I'm a bit behind in some of my YA reviews. Below are my reviews of The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman and Crash into You by Katie McGarry. Please note that these reviews are based on the advanced copies provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

Description: They called it the killing day. Twelve people dead, all in the space of a few hours. Five murderers: neighbors, relatives, friends. All of them so normal. All of them seemingly harmless. All of them now dead by their own hand . . . except one. And that one has no answers to offer the shattered town. She doesn't even know why she killed—or whether she'll do it again.
 Something is waking in the sleepy town of Oleander's, Kansas—something dark and hungry that lives in the flat earth and the open sky, in the vengeful hearts of upstanding citizens. As the town begins its descent into blood and madness, five survivors of the killing day are the only ones who can stop Oleander from destroying itself. Jule, the outsider at war with the world; West, the golden boy at war with himself; Daniel, desperate for a different life; Cass, who's not sure she deserves a life at all; and Ellie, who believes in sacrifice, fate, and in evil. Ellie, who always goes too far. They have nothing in common. They have nothing left to lose. And they have no way out. Which means they have no choice but to stand and fight, to face the darkness in their town—and in themselves.

Review: I was completely out of my reading comfort zone when I was reading The Waking Dark. I'm not a big contemporary horror fan. I prefer Gothic atmosphere with the potential threat looming above the characters rather than see a person ripped to shreds with blood gushing for all to see. I've debated on picking up The Waking Dark for quite sometime but after reading some fabulous reviews, I got intrigued by the plot and thought I would give it a shot.
  The Waking Dark is a book for someone who has a sensitive stomach for violence and gore. Wasserman holds nothing back by bringing horrific situations to the citizens of this sleepy town in Kansas from a senseless mass shooting in a convenience store to a teen killing a baby. While I was appalled and felt uneasy by the violence in the novel, I was interested in the introspective horrors that the teens of this story deal with unfit parents with mental instability and homophobia, just to name a few, and this is what prevented me from not finishing the story. I liked reading from multiple perspectives, but there were just too many in this book without any smooth transitions between the two which made it a bit difficult keeping track of who is who. The book lost its steam for me when we are given the reason behind the violent acts that took place in the town. I felt the twist had a M. Night Shyamalan-ish ending that was suppose to be clever but it came off as a bit silly. Still I would recommend this book to Stephen King fans for both teens and adults.

Rating: 3 stars

Words of Caution: Strong violence, including attempted rape, and strong language. Recommended for older teens and adults only.

If you like this book try: Under the Dome by Stephen King, Scowler by Daniel Kraus


Description: The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind. Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look. But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.

Review: I've adored Isaiah from the moment he appeared in Pushing Limits and have been waiting for him to have his happy ending since his heart was broken in Dare You To. I was really looking forward to reading Crash into You and hoped that the melodrama was turned down a bit.
  The plot of Crash into You is pretty much the same as the previous novels in this series, focusing on the slices of life, coming of age of gritty, urban teens in the foster care who find love and an identity. Isaiah is the bad boy, with a heart of gold, who has a broken past as much as a broken present. His mother wants back in his life and he is staying with Noah to avoid his foster family. Monetary funds are running low to nothing so Isaiah participates in illegal street racing in order to cover rent for the apartment and food.
  On the other side of the spectrum is Rachel, the good, affluent girl caught in he middle of a controlling family. She suffers debilitating panic attacks, which she hides from everyone.  Everyone, including herself, perceives her as weak when she really wants to do her own thing, and step out of the shadow of her deceased sister who went too soon from cancer.
  I thought it was a bit too convenient how Isaiah and Rachel met. Their relationship, particularly from Isaiah's side, happened too quickly for my taste. I found it strange that at one moment Isaiah is still reeling from his unrequited feelings for Beth and then the next heartbeat he was thinking about Rachel. I would have preferred if we got see Isaiah and Rachel grow as characters separately and then come together. I did like the couple enough and their chemistry in places was very cute. I loved how they bonded and shared a passion about cars.
  Unfortunately, there is not much character growth as I would have liked for Isaiah. I didn't really learn anything new about him that I didn't know from the previous books. It took me some time to warm up to Rachel as her story was frustrating because I constantly wanted her to find her footing, step up to the plate, and start saying no to all the people asking her not only to lie in the dimensions of her family, but also lie to herself. I was glad when she did grow a backbone.
  As for the side characters, I really liked Abby and Ethan and would love to know more about them. I think they would make an interesting couple. I'm not entirely sure about West, Rachel's playboy brother, but I'm willing to know him beyond his reputation and will follow his story just to see what happens next.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Words of Caution: Strong language and some underage drinking. Recommended for Grades 9 and up.

If you like this book try: Take Me On by Katie McGarry (will be released in May 2014), Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller, Racing Savannah by Miranda Kenneally

   Dare You To is a highly anticipated companion novel to Katie McGarry's popular debut novel Pushing the Limits. Readers who like edgy romances with realistic issues should definitely pick up the book. This review is based on the advanced reader's copy of the book provided by the publisher via Netgalley.


Description: If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does....
   Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the 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 neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all.

