A book I will recommend again and again. A captivating read with great characters and storyline.
4 stars

3 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes

I liked this book but not as much as McGarry's first book. Beth and Ryan make for a great couple eventually but it takes a while to get there.

I liked Beth a lot more than Ryan at first. She seems to be more true to herself then he is. He grows on you eventually but he felt a little too fake for awhile there. All the dares were really annoying too.

Meeting Beth's uncle was pretty eye-opening and provided lots of conflict for the story. Overall finding out the Risk family background helped show why Beth is like she is.

The solution to the story is predictable but you can't help but root for these characters. McGarry has a writing style that you just can't look away from. I'm really looking forward to her next book.

I had loved Pushing the Limits so I was hopeful about Dare You To and it delivered. There is something about Katie McGarry romance that draws you in.

Dare to you has a very beautiful and impactful story, I loved Beth Risk way more than the protagonists from Katie other books, she’s so strong and smart, she had a very tough life and has very little reasons to be happy but yet she does everything she can to help her mother, even when she shouldn’t, her life changes when her uncle shows up and basically forces her to live with him.
Ryan Stone couldn’t be more different than Beth, he’s the all star baseball player, headed for the big leagues, when I started reading I thought I would end up hating him, he’s the stereotypical popular guy who can do no wrong but as I continued to read I started to realize that there was a lot more to him than a pretty face, just like Beth he also have troubles at home, his parents are so awful, I felt so bad for him.
A dare brings Beth and Ryan together and the chemistry between them was amazing, I could feel their emotions to each other it was so very vivid.
Katie Mcgarry truly has a gift for writing, the angst scenes were so well writing it brought tears to my eyes. I will definitely be reading Katie other books.

Dare you To is the second book in the Pushing the Limits series. Much like the first book, this story is also a little gritty and pretty steamy for a young adult title. I think it will appeal to young adults and adults who like romance but don't need all the details.

I really enjoyed the first one back when I read it, like, 10 years ago. This one sounded good, but I didn't quite connect with it this much later. Back then, I might have liked it more, but it's been so long that my tastes have changed.

It was a fun read, but didn’t do much more for me beyond that. Enjoyable, but not all that memorable.

I was very confused about this book not being about Beth and Isaiah but honestly, I'm happy with who Beth ended up with. The first half of this book did take me a bit longer than normal to get through for a Katie McGarry book, but by the half-way point, I was hooked on the book. I really enjoyed how it ended and I'm excited to finally continue reading the rest of the books in this series.

I loved this book, adored the characters, especially Ryan. I was drawn to Beth because she has had such a rough life and I can't even say that she had little self-esteem; I'd have to say that she had none! Beth needed someone to save her and help her out of her bondage, and her uncle Scott tries to do just that.

Ryan is the boy who falls head over heels in love with Beth, but she doesn't even feel that she deserves him. In order for their relationship to grow, they have some huge obstacles they have to surmount. To me they were totally believable characters and I absolutely was rooting for them to make a love connection, but there is also Isaiah who has been Beth's best friend forever. As you can imagine Ryan and Isaiah both vied for her love.

Beth comes from a very dysfunctional family and feels sole responsibility for her alcoholic mother, and has been her "caretaker" since she was eight years old. The reality of this hit me hard, as there are too many kids who feel the exact same way. Some sections of the book literally brought me to tears as I learned what her mother was really engaged in and how she angered me as a mother!

Recommendation: Definitely worth a try. I see other reviewers who gave low ratings, but I say we each have our own opinions and this one would be worth your time to at least see how you feel about the novel.

I could not put this title down. Fast paced and the chemistry between the characters was very strong.

Fun, intense romance with characters who you cheer for all the way through the novel.. Katie McGarry has an uncanny ability to create troubled, diverse characters that you immediately connect to and route for to end up happy together.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. I great book to read for Valentine's Day. High-school seniors doing adult things, so not for younger readers. But the author keeps it very real and develops the characters well. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it.

Katie does a great job with balancing romantic tension in her romances, they manage to be balanced in reality but also very romantic

LOVE! I love this book/story so much. Author Katie McGarry has a way of pulling you into her world and not letting you go until the final word on the page. I love her characters and this book is just so well written I couldn't get enough of it.

Did not love this one; I suppose I am not a romance fan, as this felt too trope-y, but I know many people that love these books and were extremely pleased with them.

Katie McGarry knows how to write teenage angst. Dare You To is the second book in the Pushing the Limits series, and it is definitely filled with despair and anguish. Contemporary fiction for the young adult crowd can be a hit or miss. I always feel that there's this fine line to be crossed when it comes to high school and realistic scenarios. But McGarry knows how to balance her topics well, giving a serious outlook on realistic topics while giving the reader a glimmer of hope. Like I've said before, McGarry harmonizes between two elements and makes you craving for more. Dare You To is exactly that.

