Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry

Unless you've been living under a rock, you have probably heard about Katie McGarry and her books.  They seem to be EVERYWHERE lately and for good reason!  I don't usually read contemporary but there are those books that grab you and you just HAVE to read them.  Simone Elkeles' books are that was and so are the books in the Pushing the Limits series.  Here is the cover and Goodreads blurb for the newest book, Dare You To:

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....

I think I might have enjoyed this one more than Pushing the Limits but they are both amazing.  Beth is such a grating character in Pushing the Limits but you really come to understand her so much better in Dare You To.  She is in a situation that really bothers me as a parent.  Her mom had her at fifteen, barely a kid herself.  Beth has been raising herself and taking care of her mother for as long as she can remember.  I hate when children have to parent their parents.  Beth was barely given the chance to be a child.  The adults around her let her down.  Her uncle was the high point in her life and when he chose his own life over parenting her... I can't hate him for it but it doesn't make me like him either.  Ryan seems like your typical jock that made kids like me miserable in high school.  But I loved that Katie McGarry made him so much more than that.  He's a guy who realizes that his parents' perfect life is a farce.  He is chivalrous.  Ryan loves his friends more than he loves being popular.  He's a virgin.  He's all these things that make him more than just a jock.  He and Beth need each other to escape the nonsense in their lives and to find a reason to move past it all.  The one character that I could happily set fire to is Ryan's father.  He is exactly all the things I despise.  He's hateful, he disowns his own son, he tries to live through his kids and he pushes sports as the be all end all.  I have taught high school students on and off for 12 years and I have seen it far too often.  I have even had a principal tell me to encourage a student to quit an extracurricular that they loved so they could focus on sports to get into college.  That was at a division 3 school- those kids would have needed a miracle to get to play college sports.  What a waste!  Just like Ryan's dad.  A waste of time and space.  I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to see what Katie McGarry has in store for us next!

You can click here to add this book to your Goodreads.  You can find Katie McGarry on her website, Facebook and Twitter.  On April 1, Crossing the Line, a Pushing the Limits novella was released.  Dare You To earns 5 Fairies for an emotional read with tons of ups and downs and characters that you'll love and hate.