Dare You To: A Life Changing Teen Love Story – A YA Romance Between a Jock and a Skater Girl

I give this book a 4.5/5I waited for this book for a very long, long time!! I LOVED LOVED LOVED Pushing the Limits and in fact it was the very first book I EVER reviewed because of how much I freaking loved it. I just KNEW that I was going to LOVE Beth and Ryan's story just as much as Noah and Echo's and I wasn't disappointed!!My Thoughts:As I sit here listening to the Dare You To playlist (yes I am that person and yes these songs are perfect for the book) I am trying to decide what I want to say.From the very beginning of being introduced to Beth in Pushing The Limits, I just knew that Beth had a hard life and a story that would probably break any person, it almost broke Beth but luckily she still had one person in her corner.When the book first starts Ryan tries to get Beth's number in Taco Bell that everyone is hanging out in. He was dared by his friends to get her number and he failed miserably. But what started off as a dare turns out to be something nobody thought would change their lives.Beth is still an angry teenager who spends more time fighting, drinking, getting high and taking care of her mother. Her mother is still a drunk and a drug addict who has a boyfriend that likes to use her as a punching bag. Beth ends up going to jail for her mother and you are left yelling at Beth for being stupid and sticking up for her mother over and over again with the same results. But what we don't expect is the curve ball (you like that baseball reference hehe) that is thrown at us while Beth is waiting for the verdict of her fate. She has to go live with her uncle at his house in the backwoods country. The same uncle that left her to go pro in baseball and never came back for her until now. To say she has hostility towards him, would be an understatement. And wouldn't you know that the same cocky baseball player that she met at Taco Bell lives in the same town and goes to the same school.Ryan can't believe that the same skater girl is going to his school and he is determined to finally win the bet that his friends gave him. But what he doesn't expect is for this girl to totally turn his entire life upside down. He gets to know her and realizes how scared of life she is. She has had to deal with more in her life than anyone he knows. He doesn't expect to like her, she's just a dare to him but what happens when he starts to see the girl behind the armor? How can he continue to win a bet when he's falling for the subject? But Ryan never loses and that includes bets."He stares at me as if he's seeing beyond my skin and my heart pounds out of my chest so violently that he has to feel it. My nerve endings become raw. Somehow, Ryan's seeing me and I'm exposed-- as if I'm standing naked in front of a large open window. My hands slip from his neck, but as I try to step back, he clutches my waist, rejecting my escape."Beth fights Ryan every step of the way. She challenges him and pushes him so he would leave and leave her alone. But what she didn't expect was for him to push back and push through her armor right into her heart. She can't figure out why a boy like him would be interested in a girl like her. She wants to leave him before he can leave her but just when she is going too, he figures it out and pushes her again. He needs her to stay, he needs to prove to her that she isn't just some girl, and he needs to show her his love..."I don't lose. Do you hear me? I don't lose and that includes losing you. I'm done being kept in the dark. I'm done feeling like you're slipping right past me. You are not saying goodbye to me. I'm in love with you and you love me back. You're staying."This book is about trust and trusting others when you have been burned so many times in the past. Forgiving the ones who have let you down and learning to trust them again. Loving someone so much that you aren't afraid to stay and stop running from life."You're a lot like that bird in the barn. You're so scared 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."Beth and Ryan both grow up in this book and learn a lot about themselves. Their self-discovery is what truly makes this book amazing. Learning to trust yourself enough to know what you want out of life is what everyone must do. We have to stop listening to others and just live like we are suppose too, no holding back and no more caring what others are going to say.I loved this story and I really hope we are going to get more information about Beth and Ryan in the future. Like did Ryan and his dad ever see eye to eye? What is Beth going to do in the future? Will they stay close even in college? Gaaahhh I need more!!to see the full review and who I pictured as Ryan and Beth go here:thebooktrollop.blogspot.com

