Review by Dana
May 2013 by Harlequin Teen
456 pages
Amazon + Good Reads
"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...."
-Good Reads
Dare You To is the sequel to a book I absolutely loved, Pushing The Limits. Katie McGarry wrote some amazing characters who didn't quite get their story told or their happily ever after. I was so excited to see Beth, a character I really liked in Pushing the Limits, find love. I was a little let down with this story though.
Dare You To had Katie's fantastic writing and still was incredibly funny. We even got snippets of Noah and Echo in this book which I was so happy to see them after the conclusion of Pushing The Limits. Katie has this way of creating such flawed characters and we got to see Beth's story. Beth's story had me tearing up at the end. I never expected her life to be that harsh that it was painful to read. There were times in Pushing The Limits that I didn't like her but Dare You To really opened my eyes because of her past that it was all a front.
Dare You To like Pushing The Limits is told in a dual point of view of my problem with Dare You To was that I didn't find Beth's love interest Ryan all that compelling. At the beginning I really didn't like him at all. He was that stereotypical High School jock who is very cocky and I just wanted to get past his chapters for the beginning half of the book. I just felt that in comparison to Beth's issues and problems hearing Ryan whine about his daddy issues was annoying.
Ryan did grow on me. He definitely had as much development as Beth in the story. I think their love story was a little bit more connectable for readers. Though Beth's background isn't for most people, I think that Dare You To features more of a closer look at High School. But I was annoyed with the use of "Dawg" said by characters, Dear Ms. McGarry male teenagers no longer use "Dawg" in normal conversation.
I wish I was head over heels for Dare You To like I was Pushing The Limits but none the less it was still a great book. Beth and Ryan had a really sweet romance which definitely made me AWWW at times. I highly recommend this to readers who enjoy contemporary romances with flawed characters or slightly darker plot lines.
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