobriety and she avoids everyone until she meets Phoenix—quiet, tattooed, and different in every way that's good and oh, so bad…

Phoenix is two days out of jail when he meets Robin at his cousin's house, and he knows that he has no business talking to her, but he's drawn to her quiet demeanor, sweet smile, and artistic talent. She doesn't care that he's done time, or that he only has five bucks to his name, and she supports his goal to be a tattoo artist.

But Phoenix knows Robin has a secret, and that it's a naïve dream to believe that his record won't catch up with them at some point. Though neither is prepared for the explosive result when the past collides with the present…

Believe was my favorite from the True Believers series by Erin McCarthy. I loved the way that Robin’s big secret was beginning to be set up at the end of Sweet. And more than anything, I liked seeing a character make a terrible mistake, feel remorseful, and then work towards making things as right as she could. Trying to be redeemed.

The Robin from before this epic mistake is not a Robin that I would have related to at all. I never was a partier and still don’t even really enjoy being around others who are drinking. So I wouldn’t have been able to connect to her. But I most certainly can relate to someone who makes a big mistake, feels awful about it, and then tries to do what she can to fix it.

Phoenix is the perfect counterpart for Robin. Phoenix has made his fair share of mistakes as well. Being fresh out of jail and all. Yet the reason why he went to jail isn’t even one of the things he would consider a mistake. Either way because Phoenix understands, he’s able to offer Robin what she needs—acceptance and forgiveness. He was an easily likeable leading male for this book.

Upon my re-read, I did focus in on how quickly Robin and Phoenix’s relationship progresses. They’re declaring love for each other and moving forward on a physical level at a ridiculous pace. But you know how things like time don’t always translate on paper. I initially rated this book 4 Stars, and the whole point of my Upon Further Review features is to see if this rating still stands for me or not, and well…it does. Believe deserves every one of those 4 Stars. I mean it has to say something that it hasn’t even been a year since my first read through of this book and I’m already pulling it out for a re-read, right?

Have you read Believe? What did you think? Would you consider re-reading it? Let me know!

Ten Tiny Breaths (Ten Tiny Breaths, # 1)

By: KA Tucker

Published: December 11th 2012 by Papoti Books

262 pages

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary

Source: Borrowed from my SNL, Holly @ Words Fueled by Love

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Kacey Cleary’s whole life imploded four years ago in a drunk-driving accident. Now she’s working hard to bury the pieces left behind—all but one. Her little sister, Livie. Kacey can swallow the constant disapproval from her born-again aunt Darla over her self-destructive lifestyle; she can stop herself from going kick-boxer crazy on Uncle Raymond when he loses the girls’ college funds at a blackjack table. She just needs to keep it together until Livie is no longer a minor, and then they can get the hell out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

But when Uncle Raymond slides into bed next to Livie one night, Kacey decides it’s time to run. Armed with two bus tickets and dreams of living near the coast, Kacey and Livie start their new lives in a Miami apartment complex, complete with a grumpy landlord, a pervert upstairs, and a neighbor with a stage name perfectly matched to her chosen “profession.” But Kacey’s not worried. She can handle all of them. What she can’t handle is Trent Emerson in apartment 1D.

Kacey doesn’t want to feel. She doesn’t. It’s safer that way. For everyone. But sexy Trent finds a way into her numb heart, reigniting her ability to love again. She starts to believe that maybe she can leave the past where it belongs and start over. Maybe she’s not beyond repair.

But Kacey isn’t the only one who’s broken. Seemingly perfect Trent has an unforgiveable past of his own; one that, when discovered, will shatter Kacey’s newly constructed life and send her back into suffocating darkness.

After picking up In Her Wake, which is Trent’s version of the Ten Tiny Breaths events, I was dying for a re-read of this book. And re-read it I did--in like a day. So essentially, even though In Her Wake is slightly different, I’ve still experienced Trent and Kacey’s story in some form or other THREE times in the last year. I don’t feel like I have anything else to really add to my original reviews of either Ten Tiny Breaths or In Her Wake, except to say that even after experiencing this story as many times as I have, I still feel like Ten Tiny Breaths deserves the 4.5 Stars that I originally gave it. Knowing what I now know about Trent’s perspective, Ten Tiny Breaths was even deeper, and where his motives and actions didn’t make sense before, they do now. I highly recommend this book.

