**REVIEW** Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Release Date: May 28, 2013

Published By:  Harlequin Teen

Length: 456 pages

Review Copy: Purchased

Add it to GOODREADS

Buy It:
Amazon~B&N~Book Depository

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....

  Katie McGarry exploded into the YA scene with Pushing the Limits and won over many hearts and created a wave of fan girl moments.  Not only are her plots compelling but her writing is absolutely stunning.  Truth be told I was unsure if Beth's story would quite reach the capacity in which Noah and Echo's did because of her hardened personality and my inability to relate or really like her when I met her last.  Let me tell you though, Dare You To is quite simply put the emotional and breath taking equal to Pushing the Limits and is bound to meet the expectations of fans everywhere.  

  Switching from Noah and Echo and onto Beth was a far easier transaction than expected.  Right from the start the story picks up a attention grabbing pace with heart stopping emotion.  Beth has never had an easy life and has been blamed for many things that were not within her control by the one person that should have been there for her...her mother.  a quick turn of events changes everything Beth ever knew and thrusts her into a world she never wanted to be a part of and with her Uncle that she wants no part of.  Then to top things off her Uncle takes it upon himself to make sure she has someone to show her around the school.  Even though that seems to be the worst thing that can happen, it isn't and Beth's entire world is going to crumble before she can really live.

  There is no doubt about it that after reading this book I had judged Beth too harshly before.  Heck I wasn't sure how McGarry was going to be able to turn such a hardened, non emotional person into someone people could not only like but have a story that could rival Noah and Echo's.  Turns out there is way more to Beth than the surface we scraped before.  She is without a doubt a hard nut to crack and we do spend most of the story with her resisting everything but when your surroundings, the people around you change and so does everything you thought you knew, you can change too.  This isn't saying Beth is rainbows and butterflies because she is NOT but maybe she gives living a try.

  I don't think that there is any of us out there that thought there would be anyone for Beth that wasn't Isaiah.  Lets face it despite the fact that they got lost in drugs together he was there for her, you could tell he cared deeply for her.  However with this group of friends it just seems that it isn't meant to be.  Instead when Beth gets hauled away she finds Ryan, who I may add is basically everything that annoys her but he is persistent.  Now I also can't say that I like Ryan right away because his motives aren't exactly clean and going deeper into Beth's world caused me to be slightly angered by this.  When all is said and done though he is a good guy and extremely good for Beth.  Telling you that they are perfect right from the start would be a lie because they both only have their own needs in mind, it is when they cross that line and care about the other that things start working out.

  I'm not sure in the end that Beth and Ryan's romance rivaled Noah and Echo's but their story sure did.  Some of the heart break in this one is really hard to swallow and many hard lessons are learned but life is never easy, it doesn't matter how perfect things look because they normally aren't.  Katie McGarry has this fire in her writing that will always call out to readers and undoubtedly bring anyone that picks up her books screaming back for more.   I can say with full confidence that I would pick up or recommend any Katie McGarry novel without even reading the description.  This is different from PTL and the same in ways but ultimately the gorgeous writing and emotional pull of the story outweighs everything else.

Dad claps my back, and his public showing of affection has me looking at him. Dad's not a touchy guy. My family we aren't like that. I grip the card in my hand, and it takes everything I've got not to swear in shock in front of my mother. -Ryan

Listening to them discuss my gay brother's possible gay boyfriend is just as comfortable as convincing my mom over and over that I prefer girls and their girl parts. -Ryan

I swallow, but it's hard to do when my throat tightens. The little girl I used to be, the one with the blond hair, died years ago ad I hate thinking about her. She was nice. She was happy. She was... not someone I want to remember. -Beth

Ryan hates me and I don't blame him. I hate me. What I hate more in this moment is that part of me likes Ryan. He stood up for me like the prince does for the princess in the fairytales Scott used to read me as a child. -Beth

Just go with it, Ryan. Like other predators, Beth can smell fear.