Review: Dare You To follows the same format as Pushing the Limits: A dual narrative from both of the love interest and a wide variety of important and hard hitting topics ranging from sex to violence. For the most part the book works but it does veer into the drawn out and melodrama arena. While I did like the characters, I found myself more interested in Beth than in her straight laced love interest Ryan.
  Beth is a very prickly character, one that does not make a great first impression on you when you first meet her. After witnessing her home situation of being abandoned by her junkie mother, abused at the hand of her mother's abusive boyfriend, and seeking solace from drugs and friends, we see how Beth builds her walls and her thick skin. My heart broke for Beth many times while reading Dare You To and while I understand the need to help her mother, the failed attempts to help her mother became redundant and dragged the plot for me.
  Unlike Beth, Ryan is a boring love interest. Sure he is hot, a jock with a great body but he really didn't hold my interest. What really bothered me was the fact that virtually everything he did was based on a dare. The dare that started the rocky relationship with Beth reminded me a lot of Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles which is a book that I hated. Though I did feel bad how his parents made his decisions for him and the predictable mystery about his black sheep brother, Ryan made me miss hearing from Noah and especially Isaiah because I didn't take Ryan's genuine interest with Beth seriously or genuinely.
  The romance between Beth and Ryan is very, very slow. They learn to trust each other with lots of bumps in the road from "Is this another bet?" to "Am I your dirty little secret?" that takes them one step forward but three steps back, which I found frustrating. I also thought there was not enough romance to counterbalance the all the issues the book tackles. While I appreciated how McGarry shows how both teens are similar despite their upbringing, I couldn't connect to Ryan and Beth as a couple and as a result, was a big cheerleader for them. I'm still very excited to read Isaiah's book Crash into You which releases later this year as I do love the characters and McGarry's writing. Teens who like grittier romances will enjoy Dare You To, but readers who were lukewarm towards Pushing the Limits might not enjoy this one as much.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Words of Caution: There is strong language, sexual crude humor, a small sex scene, and underage drinking and drug usage. Recommended for Grades 10 and up.

If you like this book try: Crash into You by Katie McGarry, Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholt

  Pushing the Limits has been all around the blogosphere in the last few months. With a slew of book giveaways, author interviews, and other tidbits, it is hard to not hear about the book. I have to admit that I was skeptical about picking this book up, but after pasing a 50 page test read I eventually finished it and actually really liked it. As a note, this review is based on the advanced reader's copy provided by the publisher, Harlequin Teen, via Netgalley.


Description: Rendered a subject of gossip after a traumatic night that left her with terrible scars on her arms, Echo is dumped by her boyfriend and bonds with bad-boy Noah, whose tough attitude hides an understanding nature and difficult secrets.

Reviews: Pushing the Limits is a very unusual reading experience for me. There were many reasons why I normally would not like this book: an extreme overdose of issues (i.e. death, grief, foster care, mental illness, high school gossip, etc) along with a heavy current of teen angst, insta-attraction turned into love, a fairly predictable plot, and repetitive phrases that you would have fun counting on your fingers. Despite these flaws, I got sucked into Echo and Noah's story.
 McGarry sets up an intense contemporary romance that delves into the psychological difficulties of two teens who fall in love. Echo and Noah are desperately seeking normal, a goal they both feel is unattainable until they meet one another. Echo can't remember the night her mother apparently tried to kill her. She wears long sleeves and gloves to hide the awful scars left on her arms from that night. She has lost her brother and confidant in the Afghan war and lives with her obnoxious, controlling yet emotionally distant father and step-mother who once was her babysitter. I liked Echo right from the start. She has a good mix of flaws and strengths. She is smart but doesn't have the confidence to confront her once so-called friends after that terrible event. She knows what she doesn't want and what isn't good for her, but yet she dreams to be the girl that everyone once remembered.
   Like Echo, Noah is also a troubled teen. Noah lost his parents in a fire but saved his two younger brothers. All three brothers all are in foster care with different families, but Noah has been separated from his brothers and is determined to gain custody of them when he turns 18. Noah is a well known player whose only interactions with girls is regulated to the back seat of a car or a bed. Normally, I would find Noah appalling but I could tell right away that his bad-boy attitude is a front. He is terrified to make connections, build relationships because in his experience they only end in heartache. His character comes to life when he talks about his brothers and his determination to get full custody of them and to become once again a family. Noah reminded me a lot of Will from Good Will Hunting and that's maybe because I pictured him to be a younger version of Matt Damon.
 Echo and Noah meet and are instantly but secretly attracted to each other. Both see Mrs. Collins, an experienced psychologist, as their school counselor, and neither wants to trust her. I applaud McGarry for making Mrs. Collins a fully realized adult who knows what she is doing. She isn't a bumbling ditz nor a clueless adult trying to regain her lost teenage years by working in a high school. She is aware of Echo and Noah's problems. She realizes what makes Echo and Noah tick and slowly works with them even though both teens view her as a hindrance.
 Told in alternating chapters for both Echo and Noah, the story slowly uncovers the teens' secrets and builds to resolutions for both. I have to say that I was more invested in Noah's story and the scenes involving his brothers made me teary eyed several times. I also was very curious to find out what really happened on that terrible night with Echo. The pacing is done quite well and it moves quickly. If it wasn't for my busy work schedule, I could have easily read it in one sitting despite its 400 pages length. I would read recommend this book to readers who enjoy contemporary romance, but some may not like the issues weighing down the story. I think readers who give Echo and Noah a chance could be easily persuaded just like me. 

Rating: 4 stars

Words of Caution: Strong language, drug use, underage drinking, crude humor, and heavy make-out scenes. Recommended for Grades 9 and up.

If you like this book try: Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf, Leaving Paradise by Simon Elkeles, Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen