There is an occasion of hardly-described (and very protected) sex. Note to Parents: There is “bad” language, but it is generally accompanied by protests from loving, caring adults. In Dare You To, Ryan is probably a little too perfect, but that’s the only way, it seems to me, in which fantasy overtakes reality in this book. The writing is solid and the books are full of “good” messages. They are far from lightweight, dealing with very serious, adult issues. Ryan has to find the courage to help Beth by being true to himself.Įvaluation: Yes, this series is published by Harlequin Teen, and the books are properly classified as YA “romances”, but don’t let a possible Fear of Fluff stop you from trying these books. Beth’s past keeps creeping up on her, threatening to destroy all of them.

It’s inevitable that the two of them see through their differences to all they have in common, and fall in love.īut the road is far from easy.

As she observes, “If I don’t feel, I don’t hurt.” For Ryan, whose home life is way better than Beth’s – yet also painful – baseball isn’t just a game it’s the only place he feels like he belongs. We learn their stories in chapters that alternate between each point of view, sometimes covering the same events, a nice feature which is done very well.īeth has good reasons to have put up walls against feeling any emotions except anger. As with the previous book, we can guess early on that both of these protagonists are actually good kids, who have adapted in different ways to painful circumstances at home. Most impressively, the main characters in this second book don’t “sound” like the different main characters in the previous one.īeth, 17, is a tough, punk-looking girl with “attitude, nose ring, and a sneer that can kill on sight.” Yet there’s something about her that appeals to Ryan Stone, a senior at a Kentucky high school and the baseball team’s star pitcher. Dare You To is focused on Beth, and a third book, Crash Into You, will tell Isaiah’s story. In Pushing the Limits, although the story was mainly concerned with Noah and his girlfriend Echo, we also got to know Noah’s foster siblings, Beth and Isaiah. This book is a companion story to McGarry’s previous book Pushing the Limits (see my review here.)

Dare you to katie mcgarry