Have you read Ten Tiny Breaths? What did you think? Is it worthy of a re-read for you? Let me know!

Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, # 1)

By: Katie McGarry

Published: July 31st 2012 by Harlequin Teen

384 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository )

*Note: The above links to Amazon and Book Depository are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--So wrong for each other …and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal.

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

So I originally read Pushing the Limits a little over two years ago, right? And I loved it. So much so that I couldn’t even really discuss it at the time in any kind of intelligent way. I only seemed to keep repeating “READ THIS BOOK!” Well I always planned to re-read it, but with blogging and reading books for review sometimes books that I want to read for pleasure get pushed to the side, and that’s doubly true for books that I want to re-read. But since I’ve been in this reading funk, I just really wanted to read a book that I knew what to expect and knew I would love. I didn’t want unpredictable. I didn’t want being able to see any train wrecks yet be powerless to stop them. I just wanted to get pulled into a good book and love every minute of it.

And thank goodness, that is exactly what happened for me during this re-read of Pushing the Limits. Because I was able to relax with the story since I knew what to expect and what was going to happen, I was actually able to appreciate Katie McGarry’s writing style better during this read through. I was able to see that she gives you enough information without spelling things out for you that you can begin to form ideas about the characters without being given their entire backstories up front. I was able to see that just picking one word can change the meaning of a sentence (e.g. the difference between using the word walk/stalk/strut) and the impression that the sentence makes. I was able to see that just a sentence or two of description is all that’s needed for me to paint a picture in my head of the scene surrounding these characters. Brilliant.

I will say that Noah’s marijuana usage was more of an annoyance to me in this read than in the first—and it bothered me in the first read as well. It just seemed like he was constantly talking about it almost. Also, I didn’t pick up on this in my first read through Crash Into You (and I can’t remember who said it in a review that I saw), but yes Isaiah’s drug use was entirely too easily explained away in Crash Into You. Of course, I was paying close attention to that in this read of Pushing the Limits. While Isaiah didn’t seem like the instigator, he definitely didn’t seem like he was as anti- as he tells Rachel in Crash Into You. But for me that’s just a minor annoyance.

I totally forgot that Pushing the Limits brought tears to my eyes the first time I read it until I went back and re-read my original review of it. But I say that it did, so I believe myself! (HA!) And that happened this time too. You’ve got to know that a book is really good if it can make you cry (or almost cry) during a second reading. If the emotion is that raw even when you know how the story ends, then that’s some good writing.

I originally gave Pushing the Limits 5 Stars, and I can uncategorically say that I still agree with that rating. I’m so glad that I was able to re-read it. And it only took me about two days to re-read it as well. That’s how much I was hooked even the second time. Plus Breaking the Rules is coming up in about a month (at the time of writing this review--I've since actually finished it) and I’m dying to get my hands on it. So I’m glad that I was able to get a refresher before picking that one up.

Have you read Pushing the Limits? What did you think? Could you see yourself giving this one a re-read? Let me know!

Also, please tell me you guys got what I did with the title of this blog post!

*My reading slump really went from October through November. December was definitely a better reading month for me. I usually type my reviews as soon as I finish a book, but I'm scheduled ahead on blog posts anywhere from a month to three months out.

Top Ten Books I Want Santa to Bring Me

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is Top Ten Books I Want Santa to Bring Me.

1. Breaking the Rules (Pushing the Limits, # 1.5) by Katie McGarry
2. Maybe Not (Maybe Someday, # 1.5) by Colleen Hoover
3. That One Summer (Summer, # 3) by CJ Duggan
4. The Certainty of Violet & Luke (The Coincidence, # 5) by Jessica Sorensen
5. The Resolution of Callie and Kayden (The Coincidence, # 6) by Jessica Sorensen
6. Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassins, # 3) by Robin LaFevers
7. Stolen Songbird (Malediction Trilogy, # 1) by Danielle L Jensen
8. Split Second (Pivot Point, # 2) by Kasie West
9. The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, # 3) by Michelle Hodkin
10. Ignite Me (Shatter Me, # 3) by Tahereh Mafi
11. Ruins (Partials, # 3) by Dan Wells

That’s not all the books I have on my Christmas Wish List, but I think these are the ones at the top of the list for priority. Which books are you hoping Santa brings you this year? Let me know!