Review: Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry

Title: Nowhere But Here (Thunder Road #1)
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: May 26th 2015
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

An unforgettable new series from acclaimed author Katie McGarry about taking risks, opening your heart and ending up in a place you never imagined possible.

Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both.

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down.

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home. 

I´ve read the first three books in the series Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry and I enjoyed them, some more than others, so of course I could not wait to read the Nowhere But Here, the first book in the new series Thunder Road, which apparently will consists of 4 books..

Nowhere But Here is told from the point of view of Emily and Oz, alternating between them. Emily is a girl, that has lived a sheltered life without running any risks and is happy to live in her comfort zone, she lives in Florida with her mother and her adoptive father to whom she loves and looks after like a hero and once a year, she gets to see her biological father, whom is a motorcyclist who belongs to a club called the Reign of Terror, she doesn´t know much about him or his family, she keeps him at arm's length and she´s happy to keep it that way.

Meanwhile Oz is an 18 year old guy from Kentucky that since he can remember, his dream is to belong to the club Reign of Terror like his father and work for the security company owned by one of the club members. And his dream is getting closer, because one of the stipulations is to finish high school (he just graduated), so his future looks just as he dreamed, or at least that is until his path crosses with Emily´s and his life gets complicated.

Emily and Oz meet because due to a misunderstanding, Emily travels to Kentucky in the summer and very reluctantly ends up staying a few weeks with Eli, her biological father and one of the most respected members of the club Reign of Terror. I liked that the romance is not instant-love, because when they initially meet, they don´t like each other, but end up spending some time together and they get to know each other, which leads them to act on their attraction.

The truth is that I don´t know a lot about motorcycle clubs (just what I´ve seen on TV), so I do not know if the book is realistic or not, its problems and if the part about how the motorcycle club is managed by its member is like that, because it was quite sexist.

Nowhere But Here is a book of 496 pages so I didn´t read it in a day or two, but it´s very entertaining, with a slow budding and tame romance, if I compare it with Pushing the Limits, besides it has less drama and angst, but I liked how at the beginning the main characters can´t stand each other, but Oz cannot stop flirting Oz at any time. Now I´m looking forward to read the next instalment, that apparently will be Razor´s story.

Review: Crash into You by Katie McGarry

Title: Crash into You (Pushing the Limits #3)
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: November 26th 2013
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of Pushing the Limits - here & Dare You To - here

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

I was desperately waiting to read Crash into You as soon as I finished reading Dare You To, because after what happened to Isaiah on the previous book I was ready to read his story. And just like I get to know Beth on Dare You To and saw her with different eyes, the same happened to me with Isaiah because I had a preconceived idea of ​​him because of the way he is introduced on Pushing the Limits and Dare You To, so this book showed me a different Isaiah.

On Crash into You we see Isaiah as a bad boy, with tattoos, he gives a vibe of been an aggressive guy, but all of it is a defense mechanism for the dangerous world in which he lives, because that way nobody bothers him and that's the way he likes it; since he was six years old he had been in several foster homes. He´s seventeen years old, he´s a senior at high school, in the evenings works in an auto shop and his passion are fast cars. He meets Rachel on a clandestine street race; Rachel is a rich girl, whose passion are also fast cars and likes to talk about cars and fix cars or at least she knows the basics because more than once we she her changing the motor oil to her brother´s cars. Rachel has four older brothers that expect/wish her to never have a boyfriend, but they are useless because they spend all their time giving her "guilt trips" and depending on her to keep their mother happy.

I must say that there were times when I did not liked Rachel, she´s a super shy, introverted girl that suffers of severe panic attacks whenever she speaks in public and this isn´t bad because I was also too shy on my teens but what is bad is that she lets her entire family literally use her to keep her mom happy, because apparently she suffers from severe depression and the only thing that keeps her happy is that Rachel gives speeches at social events, which doesn´t help with her panic attacks, which she some how keeps a secret from most of her family and some of her brothers help her to hide it. So Rachel has to pretend with her ​​parents and siblings and be a super girly girl, when in fact her passion are sport cars and driving fast.

The downside for me was that I already had the idea that it would be about clandestine street races, Fast and Furious style (the first film) and there was only one race like that, there is where Isaiah and Rachel meet, but after that there were some races more like Drag Racing.

The good thing was that some of the previous characters made cameos in this book such as Noah and Echo from the first book, and Beth, Ryan and Logan from the second book; and is the latter that have a more important role in this book, I really liked Logan and I hope that in the future he gets his own book.

Overall, Crash into You is not as good as Pushing the Limits and Dare You To, but I liked the story of Isaiah which is what I liked most of this book, the romance fell into the classic cliche of bad-boy and poor meets good-girl and rich and I also feel that there was some lacking on the chemistry between Isaiah and Rachel, because most of the time Rachel lets her insecurities rule her life. But as a big fan of the series, I did enjoy it and can´t wait to read the next book.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

WOW (80): Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

Crash Into You (Pushing the Limits #3) by Katie McGarry

Release date: November 26th 2013 

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane.