I am sorely tempted to leave you all with this very important statement as my review: I absolutely LOVE Ryan Stone and call dibs on him as a book boyfriend. But that wouldn’t be fair now, would it? I would miss my chance to tell you guys why I loved him, and Beth, and Dare You To.After liking Pushing the Limits a lot last year, I was equal parts excited and nervous about McGarry’s follow-up. Fortunately, her writing captured me from the very first page, and I devoured Dare You To like it was water and I was dying of thirst in the desert. McGarry has a skill for writing contemporary novels that feature strong romances, all while thoroughly exploring the complex issues her characters are dealing with. With her second novel, she’s certainly won me over and earned a spot on my auto-buy contemporary YA authors list.The characters in Dare You To made this book a compelling read. McGarry uses her skills to create characters that are complex and real. They might be nothing like me, and I might never have had their experiences, but thanks to the writing, I felt an instant connection with Beth and Ryan. She wrote them with incredibly strong personalities, tailoring their individual stories to fit them perfectly. But she also wrote them in such a way that when they came together, it would make perfect sense on all counts.Beth Risk has interested me since we first met her in Pushing the Limits, even though she’s only a minor character. I was really excited when I found out that this book was going to be her story, and I personally think it’s a good one! The primary thing we learn about Beth is the difficulty of her home life, mostly because of her mother. It broke my heart repeatedly to see how much responsibility Beth carried on her shoulders, and I felt as conflicted as Beth about what ought to be done. When she’s given the opportunity for a fresh start, she was naturally wary. But gradually, she reveals a vulnerability and innocence that tugged at my heartstrings.Ryan Stone, however, was a delightful surprise! I loved him! I wasn’t sure what I could expect of him, particularly since he’s basically described as the golden boy. Yes, he was one of the popular kids, a jock aiming for a place on a professional baseball team. But McGarry turns that image on its head when she reveals his surprising vulnerability, and his talent and desire to write. Ryan’s struggle revolves around his family, and the conflicts that they are trying to pretend don’t exist, which I could relate to on one level. All these things, good and bad, and what he’s like when he starts falling for Beth really won me over, and had me falling for him too.I enjoyed each of their stories as individuals, as it was interesting to witness them deal with their own demons. But the romance Beth and Ryan share in Dare You To is compelling in a way I didn’t expect. I fell in love with their love story, even though it’s peppered with moments that could come off as cliché and cheesy. Their feelings for each other just felt so right, and I was definitely rooting for them to find a way to be together.McGarry deftly weaves all three stories – Beth’s, Ryan’s and their story together – into this novel in a masterful way. I never felt like there was too much focus on one story; each one was covered equally and in a way that I wouldn’t lose track of what was happening. The writing was really good, and the pages of this novel flew by quickly in my eagerness to see how it would wrap up.Dare You To is a strong sophomore novel, with two characters that completely won me over and a romance that made me swoon. I am certainly sold on Katie McGarry’s ability to create characters I can fall in love with, and her way of writing them into stories that are addictive, swoony and downright good. I totally dare you to (yup, I had to do it!) take the time to read this novel - it’ll be worth it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Before embarking on an 11 hour flight across the world, I knew I needed a Katie McGarry. Everything she writes somehow both soothes and excites me. Pushing the Limits, the first in this series was great, full of crackling chemistry and drama. I would recommend reading this book first as it contains the characters’ history, which isn’t completely essential, but boosts the engagement.This story follows Beth, another girl from the wrong side of town (Check out Red At Night). All she has known since she was a child was to protect her mother from everything.. drugs, a violent boyfriend and prison. Growing up with unsavoury characters, she has learnt to be tough as nails and sharp as a whip in order to survive. Her character jumped out at me with her dialogue ringing out loud and clear. Her vulnerability and strength also felt raw.As problems spiral out of control, Beth is forced to move away with her uncle who makes it his mission to reform her. Scared for her mother, separated from her best friends and attending the local ‘hick’ high school, she experiences her worst nightmare. Despite this, she finds herself drawn to the most stereo-typical guy she should avoid, golden boy jock Ryan. He is your average High School Musical star, but with baseball and a bit more muscle. On track to play pro, the cracks in his perfect life start to inch further into the book; a domineering father, a depressed mother and an estranged brother. What starts off as a dare to ask out scary skater girl, leads to deep attraction and mutual understanding. This romance started off quite slow with a lot of back tracking, which made the book longer than necessary. I was impressed with the shift in Ryan’s character, who started off as an macho airhead.Beth and Ryan have to face a lot of courage to make their relationship a reality. They have to face abilities that have been suppressed or forgotten. For Beth it’s trust, while for Ryan it’s rebellion.Happy to continue my journey through the series..

