Dare You To - Katie McGarry

Pages: 456

Publisher: MiraINK

Release Date: 7^th June 2013

Edition: UK paperback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Pushing the Limits, Crossing the Line (novella)

Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. ‘Dance with me, Beth.’

‘No,’ I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again...

Beth Risk has spent her whole life hiding the truth about her family and never letting anyone get too close.

Suddenly sent to live with an uncle she barely knows, she’s struggling to start afresh in a new town and at a new school that doesn’t get her. At all.

Ryan Stone is the school’s gorgeous golden boy – with secrets he can’t tell anyone. As Ryan and Beth dare to let each other in, they’re treading on dangerous ground – and the consequences could change their lives forever.

Pushing the Limits was one of my favourite books of last year so Dare You To had a high bar to reach! Although it didn’t quite make it, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

As in her debut, Katie McGarry tackles a fair few sensitive and powerful topics that could have dominated the book if there weren’t characters and relationships strong enough to handle them. Luckily, Ryan and Beth were fantastic protagonists and I’m so glad we got to know both of them through dual narrative. I found Beth really difficult to connect with at first and yet that’s not a criticism; she’s not a girl that’s easy to like or even tolerate a lot of the time, yet she’s interesting and that’s what drove Ryan forward at first. I liked Ryan a lot, though he was no Noah. He’s a total gentleman and he writes, but he only really came alive for me when he was with Beth.

Alongside the characters you fall in love with, there has to be the ones you want to punch in the punch. Gwen and Ryan’s parents made my blood boil and I felt Ryan’s frustration with them so vividly. But these three characters really contrasted with Beth’s life in Louisville perfectly and the differences between caring and not caring about someone really became clear.

It’s really hard to talk about the plot without giving something away, but Beth’s secrets were really the driving force behind it. Her connections with the rest of the characters in the book created tension and the possibility of her combusting and her life exploding in a place where she was starting to feel at home. Her situation before the novel was heart-breaking and although Ryan’s was more easily relatable for me personally, Beth’s strand was much more powerful. It added weight to everything she said and did.

Dare To You is another great book from Katie McGarry and I can’t wait to find out all about Isaiah in Crash Into You.

For my 2013 YA Contemporary Challenge

Thanks to MiraINK for sending me a copy for review.

Sophie