Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Summary (from Goodreads):

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.

Was I reading a different book to everybody else? Maybe I'm strange but I can't say I enjoyed this book. Let me explain...

This book tries so hard to cram in everything; a sizzling (I can not believe I just used the word 'sizzling') romance, a relationship problem with a controlling father, bipolar mother and babysitter-turned-pregnant step-mom, death of an older brother, death of two parents, traumatic experiences, near death situation, suppressed memory, insomnia, loss of only remaining family, the problems of the care system, the decision to whether or not lose your virginity and even friendship/school problems. There was too much, too many things going on and too many things, for me, weren't fully developed enough to make me love this book the way everybody else seems to.

On the back cover of my copy of Pushing the Limits it says 'A brave and powerful novel about loss, change and growing up, but most of all love' and I think that's the main reason Pushing the Limits just didn't do it for me, there was too much so called 'love' and not enough 'brave and powerful.. about loss'. Usually I'm all for a long sappy read about a bad boy and a good girl 'surprisingly' falling in love but this romance in Pushing the Limits was... (how do I say this?)... too serious too quickly to be a simple bad-boy-good-girl relationship. I think Echo and Noah 'fell in love' way too quickly for me to believe it. At first, although I cringed a lot at their mutual (and constant) lust for each others PERFECT bodies, their relationship and chemistry developed at a realistic and teasing pace that made me want to carry on reading however, about half way through the novel I started to really dislike the relationship.

As soon as the pair got together ('(Noah)"Tell me you chose me, Echo"' and 'Her eyes met mine again. "So what does this mean for us?" I lowered my forehead to hers. "It means you're mine") I couldn't stop bashing the book against the wall while screaming and cringing.

I can't handle books about possessive guys and Noah is possessive, his language actually quite sexist and degrading. Is it really necessary for him to call Echo 'baby' or refer to her as 'his nymph' and 'personal siren'? I feel bad for saying this because there were quite a few parts in Pushing the Limits where I found myself smiling because of his sweetness (the way Noah interacts with his brothers and Beth for example) but the way I felt when Noah called Echo 'his baby' reminded me of the way I felt when Travis called Abby his 'pigeon' in Beautiful Disaster, just you know, not nearly as bad as that.

As characters on their own I didn't have too big a problem with either of them, yes they were pretty cliche and I was a little bored of the predictability but their personal problems and ways of dealing with them were pretty hooking.

While Echo and Noah weren't, in my opinion, that awesome and the plot predictable and not as heart breaking or deep as you'd imagine, there were two.. actually, make that three characters that I really enjoyed reading about. The first two being Beth and Isaiah who I thought were characters that are more original and I feel would have made this book much more engaging if it had been centred around them. I have heard the sequel for this book will be about Beth's story which is why I will pick it up. I absolutely adored Isaiah and I hope there's more of him in the next book.

Also: Mrs Collins. There was just something great about this woman, she was Noah and Echo's therapist and I... loved her. Her character was understanding, reasonable, sarcastic and caring. She could not have been more perfect, she was always there like a guardian angel.. awwhr.

There were parts I liked, parts I tolerated and parts I thoroughly disliked so overall, this book was pretty average. I understand why many people loved this book but with Pushing the Limits trying to address so many issues I wanted less love story and more depth and exploration.

Music choice: It's pretty obvious that this is an opposites fall in love love story and it's meant to be really sweet and even I found some parts in Pushing the Limits where Noah and Echo's relationship was intense so... Collide by Howie Day

itunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/howie-day/id446234306