Book Review; Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Sometimes It

This is a book that has a lot of hype surrounding it, and due to that it took me a long time to actually pick the book up to read it. In many ways hype is brilliant as it shows that so many people love a book, but it can also make me wary as I would rather not be that one person that doesn’t like the book. So, fortunately, in this case, I was pleased to find that I really liked this book. I wasn’t completely blown away by it but it kept me entertained, I loved the writing, and the story was really compelling – and I’m definitely intrigued enough to pick up the second book!

Takes Just

When I first heard about Pushing the Limits, I was fairly certain that I wasn’t going to particularly enjoy it due to the plot. There’s a good girl who falls in love with a bad boy, a plotline that has been done over and over again, but somehow it just really works in this book because Echo isn’t your ordinary good girl and Noah isn’t exactly your ordinary bad boy either. So, I just felt that the plot really worked. There was a lot of depth to the characters and a lot of chemistry and it was easy to see how it all went as it did. I was completely hooked on finding out about Echo’s history and my heart was hammering for Noah to get everything he wanted. It was really well plotted, and that helped to make it more entertaining.

One Person

One of the best things about this book was how important the characters were to the plot and how in-depth they all were. What is on the surface of all the characters isn’t who they are on the inside. I found Echo to be a really interesting character who was fully dimensional. So much had happened to her but she had no idea what that was and her journey to understanding it, and finding it out was really intriguing and kept me turning the page. I wanted to know as much as she did. She was a strong character, stubborn, and full of heart and I just really loved that about her. Noah, on the other hand, put out a hard bad-boy appearance because that is how every adult sees him so he simply lives up to their expectations. When his actions could be causing him a nuiscance, he does everything he can to stay on the good side of adults, and it was really cute to see. He was truly protective, loyal, and just had so much in his head that he needed to share with someone else. A truly great set of characters to read about.

To Change

What made this book interesting to read was the duo POV running throughout the book. You got both Echo’s thoughts and Noah’s thoughts and I really liked that. It showed how different perspectives can be and really helped to bring the whole story to life. I have found that duo POVs are often tricky as you don’t want the characters to sound too similiar to each other but Echo and Noah both had their own voices and that was really great to see. It just made the book so much more entertaining that you got to read the thoughts of both of them, especially as they were both making their own journeys throughout the book. Katie McGarry had a really nice writing style as well that kept me glued to the page, turning them over and over again and I’m definitely interested enough to continue reading what she writes.

Your Life

Overall this was a book that had a lot of heart and depth, it explored so many different issues in such a sensative way and I just really enjoyed it. It may have had a generic looking plot but it managed to make it unique and original and I really liked that about it. It was just a great book and I can understand where the hype for it came from. While I didn’t instantaneously fall in love with it and it didn’t become my absolute favourite read, it was one that truly entertained me and one that I am incredibly glad that I read. Pushing the Limits is a heart-warming story that doesn’t slide over issues but really gets into the heart of problems and shows the reader what it is really like. If that sounds like the kind of book that you’d enjoy, then I would highly recommend this book to you!