Pushing the Limits: A Powerful YA Romance About Overcoming Trauma and Finding Love

4-1/2 stars. Pushing the Limits is intense. It covers dark elements, including mental illness, loss of family, the foster care system, and the high school microcosm. Echo is scarred with no memories of how she got that way. Her mother is bi-polar and is no longer allowed to see Echo. Echo's beloved older brother died serving the country and her one goal (besides getting her memory back) is to get his classic muscle car running again. Living with her father and pregnant step-mother, Echo's former babysitter, piles insult on to injury. Noah's no better off. After losing both his parents in a car accident, he and his two younger brothers were put into the foster care system. After one particularly bad home, they were separated and Noah has only supervised visitation with his brothers. All he wants is to get his brothers back. There's no way these two messed up kids should be together, and yet that's exactly what happens with more angst and drama than any young adult book I've read in quite a while.PlotThere are really three plots, though the romance is the main plot, with the other two as strong subplots.The main plot is the romance between Noah and Echo. There's a lot standing between these two finding happiness together, not the least of which is Noah's brothers (subplot #1) and Echo's memories (subplot #2). All three are expertly woven together.CharactersWe get dual first-person point of view, and Echo and Noah are both well developed and well differentiated. Each has true growth that is in line with the characters the author has created. They're both likeable and sympathetic, while still being far from perfect.What Didn't Work for Me1. The pacing. The pacing was off in a few places, particularly the ending. I felt like once we had the climax, it took too many chapters to wrap up the loose ends. And there were places throughout the book where things slowed down too much for me. I found myself setting the book down and walking away from it, sometimes for days.What I Enjoyed About Pushing the Limits1. Echo. Everything from her name to her artistic nature makes her a heroine I can root for.2. Noah. He's everything a book boyfriend should be, from the way he cares about Echo to the way he'd sacrifice everything for his younger brothers.3. The angst. Yeah, it's my favorite kind of romance.4. The ending. I love the way the story wrapped up. It's not a perfect happily ever after, but it's real and satisfying in all the best ways.5. Family. Echo's and Noah's family situations couldn't be more different and yet both were beautifully complex in their own ways, showing us that family comes in all shapes and sizes.Bottom LinePushing the Limits is a dark young adult romance with complex characters you can't help rooting for.

I finished this book about a month ago but haven't had a chance to sit down and write my review until now. This book had many great reviews from some fellow bloggers, so I knew it would be one I would have to read.Echo Emerson went from "popular" to "freak" over night practically overnight. What caused this downfall, she can't quite remember. She just knows it has to do with the horrible scars on her arms. She hides them, and tries to remember what happen the night she got them.Echo had an over bearing father, and a mother that was not around. Over bearing, horrible, father married a much younger woman, and life was not very easy for Echo with the "new" wife.Noah Hutchins, well what can I say. He's the "bad" boy. I think that is why I liked him from the beginning. hehe. Something about bad boys and how "misunderstood" they are. Noah has had a rough life as well, and has his own secrets. Noah is in search of a tutor for some of his classes, and it just so happens that the counselor has appointed him one. Echo.From their first "meeting" there is something of a spark there. They just weren't quite sure if it was hate, or love. The way their stories unfold is intense.This was a roller coaster ride through some kids that have some hard issues to deal with, and seem to find in each other the comfort they have been seeking.I loved how this book unfolded. Echo and Noah's stories are so sad. Two young kids who are forced to face adult issues before they should have to. How they find common ground it pretty wonderful.Now.....for the stuff I didn't like about the book. The "f" bomb was used too much and there is a lot of sexual innuendo along with some teenage sex. Having said that just as an FYI, I do have to admit I still really enjoyed the book. I just like it when other reviewers give me a "heads up" on that kind of stuff in books.I cannot wait to read the other books in this series.Source: I bought this book for myself a while back. I was not compensated in any way for this review. These are my own PERSONAL views on the book.Content: A lot of language, sexual innuendo, teenage sex, and lots of talk about sex. I personally believe this book is for older teenagers/adults.