Ryan Stone is an all-star baseball player, headed for the big leagues. He is popular and is everyone's friend, but has secrets he cannot share with anyone. He has a tight-knit group of friends who love to dare each other. A dare brings him to cross paths with Beth Risk. Beth is from the preverbial wrong side of the tracks. She protects her mom at all costs, even if it gets her in trouble. One day, Beth's uncle comes back to town and forces her to live with him, using her mom's freedom as an ultimatum. Ryan and Beth seem to have a lot more in common than they think, healing each other along the way.

Beth wasn't someone that I warmed up to right away. But I think that was McGarry's point. Beth was closed off to anything resembling an emotional connection. Beth's story was harsh and honest, adding a sense of brutality. It was eye opening and sad, and I couldn't help but feel for her. Beth is full of spunk and has an honesty that is almost insensitive. She is a determined person, with only one goal in mind: to save her mom. It's a type of love that's not always talked about, and maybe that's okay, but the way McGarry spoke about it was real enough to feel.

Ryan isn't perfect. On the surface, his life is cookie cutter perfection. But as I got to know him a little better, I slowly saw the flaws and cracks of the immaculate life. He did things because he thought it was right, respecting people that he always respected. And Ryan did it regardless if he thought he was going to fail. His love for Beth was fierce, loving her enough to pit it all on the line.

McGarry took a real setting and added a new life to it. From the different places she staged her scenes, she knew how to use her backgrounds. They never hindered or took away from what was taking place. And with the nature of the topics, it is a really good thing.
Drug abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and homosexuality are talked about in Dare You To. But as I was reading, McGarry allowed me to see someone else's dream and hopes get crushed. It's heartbreaking to read those scenes. At times, I felt like the emotions I felt overshadowed what was going on. But I think it was due because McGarry knows how to write angst.
McGarry's characters evoke emotions, her world allows for a sense of reality to take place in fiction, and her writing takes control and never looks back. I absolutely feel that you will enjoy Dare You To. Pick it up and read it today.

I had been feeling bad that I hadn't gotten around to reading this, McGarry's debut novel, or any of her other ones. Since Dare You To was first published in March, 2013, McGarry's published about NINE more books. Busy, busy author!

But she has a similar formula for many of them, so I suppose it doesn't matter that I'm not reviewing her latest book (which has the same formula) but her first.

So what is her formula? Frequently, she writes about a golden boy or girl who falls for forbidden fruit--a girl or boy from the wrong side of the tracks and whose parents and sometimes friends object to the match.

Had I not been required to read Dare you To to fulfill an obligation to NetGalley, I would not have read past the first few pages.

She is a good writer, and popular with teens. I do not object to McGarry's formula, but I do find her gritty writing style not my cup of tea. Prostitution ... drug dealing ... alcoholism ... physical abuse ... criminal behavior ... this book has it all.

I am happy that McGarry redeemed Beth Risk, a parentified child, from her atrocious home life in the end, and that her mother and her mother's boyfriend were safely locked away in prison for years to come.

It did seem a stretch that someone with Beth's background would make as many strides as she did in three short months' time, once she started living with her uncle and met (and fell in love with) golden boy Ryan Stone.

In reality, I suspect Beth Risk would remain deeply damaged for many years instead.

But it's a novel, and if you like gritty stories, you will probably love Dare You To and the rest of the books in the series.

One dare, that’s all it took. Beth’s story was what I’ve been wanting to read. It kept me entertained and flipping the pages.

Read in 2013

I read this one in a day. First time for a while I have read a book as quickly as this one but I found myself unable to put it down and when I had to put it down, I was thinking about when i would pick it up again to read some more.

The character of Beth was written very well, I found myself really feeling for this girl and the situation with her mother. And the same goes for Ryan, again he was very likeable but I did find myself wondering why he wasn't a typical teenage boy, he was written in a way that made me think of him as older than the character actually was.

This is definately a typical YA book though, if you go into this thinking that its going to more of an adult book than young adult then you will be mistaken.. The characters are most definately written like they are teenagers, their feelings and thoughts are very teenager like. For me, that made the story better and more enjoyable as I wasn't picking fault with the way they were written.

I also wouldn't stop my teenager from reading this one, there is a small almost non existent sex scene but I don't think this book would be a bad influence on any teenager as in the end, Beth makes good and cleans herself up and well you can understand the drug taking with her life the way it was.

I really did enjoy this one and would read more from this author in the future if the opportunity came about.

Good story interesting characters
Look forward to the next book