Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Title: Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2)
Author: Katie McGarry (website)(Twitter)
Pages: 392
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Source: Library
Rating: Wowsers, I loved this one too!

Summary from Goodreads:

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....

After reading and loving Pushing the Limits, I immediately began reading Dare You To. I don't usually read books by the same author back to back but Pushing the Limits gave me all.the.feels.

This one centers around Beth and Ryan. Beth's home life is miserable, sad and dangerous. Ryan's life is almost perfect. When she is forced to move in with her uncle, she meets Ryan. He and his baseball player friends have a series of dares and that night's dare is to get the phone number of different girls. Beth is Ryan's dare.

When we meet them they are both unlikeable. Beth is brash and rude. Ryan is hitting on her for a dare. They are both flawed in their own ways. I enjoyed how they grew up over the course of the book.

Although I actually liked Noah and Echo better as characters, I thought that Ryan and Beth's story was deeper. Her tell it like it is attitude and his always have to win attitude made for great banter. 

Once again, McGarry touches on hard issues but she does it with a matter of factness and a grace that makes the toughness of the issues easier to process. I love how raw and emotional her books are. Teenage life isn't always easy and she speaks to that with a great amount of hope.

Dare You To has sealed McGarry as one of my very favorite authors. I won't even look at the summary to know that I'll pick it up and read it. Although I was a bit worried that Dare You To would not live up to how much I loved Pushing the Limits, in some ways it even surpassed it. If you're looking for a heart pounding, emotionally compelling raw romance, Dare You To will not disappoint.