I had heard good things about this series, but approached it warily because high school romance is not generally my speed anymore. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this as much as I did, since it's much more angsty than I usually like. The two main characters have backgrounds so tragic it was a bit of a trial to willingly suspend my disbelief. Yes, maybe such a series of extremely unfortunate events could happen to one person, but two? And I'm to believe that these two so completely damaged people would be a good match for each other, rather than being too broken to help themselves, much less each other?Still, for purposes of a good story, I went with it. I ended up liking Noah and Echo very much, and I liked the way the story revealed the layers of their tragic histories gradually, without info dumping or excessive navel-gazing. I liked that both characters had their own individual character arcs, independent of their evolution into a couple. I liked that supporting characters were well-developed and had important roles in the story, and were not just there to give the main characters someone to talk to when their significant other wasn't around. -And the romance was very satisfying, though much angstier than I generally prefer.Because this book is about and for high school readers, the main characters don't have sex, though there is discussion of it and progress toward that end goal.

Echo and Noah are from two ends of the social spectrum (McGarry is at her best with opposite attraction). Echo was once popular girl, dance team member and on track for an art scholarship. But after the death of her older brother and a traumatic episode involving her mother, she becomes withdrawn and distant from everyone, hiding her inner and outer scars. She is also repressed by her controlling father and his new wife, who was embarrassingly her childhood babysitter.Noah is the labeled 'dodgy' boy who sits at the back of class and lunch, involved with violence, drugs and hook-ups. After the death of his parents and the painful separation from his younger brothers, he has been through the mill of abusive foster care. He is someone who has given up on trust, especially from authority figures, and fights tooth and nail to get his brothers back. Both Echo and Noah's days are filled with anger and silence. When a guidance councilor brings them together, their initial impression of each other- impressions created by gossip and stereotyping, gradually sift away to make room for their consuming attraction.Their romance is so fierce, but the wounds from their problems are so raw, McGarry creates an exiting struggle of wanting and never wanting to be the characters. The plot is driven by the mystery of Echo's memory, as she fails to remember the detail of her trauma. Echo's mother suffers from bipolar disorder and she fears that she will also loose control and be accused of 'craziness'. The story deals with the lack of understanding mental illnesses and how it is dealt with. As Echo's memory comes back in fearful shards, she tries to loosen her father's safety grips, while Noah does battle with society to reclaim his brothers. Everybody's limits are tested as the characters challenge those that restrict them as well as pushing their inner scars to extremes. Long at times, the novel was an addictive whirlwind of fatal build-ups and made me look forward to my train journey after a trying day at work.

Echo Emerson was the girl is school that everyone wanted to be and every guy wanted to date, but when she up and left for months, only to return with scars on her wrists and arms, she's an outcast. Her father doesn't listen, her step mother (once babysister) is pregnant and her mother is no where to be seen. Why? because she's the one that hurt Echo.Echos mother suffered with bipolar disorder since she and her brother were a kid, but after coming of her meds to paint one day, Echo wakes up in the hospital with no recollection of how she got there. One thing is certain though, her mother tried to kill her. In the space of 6 months Echo not only last her mother but her brother too, who died the army, leaving nothing behind for her but a car.Noah Hutchins, once a model student and backsetball player, is a stoner guy in foster care after he's parents died in a fire leaving him and his 2 brothers orphans Fleeting from one foster home to the next because of violence Noah is willing to what ever it takes to get back on the straight and narrow in order to hopefully get his brothers back, who at the moment he only gets to see for an hour of supervised visits fallowing his last fight.Thrown together by the schools new guidance counsellor, Echo starts to tutor Noah, she does it for money to do up her brothers car, and Noah needing to get his grades up. Both have been through hard times in the past two years, but by becoming friends and finally learning to trust someone, they learn to not only deal with it but move on. They find love, friendship, acceptance and Echo slowly gets her memory back while Noah figures out its ok to let people inMy thoughts? it was a very well written book dealing with horrific things. The characters each have a little story of their own and you really get a feel for all of them. (well.. apart from some of Echo's friends. But they aren't really a big issue in the books). One of my favourite characters was Beth, even though she did annoy me at times, and one of the reason's why I haven't said much about her is I know the next book is about her so I'm going to save what I have to say about her till then.

