The YA Book Spot: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

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….

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. (Goodreads)

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I loved Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry. It got me through a really difficult time back in October. At the end of Pushing the Limits I saw there would be a sequel. Then I read it was Beth and I wanted to hit my head repeatedly against the wall. Beth annoyed me. I won't lie. I knew she had it hard, but she was a complete you-know-what to Echo and just overall annoyed the living crap out of me.

I read those couple of pages back in October and wasn't hooked. I read another chapter that was released, and again I wasn't drawn in. I knew I would buy Dare You To.

I did.

Yesterday.

And completely fell in love. I fell so hard I don't know how I'm not covered in cuts and bruises. Dare I say (haha, see what I did there? Get it? Dare... *slowly walks away*) it was even BETTER than PTL. In the beginning I thought it was going to be the same, but it really isn't. The characters were so much more… alive. They felt real. I laughed multiple of times and I almost cried at one point. I won't say much but it was between Beth and her uncle (pgs. 156 to 161). This was the moment my heart broke for her. The overall emotion of the scene was just amazing. Here's a quote:

“Quiet anger frightens me. The drunks, the idiots, the ones that rage easily - them I can handle. I know when to step out of their way. It's the ones that hold the anger in, the men that think about what they do and how they do it, that scare me. They're the ones that cause damage.”

I loved out Katie McGarry wrote it. It was phenomenal. This scene made me realize that PLT was flat in someways. Not fully. I still love that book, but Dare You To just does't compare. I felt the emotions of all these characters, more so than in PTL. When I think about it I realize that PLT was structured. Maybe that's just me, but Dare You To doesn't feel that way. Katie McGarry's writing really did get better.

Beth acts a certain way for a reason. I knew this in PTL, but didn't fully understand it. This book helps you understand her so much more. It helped me understand her problem with Echo. She was so used to loosing everyone she loved, that she felt Echo was taking Noah away. But she understood she wasn't a bad person. We all get like this when someone new comes in and it starts feeling like you're being pushed away. She just feels so hopeless, but Ryan gives her hope. One of my favorite quotes is by her:

"We all have our fears. Those things that exist in the dark corners of our mind that terrify us beyond belief."

It's an amazing quote. I have this thing for quotes about fear. This my favorite. There are so many quotes that I love. Which is basically every word in this book.

Ryan. Ryan Stone. He is amazing. There are so many stories with the girl/boy who is messed up and had a bad life then meets the girl/boy who changes them. Of course the good ones also have a messed up life. With Ryan though, it felt different. His family was falling apart because of something with his brother (which I won't say) and a lot more. But Ryan slowly comes to this realization that nothing is perfect. He know's it's not all sunshine and ponies, but is too afraid to face the music. His brother, and Beth, more or less force him to see this. I love the emotion Ryan has. I love him, please don't kill me, more than Noah. Like by maybe little more. Fine, a lot more. He understands Beth. Doesn't push her. Just…. Here, this explains me:

“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.”

Another point when I fell in love with this book even more, Hurt by Nine Inch Nails was in it. I knew immediately this was the song, and I was right. Katie McGarry got the feeling of the song down so well. I was singing it in my head while reading that scene:

"The flat and bitter notes of a Nine Inch Nails song play on the radio and I sink into my corner of the car, pulling my legs into my chest. My heart aches with the lyrics. It's a phrase embedded in my soul, a lyric that talks about people you love and how in the end... they go away." - Beth

More quotes? Of course!

“How many more of us are faking the facade? How many more of us are pretending to be something we're not? Even better, how many of us will have the courage to be ourselves regardless of what others think?”

“I won't let you go." I blink. As if he could stop me. "You won't let me go."

"No, I won't let you go. You're mine and I don't lose.”

“I like you. I. Like. You. I'll admit you're annoying. Sometimes you agitate me to the brink of insanity, but you can throw it back at me like no one else. When you laugh, I want to laugh. When you smile, I want to smile. Hell, I want to be the one to make you smile.”

To me, this explains Beth:

I am telling you now, like right now, to go buy this book. It was beautifully written and so easy to picture in my head I felt like I was watching a movie. This book was heartbreaking, brutally honest, and will sink it's nails into you that letting go of Dare You To will be extremely difficult. Katie McGarry wrote an amazing book. I went from being hesitant to completely loving this book. Amazing job Katie McGarry. I can't wait till Crash into You.