ARC Review: Crash into You by Katie McGarry

474 pages

Expected publication: November 26th 2013 by Harlequin Teen 

Pushing the Limits #3

Source: Thank you HarlequinTeen and Above the Treeline for giving me an ARC to review. In no way did this influence my opinion.

Goodreads / Amazon

Summary

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.

So, there's this emotion called love and I kind of adore it. This book, my dear readers, is stuffed to the brim with it. I can't decide if this one or Pushing the Limits is my favorite. 

So in this one we get a look into what happened to Isaiah before he came to know Noah and Beth. We see how he's insanely broken and how he has so many demons that haunt him. We see how loyal he is to the ones he cares for and how deep he loves. We see that, when he was younger, he was smaller. And how that was so not to his advantage. I'm not talking hide and seek here people. We get a glimpse of the bad foster homes he is put into and we see the one good one that made such a ginormous impact on who he is now. 

Then we have Rachel. She was born to make her mother happy. Literally. Her 'sister' who she never knew died of cancer and Rachel is the replacement. Her sister was the perfect daughter; she went to balls and loved dresses and the color purple. Rachel likes cars. She likes to live but everyone in her family wants to do everything she can, even if it means hiding who she really is, to make her mom happy. They guilt trip her into being a replacement for a girl she never knew.

They seem to be polar opposites; Isaiah with the tattoos and piercing and Rachel who's straight As all the way and designer clothing. 

One night, when Rachel's out trying to escape, she discovers the world of racing, and with that, Isaiah. Of course we can't let this utterly perfect couple get away with being happy can we? Noooo. We have to make a crazy, power, money hungry idiot blame Rachel when his money is stolen. All 5 grand. Erin. Ooooh. Everyone's afraid of him. If I had to complain about one thing it would be that I didn't feel the fear that the characters felt when has we around. I mean he's what 19? 20? and people are treating him like he's a serial killer.

What struck me most was how similar Isaiah and Rachel really were. They both had to be something they're not to survive. They both had the power to save each other. They both liked cars (boarder-line obsessive people)

In Crash into You, all of Katie's amazing talents were showcased; her writing style, honestly, has never been better. We see more depth than we've seen before and we understand what love is. Love is loyalty and sacrifice. Love isn't perfect, but it makes you accept the imperfections and focus on the strengths. Love is hope. Katie made it so I could feel the emotions through the pages. One of my favorite things in a book, I might add.

I wasn't a fan of the chemistry that was showcased in Dare You To. I felt that Beth and Ryan's love was to hot and cold. It was still good but I prefer the sparks flying in Crash into You better. It was kinda amazing. Gotta love good communication.

And the brothers.....I can't decide if I like them yet or not. They each have a very unique and distinct personality, but they all sort of act without thinking of the consequences. It's obvious most of the time they love their sister, but then they go into pressuring her to be like Colleen (her sister) and encourage her to be someone she's not. *scratches head in confusion* I just don't know about them. And the kept her illness a secret..why? Because they care more about her mother's happiness than her life? Hahaha. Uhm, that so does not fly with me.  

Overall, this was pretty epic. The romance, the danger and the cars. And the guys and holy moly there was a lot of them. In Crash into You we see a side of Isaiah that is protective, I mean bossy, yet soft..sorta like a puppy. With tattoos and an utterly adorable smile. I loved Isaiah and Rachel's story. It gives you an inside peek at people's souls. I think that's one of the things I like most about Katie's writing: we don't just see the characters outward appearance, we see them without barriers and their heart and souls exposed. It's feels like I'm falling in love while they are.

Last Gripe: I don't like the cover. That guy is too old to be Isaiah.

Happy reading,

Jackie