“Sometimes life happens.”This book held my attention for the full 392 pages. It was everything I wanted it to be: realistic characters, romance, growing up, being strong through the tough times and ultimately healing both the physical and mental scars in life.One thing I loved about this book was the dual POV. We got to see both Echo and Noah's stories from their own POV but also from the other persons too. I immediately loved Echo and Noah, both by themselves but also as a duo, and eventually a couple.Echo having gone through a very traumatic experience that has left her with both physical and mental scars has no memory of the night that changed everyone for her. At the beginning of the book she comes across as both a vaulter able but fierce person. She hides herself and her scars from the people at school who used to be her friends. But when with her dad, one of the few people who know the truth about that night but refuses to tell her, she is stronger and challenges her dad, fighting for what she wants.When we first meet Noah he is the bad boy, one night stand, gets high behind the bike shed kind of boy. But we very quickly learn that this is all a facade and what's underneath is a broken teenager who has been put through his own hard times and is just fighting to make things better for himself and his two little brothers, who were all orphaned when the parents died in a house fire."The worst type of crying wasn't the kind everyone could see--the wailing on the street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it. A section withered and became a scar on the part of your soul that survived...For people like me and Echo, our souls contained more scars than life."The two are brought together when Echo gets a job tutoring Noah. Echo thinks he is lazy and a typical bad boy, Noah thinks that she is a spoilt rich girl. However their initial judgements of the other are soon lost when they learn of each other's pasts and work together to help each other through.The issues this book deals with are very serious. Abuse. Neglect. Truth. Lies. Love. Healing. The intensity of the bond between siblings. There is nothing lighthearted about this book. Its deeply, gut-wrenchingly emotional.“I must have killed a lot of cows in a past life for Karma to hate me this much.”This is a beautiful story of how sometimes it just needs the right person to break through the damaged exterior to help heal a person on the inside. The development of the characters throughout the book is both realistic and very emotional to read. Echo gains the strength to accept who she is and show the world the new her. Meanwhile Noah learns that sometimes sacrifice is required for the ones you love.Echo and Noah's romance is not instant, which makes it all the better in my opinion. They go from not really liking each other, to a friendship of convenience, to friends, to a relationship. They become the most important person in the others life, and ultimately the one that gets them through.The book has a happy-for-now ending (and a sequel featuring some of the secondary characters on the way) but after all the heart ache in the book, I would have liked a glimpse maybe 5 years into the future so see how things had worked out for them.

I can't tell you how much I loved this story. I absolutely loved the drama and sweet romance that encompasses everything. Noah and Echo had this insane chemistry from the get go and although I could tell that it was obvious that they would fall in love it didn't stop me from wanting to read about the journey. Pushing the limits is the first book in a standalone series, from Katie McGarry, that follows different couples as they struggle through their problems and fall in love. It sounds very fluffy but there is a lot of deep and meaningful points in the book that make you see how damaged, yet strong, the young characters are and how much they need each other. It was brilliant and had all the qualities that are able to pull you in and keep you gripped.Just like every young adult contemporary you have the misunderstood boy and girl falling in love and pushing against the odds. But what I loved most about this book was the character of Noah. He was so strong and cute yet was hidden by this bad boy persona, which was why I loved how misunderstood and protective he was to the people he cared for. It was just what you needed from the hero of the story.However when it came to Echo there were some things that I did not agree with, I felt that Noah was overshadowed and that Echo was somehow forcing you to like her more. Having said that she was still sarcastic and witty and so strong after what had happened to her, which is definitaly what I look for in a YA contemporary novel because it just adds something to the story. So there was very little that I did not agree with when it came to the characters.Overall, Pushing the Limits is a brilliant and heart-wrenching contemporary that mixes young adult fluff with deep and scary issues to bring about and beautiful romance that makes you smile and cry in equal measures. Just when you think things are going smoothly a dip in the road pushes it off its happily ever after and has to work it to get it back on track. It never let me breathe for one second which is the main reason it kept me entirely gripped by its contents. I absolutely loved it and I cannot wait to continue on with the rest of the series.Review originally posted at: http://polkadotbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/pushing-limits.html

Item description:The item came in perfect condition and safely packaged. The quality of the hardcover was strong and protected the book nicely. The paper inside is thick and good quality. The writing size and font is easy to read and overall the item is really good.Story rating:This book was fabulous/great/wow/fan♦freaking♦tastic!I would just like to go on the record and THANK Katie McGarry for creating Noah Hutchins. And for creating a book that held me captive until the wee hours of the morning. your book is just amazing 5+ stars