Last year I read one of the most sensitively written YA novels that I have ever come across, Pushing the Limits. It is a story about survival and about love – two beautiful souls, Echo and Noah, served with so much adversity in their young lives, but battling through, finding each other in that darkness and helping one another to overcome the injustices that life has thrown at them. Instead of focusing on the unfairness of it all and the inevitable anger stemming from it, this book celebrates love, love in all its myriad of forms – love between a child and a parent, love between siblings, love between a boy and a girl, and love between friends. It also celebrates human endurance and a person’s ability to overcome unspeakable tragedies. Echo and Noah stole my heart and quickly earned their spot among some of my favourite book characters.
Thankfully, the series continues and we are soon getting two books to follow this beautiful tale. Crossing the Line, a novella that tells the story of Lila and Lincoln, will be released on 1 April 2013, and then Dare You To, Beth and Ryan’s story, on 28 May 2013.
Today, Katie is giving us an excerpt from chapter 3 of Dare You To, from Ryan’s POV.
Expected release date: 28 May 2013
“See you tonight, dawg.” Chris kicks my foot as he walks past. He cradles his bat bag in one hand and Lacy’s hand in the other. Chris and I met Lacy when our schools combined in sixth grade. I liked her the day she skinned her knee playing football with the boys. Chris fell in love with her the day she pushed him on the playground after he tagged her out in baseball. They’ve been a couple since sophomore year — the year he grew a pair and finally asked her out.
Lacy pulls a rubber band off her wrist and twists her brown hair into a messy bun. I love that she isn’t a girly girl. In order to keep up with me, Chris, and Logan, a girl has to have thick skin. Don’t get me wrong — she’s hot as hell, but Lacy doesn’t give a damn what others think of her. “We’re going to the party tonight. I want conversation and people and dancing. There is more to life than batting cages and dares.”
With our fingers frozen on unlacing our cleats, Logan and I snap up our heads. Chris’ face blanches. “That’s sacrilegious, Lace. Take it back.”
Next to me, Logan shoves his feet into his Nikes and tosses his cleats into his bag. “You don’t know the thrill of winning a good dare.”
“Dares aren’t fun,” she says, the reprimand thick in her tone. “They’re crazy. You set my car on fire.”
Logan holds up his hand. “I opened the window in time. In my defense, the upholstery is barely singed.”
Chris and I chuckle at the memory of Lacy screaming as she was doing forty on a curve. The short story: a hamburger wrapper, a lighter, a stopwatch, and a dare. Logan accidentally dropped the blazing wrapper and it rolled under Lacy’s seat. One patented I’ll-kick-you-until-you-drop glare from Lacy shuts us both up. “I wish you’d get a girlfriend so she can drive your insane ass around.”
“I can’t.” Logan waggles his eyebrows. “I’m Ryan’s wingman.”
“Wingman.” She spits the word, then points a sparkly fingernail at both me and Logan, but I don’t miss how it lingers on me. “One of you needs to find a girl and commit. I’m tired of this testosterone bull.”
Lacy hates the string of girls I’ve dated over the summer. She’s terrified I’ll influence Chris to drop her, though she should know better. Chris reveres her as his own personal religion.
“You didn’t approve of the one I committed to last time,” I say. “Why should I try again?”
“Because you can do better than evil.”
The Story
Ryan lowers his lips to my ear. “Dance with me, Beth.”
“No.” I whisper the reply. I hate him and I hate myself for wanting him to touch me again…
“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 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.
The Pushing the Limits Series – Reading Order and Purchase Links
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The Giveaway
To win a set of e-copies of Pushing the Limits, Crossing the Line (to be sent on release day) and Dare You To (to be sent on release day), please enter below. By entering, you accept the following Giveaway Conditions.
