Dare You To

Title: Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2)

Author: Katie McGarry

Genre: YA/Fiction/Romance

Release Date: May 28, 2013

My Rating:
♥♥♥♥♥

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....

~ Goodreads

Where do I start?

Dare You To is an amazing story of unequivocal love, overcoming boundaries and expectations, trust, and did I already say love?  I cannot express how much I adore this book in words!  Pushing the Limits and Dare You To are each perfect in their own way and I feel like every book worm who loves a realistic modern-day love story should read this.  Agh, too much perfection in one book!

Beth Risk is damaged.  Emotionally and physically.  Her mother's boyfriend likes to spend his free time beating her and her mother up.
Beth's past scarred her and she can't seem to let it go.  The events that have occurred in her life have shaped her into a thick-skinned skater who hungers for something more than a trashy life filled with drugs and alcohol and abusive men.

Beth is forced to move to a new school and start fresh.  Or as fresh as it can get with the rumors surrounding her family swallowing her alive.  Then Beth meets Ryan.  First-class jock and baseball pitcher.  Beth never would have though this boy could steal her heart, but he just might do it.

Let me tell you all, this book had me crying hysterically, laughing, gaping, and everything in between.  I am amazed Katie McGarry can write such beautiful books one after another!
I had very high expectations going into Dare You To right after Pushing the Limits, and I was happily pleased.  The two were right at the same level of eloquent and heartfelt.

Beth
In Pushing the Limits, I found Beth very annoying and jealous.  But once I got to know her character, I realized she wasn't as much of a bitch as I thought she was.  I felt like I knew Beth as a character and a person.  With such a destructive past, it's no wonder she clung to Isaiah the way she did.  I was hoping for a relationship between the two of them, but once Ryan came into the picture, too late, Isaiah.
It was more difficult to adjust to Beth's character after reading Echo's perspective in Pushing the Limits; they're two completely different girls.  But I enjoyed seeing the world through Beth's eyes.

Ryan
*Involuntary sigh* I love Ryan.  He was such a gentleman and sweet and gorgeous and just perfect!  He didn't let social boundaries keep him from loving Beth.  Ryan and Beth have a unique and rare type of love that glued them together from the beginning even if they hadn't realized it.
I was thoroughly surprised Ryan denied Gwen's advancement, because I'm used to the jocks making out with the wrong girl, begging for the right girl to take them back, blah, blah, blah.  So, yeah, that bit made me very happy :)
Ryan was also very... sure of himself.  Confident.  Whatever you want to call it.  His confidence radiated from him in a positive way.

Overall, I'm giving Dare You To a 5/5 because this is is such a wonderfully brilliant book!