Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories

Book InfoKindle Edition, 480 pagesExpected publication: May 28th 2013 by Harlequin TeenASIN B00BED2UE6edition language Englishoriginal title Dare You Toseries Pushing the Limits #2Source:Netgalley EARCBook Buy LinksAMAZONB&NBOOK SYNOPSISRyan 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..My ThoughtsAt seventeen Beth Risk has seen more than her share of the sordid side of life than most people, she has lived with an alcoholic mother whose slow spiral into drug addiction puts both herself and Beth at risk from not only the police but the brutal boyfriend who deals the drugs as well as beats them both when he finds something not to his liking. The final blow comes when Beth is arrested for destruction of private property, in effect her mother's boyfriends car, and her Aunt Shirley calls the Uncle who Beth has not seen since she was a small child to come and bail her out. When Beth's Uncle Scott shows up he sees that unless he can remove Beth from her current environment and convince her to try and straighten out her life she will end up either just like her Mom or dead.Ryan Stone seems to be the exact opposite of Beth, solid family life, the admiration of his peers at school and his future pretty well secured. Funny how appearances can be so deceiving as we have no idea what someone else's life is really like behind closed doors, Ryan may have a more stable background than Beth but his current problems are just as serious to him as hers are even if not as likely to end in tragedy which they very well could for Beth.The way in which author Katie McGarry sets the stage for Beth and Ryan to meet in the beginning is something that I can totally see a young man doing, out with friends having fun competing with each other to win an ongoing dare. However the way she moves past the original intentions that Ryan had for trying to wheedle Beth's number out of her to his actually finally being able to "see" beyond her facade to the "real" Beth is when his character becomes one that you can truly relate to.Beth and Ryan are not just another set of troubled teens but they are also representative of a whole culture that it is hard to grasp exists in our modern society and yet at the same time it is very easy to see how their characters could be real people as the truth remains that not every child has a loving set of parents and not every child has a home that they feel safe and secure in.Just like in the first book in this series the author has managed to create believable teen characters in realistically presented situations that take the reader through a gamut of emotions from anger, to despair, to rage, to happiness and even at times shock at the honest and brutal way she deals with the events that alter both Beth and Ryan's lives.Reading Dare You To is an experience that you will not soon forget, you will be interested in how the "Skater Girl" and the "Golden Boy" proceed to go from basically antagonistic to flat out head over heels in love with each other. Just like me you will be rooting for their unlikely relationship to work out as both Beth and Ryan need someone in their lives who has no interest in "using" them to further their own ambitions or as in Beth's case to shoulder responsibility that she should never have had thrust upon her.Having connected to Beth's character in book one Pushing The Limits and seeing just how hard she tried to keep it together being able to delve further into her past, present and possibly her future was something that I looked forward to immensely and now that have read Dare You To am just as eagerly looking forward to book 3 Crash Into You in which maybe finally Isaiah understands why Beth and he can love each other as just friends as it sounds as if he finds a girl to call his own for keeps.The anticipation is of course going to be well worth it as all my expectations were more than exceeded when finished this book so am going to say that am hoping they will be exceeded with the next as well.[EARC from Netgalley in exchange for honest review]