Title: Crash into
You
Series: Pushing
the Limits, #3
Author: Katie
McGarry
Publisher: Harlequin
Teen
Publication Date: November
26, 2013
Genre: YA/NA
Reviewed by: Books4Tomorrow
Source: eARC
received from publisher via NetGalley
My rating: 5/5
SUMMARY
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.
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.
REVIEW
I know for some it can sound really cheesy
when a reviewer says reading a certain book by a certain author felt like
coming home. But seriously, I can’t think of a truer way than saying meeting up
with the characters from Pushing the
Limits and Dare You To –
especially my all-time favorite character, Isaiah – felt like a warm and
familiar embrace by loved ones. I absolutely love the familiarity McGarry’s
books make me feel: same characters, but with a fresh new story. The best part
of reading Crash into You was that I
knew what I was letting myself in for, and I was just so excited when I got my
copy of this book!
Rachel being the new MC in this story was a
breath of fresh air. But don’t take my word for it, I’ll let Isaiah sum it up:
“God does exist and he sent an
angel in a white Mustang to prove it.”
In the previous book, Dare You To, we had Beth and darkness. Even Isaiah admits that Beth
is all darkness, so it’s not just me saying it. Rachel is blonde, beautiful,
brainy and rich; Isaiah’s opposite in so many ways except for their love of
fast cars and the fact that they both come from dysfunctional families.
Hell yes, she’s hot and my mind
won’t stop replaying the twelve different ways I could possibly do her, but
she’s not that type of girl.
The only thing I didn’t like about Rachel is –
like Beth – she constantly doubts herself and thinks of herself as weak. I
easily understood why she’d think of herself that way, but it would’ve been
nice if the author hadn’t created yet another seriously messed-up mother
reminiscent of the one Echo had in the first book, Pushing the Limits.
Isaiah, of course, is smoldering hot and I
savored every chapter written from his point of view. I grew especially fond of
him in Dare You To, but I fell head
over heels in love with him in this book. It’s no secret that Vin Diesel is one
of my favorite actors and the Fast & Furious movies ranks at the top of my
list of fiery hot action films, and reading this book felt like being inside a
Katie McGarry version of one of those movies. I don’t care if any of those
movies were the inspiration for this book; the combination of Isaiah + suped-up
car + speed worked very, very well for me. It made Isaiah more bad-ass and who
doesn’t love a bad boy? Especially one who would risk everything for your
safety.
Rachel can’t like me because she
doesn’t know me. The real me. For Rachel, life is still sunshine, rainbows and
pink ... fuzzy unicorns. I’m nothing but darkness, clouds and rats.
I can’t tell you how many times I wished to be
in Rachel’s shoes to be able to wrap my arms around this man with the tattoos,
ear rings, and heart of gold. Oh, and every time he referred to Rachel in his
thoughts as his angel, another little piece of my heart melted away. Don’t even
get me started on what a mouth this boy has on him! I was constantly laughing
at his sarcastic retorts. But here’s the thing I really like about Isaiah:
“When I say I’m going to do
something I do it.” My word is the only thing I truly own.
That right there. Because that’s what I always
look for in people. Isaiah is more than meets the eye, and the entire package
deal – him caring about his future, him being reliable and self-sacrificing –
is what makes him so beautiful. The same goes for Rachel for that matter. I
liked her because she saw Isaiah for who he was on the inside, and didn’t judge
him by his tats, his rough-around-the-edges persona or his background. She
defends him and she takes a chance on a friendship with Abby when no-one else
will show the girl any love. No matter that Rachel comes from a privileged
upbringing, not once did I detect a nuance of superficiality in her character. She
and Isaiah really are a perfect fit. I always thought Isaiah and Beth were made
for each other, but in retrospect, they really weren’t. Rachel brings out the
best in Isaiah, and he in return boosts her confidence by leaning on her
emotionally and allowing her to be his rock while at the same time also being
hers.
“I don’t want to be without you. I
like who I am with you, and I don’t want to go back to who I was before.”
As before, McGarry doesn’t disappoint. Apart
from a phenomenal storyline with Intriguing, complex characters, the prose is
moving and the brutal underbelly of illegal racing is portrayed magnificently
and realistically. I learned so much about the ins and outs of legal and
illegal street racing, prestaging, burnout, slicks, and bracket racing, thanks
to the author’s impeccable research. Additionally to the movie-like quality of
the story, it was refreshing to be part of two such contrasting lives: one
fraught with poverty and hardship, and the other one of pure luxury. I loved
that the author brought in characters from the previous books and mostly I
loved how the family dynamics added backbone to the story, even as
dysfunctional as most of these relationships are.
Rachel granted me silence and for
that I’m grateful. I would have thought spending eleven years without my mother
would make me immune to her, but it doesn’t. It just makes old hurts ache more.
I was afraid that Crash into You might not live up to the amazingness of its
predecessors, but I can safely say this book does not disappoint. It is a
thrill ride from start to end, and adds value to the series as a whole. I’m not
a big fan of romance, but this is one author who writes this genre exactly the
way I want to read it. With Pushing the
Limits, Katie McGarry has already established herself as one of my favorite
authors whose books I’ll read and recommend without a second of doubt. This
third book serves as confirmation as to why I think she’s such an exceptional
storyteller! Now, cue the long wait for book four. Sigh.
I
received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for
an honest, unbiased review.
*NOTE: This book contains
YA characters with New Adult situations. Quotes and excerpts taken from the
uncorrected ARC sent to me for review.
READ more REVIEWS
Crash Into You by Katie McGarry has
397 reviews on Goodreads. Read it here.
PURCHASE LINKS
ABOUT the AUTHOR
KATIE MCGARRY was a teenager during the age of
grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her
life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a
secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.
AUTHOR LINKS
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