Dare you to by Katie McGarry Review

Dare you to

By: Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail. And seventeen-year-old Beth? Who know where? So she protects her mum at all costs- until the day her uncle swoops in, and Beth finds herself starting over at a school where no one understands her. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her… but does.

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular jock with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him! But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction.

Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image is risking everything for the girl he loves. And the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all…

My review

Once again Katie McGarry has written a stellar novel that will have you believing in love again. Coming into the story knowing that Beth would have a love interest within it I automatically assumed that it would be Isaiah because of how they behaved in Pushing  the Limits. But much to my surprise Beth realises that all they are going to be is friends and so we get to delve into a new relationship between Beth and Ryan.

Beth of course was in Katie McGarry’s first book Pushing the Limits where we got a little insight into what she was like. But in Dare you To we get to delve even more into Beth’s character and we find out what makes her tick.  We learn about her home life and her family, how she will do anything to protect her mum including going to jail for a crime her mother committed. This leads to her being bailed out by her absent until now uncle and being forced to leave the world that she has grown up in and move back to her childhood town where she meets Ryan Stone.

Ryan Stone is the popular boy in this town who loves doing dares with his baseball teammates. And he accepts the dare of all time: ask the skater chick out on a date. Little does he know how much this girl will change his life. From this point on what started as a dare changes into a real friendship and eventually relationship as they both work through their problems that they have together and fight for what they believe.

Moving away from where Pushing the Limits was based I think was a bold move by Katie and I feel it certainly paid off. I really enjoyed reading about Beth in a different environment and I believe this made the book better than Pushing the Limits.

I can’t wait to continue on in this world and read about Isaiah’s story. Just reading the first two chapters of Crash Into You (which is included in the back of the book) has me begging for more.

5/5

My favourite Quote from Dare You To

“I hold the bottle out into the rain and watch as the steady flow slowly fills it. When there is enough, enough that Beth can clearly see, I close the bottle and hand it to her.

She raises a skeptical eyebrow, but accepts the bottle.

"It's our rain Beth."

Her head barely shakes to show her confusion while I rub the back of my neck and search for my courage. "I told you I loved you in this rain and when you doubt my words, I want you to look at this bottle.”