Red at Night
Katie McGarry
Harlequin More Than Words Novella
In Red at Night, Stella and Jonah are total opposites. She's the girl with purple hair from the wrong part of town. He's a high school senior who hangs with the cool crowd. Until a car accident leaves him haunted by guilt, and Jonah starts spending time at Stella's favorite refuge…the local cemetery.
Stella knows she should keep her distance—after all, she spent her girlhood being bullied by Jonah's friends. Once he's sorted out his tangled emotions, Jonah won't have time for her anymore. Too bad she's already fallen for him.
No, I did not choose purple just because I like it. It matches, see? Her hair is striped!
It's Katie McGarry, obviously it was good.
I looooved the romance, and I became quickly attached to our protagonist, Stella. Unfortunately, so did Jonah.
Now, usually Ms. McGarry doesn't have this problem in her books, but I guess because this is a novella she had to speed things up a bit. I liked them and their story, so I have decided to forgive her and I believe you will, too.
The setting was weird and different, something that drew me in immediately. Innocent-boy-has-ridiculous-guilt-complex was not, however. Seriously, I had expected there to be SOME half-legitimate reason to blame himself. There wasn't. SIGH.
I liked how the character development was spoken about. Jonah really changed over the course of 84 pages, and I thought it was important how they brought it up a lot. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been realistic.
There was a really beautiful scene when they volunteer for an organization called Goodie Two Shoes Foundation- the book is part of the More Than Words program by Harlequin, which is helping promote it. I thought it was a beautiful scene, especially as Stella herself is a recipient of the charity - therefore, not making the volunteering a scene to make the characters look good, but really highlighting the work done and the positive results.
All in all, an adorable, quick read. Too short! Rating:
Happy reading!
Love,
Esty
Crashing Into You
Katie McGarry
YA contemporary
Pub Date: November 26, 2013
From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane
The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.
Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.
But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.
Ahh, Katie McGarry. Her writing, her pacing, her characters- there's no wonder she's the love of book bloggers' literary life. I absolutely ADORED every second of Dare You To- you can read my review here. HOWEVER, like most of the reviews I have read, I, too, didn't think Crashing Into You reached the perfect beauty of Ryan's and Beth's story.
Isaiah was a character it was easy to sympathize with. Life has been tough for him, and you can see the lasting effects of that, yet with hard work and strength of character he retained his goodness and his will to make a future for himself. His mistakes are results of desperation. Rachel, on the other hand, seemed naive and childish to me. She often made seriously unwise and life-threatening choices, supposedly in the name of being brave. In addition to that, she had 17 years of life and no friends to show for it- for a girl often described as pretty, rich, and has talent that seems unrealistic.
Also, Rachel's family contradicted themselves all the time. Her brothers were always overprotective, hated seeing her suffer and wanted to help her, but refuse to let her tell their mother and get help- and not only that, they encouraged her to do what they knew would bring more of her attacks to keep her mother happy. Likewise, her father obliges Rachel everything to keep her mother happy, yet recklessly endangers her life at one point. Whaaaaaa
The following nitpick was smaller than the above 2^^, but bothered me nonetheless- they got into the whole mess because these two random people stole from Eric and Eric blamed them... couldn't that have been worked out somehow? They caved to his demands entirely too easily in my opinion.
REGARDLESS OF ALL THAT, I loved the influence Rachel had on Isaiah, and how he made peace with his mother, social worker, Beth, and the effort he made to build his future. Not to mention the awesome side characters- I'd kill to hear more of Logan, Abby and Courtney. The setting of a racetrack was pretty cool, too. Also, I am now seriously salivating to read Pushing the Limits, which is Noah and Echo's story.
On a different note, I'd like to bring to your attention the sheer awesomeness of the author- look what she sent me and other lucky participants of her giveaway!
Dare You To ribbon and Crashing Into You bookmark!
Sorry I wasn't around this week much- hopefully this weekend I'll bring you up to speed on what I've recieved.
Love,
Esty
Dare You To
Katie McGarry
Contemporary Romance
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....
OH MY GOD. Dare You To was an amazing, sensational, and epic read. The two days in which I read this book went something like this:
Me: I have dance in a few minutes.
DYT: no.
And then the book proceeded to get awesome-er. I was literally hooked from the first page.
The romance: was beautiful. Every moment between Ryan and Beth was real and perfect and made me swoon. The characters problems made sense, their reactions made sense, the thoughts and dialogues flowed flawlessly.
The characters: Oh, the love. I just loved everyone. I wanted to jump in and make everything right in their lives. With Beth, in the beginning I didn't understand why she kept running even when that clearly wasn't the smart thing to do. But as the novel progressed, we start to see who she was and the fears she had. And Ryan? Can you say NEW FICTIONAL BOYFRIEND? On one hand, a troubled, daring boy, and on the other, a perfect gentleman and talented baseball player and writer. What more could you want??
The plot was realistic and great, and I enjoyed EVERY SECOND OF IT.
The side characters: needless to say, I'm dying to get my hands on Pushing the Limits (Noah and Echo's story). Also, it seems Isiah's book will be coming out soon! Sooooo excited.
The title and cover: check and check! I LOVE IT when the title perfectly ties in with an element of the story, and this couldn't have been a more perfect fit.
What more can I say? There were sad scenes, there were happy ones, there were literally-laugh-out-loud bits. Basically? JUST GET IT. It was worth every minute. Rating:
Love, Esty