I loved this book and I loved poor damaged Beth. I loved her sass and attitude and the way she was with Ryan when they first met. I love Ryan for sticking around and being determined to not let Beth push him away. A beautiful love story and about one girl's struggle to believe she deserved better, to deserve a boy that love's her. Trust is a real issue for Beth but in the end Ryan shows her that not everyone in life will hurt you and walk away.

A sequel to Pushing the Limits or just as a stand alone book, this book features Beth, a friend of Noah's from Pushing the Limits, and her own story with Ryan.“That must be love: when everything else in the world could implode and you wouldn't care as long as you had that one person standing beside you.”Beth is an extremely angry girl at the beginning of this book. In trying to save her mum from going to jail she ends up being taken away from her life and friends to stay with her uncle.Ryan is on the right tracks. He has scouts coming to watch his baseball games, has a great out of friends and refuses to loose a bet. So when his friends bet him to get a random girl at the mall's number he is up for it. Problem is, the girl is Beth, and she is not giving anyone her number.“There are times when you stand on the cusp of moments so huge, you know you'll remember them forever. This is that moment for me and for Ryan.”A story of second chances, starting over and realising how important your life really is to you. At first Beth hates her Uncle's rules, but through the book as she is able to let the weight that she has been carrying for years, from having a drug addict mum with a violent boyfriend, Beth is finally able to just be a teenage girl.Ryan has his own problems, with a seriously broken family. And Beth gives him the strength needed to start to heal his family, whilst learning to let go of the bad parts of her own that are pulling her down.“This overwhelming, encompassing feeling is love. It's not perfect and it's messy as hell. And it's exactly what I need.”Just like in Pushing the Limits Katie McGarry writes a realistic non 'insta love' relationship that is real for the characters she has written. It is a very cute love story and just shows (again like in Pushing the Limits) that you don't need a sex scene for a good romance.

This is the first of the companion novels to Pushing the Limits, it focuses on Beth - Noah's friend and housemate and introduces Ryan, a baseball star in the making.I have to admit, when I read about the dare element of this book I was really worried. I generally find that books with secrets like this leave me so stressed out as I read, and so I end up not really enjoying the book. I was so pleased to find that this part of the plot didn't play out as I'd expected it to, and so I could just enjoy the reading experience.The majority of this book is set at a different school, in a different town, to Pushing the Limits so there's a whole new lot of characters to get to know. Beth makes numerous trips back home though, giving us time to catch up with Echo and Noah, and with Isaiah.This isn't a perfect book, but the writing is so good that I was completely swept away by the reading experience and can happily overlook things that might have been gripes in a weaker book. I'm completely in love with this series, I think it's the closest a series of books have got to making me feel the way watching Friday Night Lights did.

From the outside looking in, Ryan seems to have everything a teenage boy could want - good looks, popularity, successful athlete and girls fighting over him, but sometimes things are not always what they seem. On the inside, Ryan endures his parents fighting, his father manipulative nature pushing into making life choices he doesnt agree with. He has already pushed Ryan's older brother out of the family simply because he is gay. Beth is very different to the usual girl Ryan would go for but his best friend has dared him to ask her out but like any dare things can end blowing up in your face. Dare You To is another story of two people fighting against bad decisions made by the parents, standing up for what they believe in whilst finding love in unexpected places. Well written and moving. Beth has become my favourite female character for a while. She has a strong and bolshy attitude, but loyal and soft to those who know her best.