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

Why I'm Waiting?

I loved Pushing the Limits and Dare You To, that´s why I can´t wait to read Isaiah´s book.

What book are you waiting this week?

Leave your WOW links

Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Title: Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2)
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Mira Ink
Release date: June 7th 2013
Source: Netgalley
Format: egalley

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy on: Amazon.co.uk | BookDepository

You can read my review of Pushing the Limits - here

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 have been waiting impatiently for a year to read Dare You To, which is the story of Beth and she was introduced in the first book as Noah´s sort of adoptive sister and Isaiah's romantic interest, so when I read the synopsis for the first time I almost had a fit because I realized it was not going to be the story of Beth and Isaiah, but her story with a certain Ryan ......... and I was ready to not like Ryan because in my head ...... Isaiah was indicated for her but I was wrong.

Ryan is a really good guy, he´s sweet, with good feelings, is a baseball player with aspirations of playing professional, he doesn´t do drugs, rarely drink alcohol....he´s swoon worthy  .... is impossible not to love him ...... the only detail that I found is that he takes the dares too seriously. It is precisely by a dare that he meets Beth, because she's not the type of girl that he´s usually like, she is a  tough girl, very blunt and very intimidating. So Dare You To is the story of the "bad" girl meets good boy ... the opposite of Pushing the Limits and most contemporary books that I've read so far.

To be honest, in Pushing the Limits did not like Beth much, but thanks to this book we see why she the way she is, the problems she has with her alcoholic mother, what happened when she was little, why she has trust issues and the reasons for his father's abandonment. And meanwhile Ryan is also having problems at home, because he has very strict parents who have planned all his life and Ryan begins to doubt whether his dream of being a professional baseball player are really his dream or his father´s dreams. So Ryan is at a turning point where he must decide what he wants to do with his future.

Overall, Dare You To is amazing! This book is beautifully written, is a sweet, poignant, and heartbreaking  love story. Something that I really liked is that Echo and Noah from Pushing the Limits appear in some scenes, as well as Isaiah.

I highly recommend this book if you love poignant contemporary novels. And I can not wait to read the last book of the trilogy, Crash Into You, which will be the story of Isaiah.

Thanks to Mira Ink for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Favorites Quotes

Beth feels like this storm. Constant and persistent as a whole, but the more I get close and try to clutch the individuals drops of rain, the more the water falls out of my hands.

You're a lot like that bird in the barn. You're so scared that you're going to be caged in forever you can't see the way out. You smack yourself against the wall again and again and again. The door is open, Beth. Stop running in circles and walk out.

Book trailer

Waiting on Wednesday (63): Dare You To

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

The book I´m waiting this week is

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

Release date: May 28th 2013  

"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....

Which book are you waiting this week?
Leave your WOW links.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: July 31st 2012

Rating: 5/5

Buy it at: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Read first chapters here.

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.

Pushing the Limits is a contemporary novel and I loved it, is a heartbreaking story (yes, I cried), but in the end it left me feeling that all was well with the world.

The story is told from two points of view, alternating between Echo and Noah, and I loved that because it made me understand them a little more, especially Noah. I loved the characters of Echo and Noah (I adored him!).

Echo is a 17 year-old girl, she´s in her senior year, she used to be popular but now she´s a freak and subject to gossip and speculations because of the scars on her arms, which she covers with long-sleeved shirts and gloves, she attends therapy weekly with a social worker at her school because she can´t remember anything about the day she suffered the accident. Echo lives with her father, whom she blindly obey and with her stepmother, whom she hates. Noah is 17 year-old too and also like Echo is in his senior year. Noah is considered a bad boy with a bad reputation for been a womanizer, he is an orphan and lives in a foster home and also attends therapy with the same clinical social worker as Echo.

"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

Echo is a very good student and is assigned to tutor Noah, so they begin to spend time together, at first they did not get along, but as they spend more time together the attraction between them is undeniable. And they found in each other something they needed and hadn´t so far managed to find, understanding and acceptance; they needed to feel normal.

"But I wanted normal and for a few minutes that´s what I was. Like two years ago...like before..."

 Normal. She wanted normal and so do I. "You know what´s normal?"

Another great character is Mrs.Collins, the social worker who provides therapy to Echo and Noah. I loved her interaction with both, especially with Noah because he was the most reluctant to trust an adult.

Pushing the Limits is the debut novel of Katie McGarry and she did an outstanding job, with a plot that keep me hooked from the beginning and I could not put it down. I could connect with the main characters and understand them. Pushing the Limits is a story with romance where the protagonists embark on an emotional journey where they learn to forgive, to trust and end up seeing the world differently.

This is a book that I recommend and is a must read. I can´t  wait to read next book of this author, Dare You To, is Beth´s story, she appears in this book, she´s like a sister to Noah.

Book trailer