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Pushing the Limits (Pushing the Limits, #1)

Katie McGarry

Why we're reading this: it's not as heavy or hard hitting as some but I think the issues the characters (Echo and Noah) have in t…more
[close] it's not as heavy or hard hitting as some but I think the issues the characters (Echo and Noah) have in their lives, how they cope with them and the end results make it a YA Saves book.

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What Members Thought

Mar 03, 2012 Huntley Fitzpatrick rated it it was amazing

Have just read PUSHING THE LIMITS by Katie McGarry--and so recommend it. The world of the story pulls you in immediately and completely and you so identify with the story, being told alternatively by the hero and heroine in first person. This is a hard thing to pull off and McGarry succeeds brilliantly. There are so many things to love about this book. I love the way she took potentially overdone situations—bad boy with heart of gold, damaged heroine, father who can’t connect, stepmother who ‘ru ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Apr 13, 2012 Naomi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, kindle, netgalleybooks

The only books that get a full 5 star rating from me are the ones that once I have finished reading them, I could quite easily flip back to the first page & start all over again! Pushing The Limits is definitely one of those books!!!!

I was hooked from the very first page. The storyline is fantastic & the characters are even better.

Echo & Noah's relationship from the start is mesmerising. Echo is very shy & timid & has distanced herself from life since the trauma she went through previously. No ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 28, 2012 Summer Lane rated it really liked it

Whoa.......
This book......
Was an emotionally traumatizing experience.......
And I mean that in the most positive way possible. Echo Emerson has scars. She doesn't remember how they got there, but ever since she woke up in a hospital with no memory of a horrible accident (or was it an accident?) that went down, her life has gotten worse and worse. A controlling father, a whacked-out stepmother, and no friends. Social-freeze.
Noah's got a different story, but his life is definitely no rosier than E ...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Paula Phillips rated it it was amazing

Two teens from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love with the whole world against them ? Sounds familiar ? It has an almost Romeo and Juliet feel to it as we meet two teenagers Noah Hutchins and Echo Emerson, both have been delegated to go along to their guidance counsellor's new guinea pig programme, here they will be counselled in school by Miss Collins. Both have lost someone they cared for and now are struggling to move forward , for Echo her family has been a strong issue with an overbe ...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Book Sp(l)ot rated it it was amazing

Shelves: debut-author-ya-mg, series, 2012-release, challenge-yas

Noah Hutchins and Echo Emerson each have their own personal struggles. Noah's been in foster care since his parents died and is determined to gain custody of his younger brothers. Known around school for the different girls hes been with, his all-around, leather jacket wearing hotness, Noah isn't making class his top priority.

Echo went from being an it girl: on the dance team, popular boyfriend, the right friends . . . to the talked about girl with the scars on her arms, always wearing long slee Noah Hutchins and Echo Emerson each have their own personal struggles. Noah's been in foster care since his parents died and is determined to gain custody of his younger brothers. Known around school for the different girls hes been with, his all-around, leather jacket wearing hotness, Noah isn't making class his top priority.

Echo went from being an it girl: on the dance team, popular boyfriend, the right friends . . . to the talked about girl with the scars on her arms, always wearing long sleeves so no one will see. And she doesn't remember the incident that brought her those scars.

It wouldn't seem that they have much in common - Echo plays by the rules while Noah skips class and gets high - but one person will put them on the same path. Their attraction and the things they bring out in each other may keep them on it.

It's been a long, long time since I have read a debut that has was as engrossing, as compelling as McGarry's Pushing the Limits was right from the start. Both narrators, Echo and Noah, are equally unique and great characters. Each of them has more than a little something making them different from the typical YA character.

They both have their issues, but they aren't predictable issues, either. Yes, Noah is the rebel outsider in a leather jacket that girls find irresistible who actually is caring. But his why's and his background make him very much different from any other character I've yet to read about. While he presents, outwardly, with a devil-may-care attitude he's keeping secrets, that there's something deeper is only one of them.

With Echo having her own secrets, as well, some even secret from herself - the things she can't remember - it makes for a compelling read. You want to find out all of Echo's story and all of Noah's story, how things work together and, definitely, where and how everything will end up.

The characters have great chemistry - both the romantic chemistry as well as the chemistry present between completely platonic characters that just makes for great interactions and relationships. It was nice that lesser relationships didn't seem forgotten or skipped over in lieu of the bigger relationships getting the attention and others getting passing mention.

The beginning of Pushing the Limits was absolutely brilliant, the middle did get a bit slower. It didn't quite drag but it wasn't quite as amazing, but the ending definitely picked right back up!

Aside from the slowing in the middle, I think the only negative I have for Pushing the Limits - and this may partially be a carry over from another book, paired with this one - is how little Echo's constant lack of sleep seemed to affect her. I may have read things differently than the author intended but it seemed chronic sleep deprivation (over that time period) would have had more of an effect on Echo. It would, though, have made the plot all funk-y and my noticing/wondering is based on more than PTL, so . . . take from it what you will.

Pushing the Limits was released yesterday, if you somehow have not yet gotten it or decided to read it, you absolutely should!

9/1- ...more

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Oct 14, 2012 Kim Smiley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This was possibly one of THE best books I've read this year. I haven't given a 5 star rating in a while and this one was well deserved. Very well written, very well executed and I was even teary eyed at points in this book, and no book has ever made me cry.

So that said, Echo is one messed up chic. Her mother is a psycho and one night that Echo can't remember, an incident happened with her mother that left Echo with horrible scars all over her arms and her mother a trip back to the hospital. Her ...more

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Aug 08, 2012 ضحى الحداد rated it it was ok

Shelves: audio-book, hate-it, e-book

So this book wasn't what I expected at all with all these good reviews and all .. but it did end on a good note and that's why I didn't give it a 1 star rating, the story was deep but it lacked some major elements to make it exciting and fun to follow .. I didn't like Noah until the end because I saw him as a contradictory character who do what he doesn't want and say what he doesn't feel !!
I didn't like this story at all and I look at it as "Perfect chemistry" rip off with a bad plot ...more

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