Crash Into You by Katie McGarry | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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.

Katie McGarry’s books basically demand to be read. Whenever I have one in my possession, I think more about that book and getting to reading it than the other books I have. I mean, seriously, her books are so hard to put down. I kind of figured it would be the same with Crash Into You, the third in her Pushing The Limits series. First off, I keep calling this book “Crash Into Me” because of the Dave Matthews song. Second off, I hate to say this but I feel kind of disappointed in this book. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked it enough to read the whole thing and feel confident recommending it, but for me, it is my least favorite of the series.

Crash Into Me follows Rachel and Isaiah. The book pretty much opens with Rachel about to give a speech at some event. She deals with panic attacks, but she gives speeches to please her mom. Anyways, Rachel escapes the event in her Mustang and somehow finds herself at a drag race. She’s really excited to race but then the cops come and she basically has to go on the run from the cops with Isaiah, this guy she was going to race who she just met. He’s kind of the opposite of her country club self. Man, I feel kind of convoluted writing this but okay, to continue with recapping the plot, so anyways, Rachel catches the attention of this bad guy named Eric and he’s all you owe me money it’s your fault the cops showed up and instead of doing the logical thing and contacting the police, Rachel decides to raise the money with Isaiah’s help. Also, the two begin to fall for each other. And Isaiah is all angsty about being a foster kid for much of the book. That, friends, is Crash Into Me, also, lots of panic attacks.

So, the thing that makes Crash Into Me different from Pushing The Limits and Dare You To is that I had a really hard time connecting and caring about Rachel. I mean, she’s just not as interesting as Echo or Beth to me. She’s got a pretty posh and privileged life. Girl lives in a gated community and basically a mansion. Her biggest problem in life is that she has a lot of pressure on her to be like her dead sister Colleen, but even that could be remedied with a healthy dose of communication. Okay, typing that out, I guess her issues are understandable, but while I was reading it I had trouble putting the sympathy hat on, you know? So, yeah, I guess I just was bored by Rachel as terrible as that sounds. OH WAIT! She is really into cars and super knowledgeable about them and I liked that aspect of her character.

Isaiah is actually heaps more interesting than Rachel. I found myself looking forward to his chapters. I will admit that he gets a bit dour and depressing, but I suppose that is to be expected given his life situation. Anyways, he’s tough but sensitive which is quite appealing. He has genuine chemistry with Rachel. He also has a past that’s not very pretty. I guess to me, his issues felt more realistic and fascinating. I had a whole lot more empathy for Isaiah.

To break my feelings totally down, I will end by saying that there’s kissing and swoons in this book, and those were pretty well written. There’s also a friendship between Rachel and this girl named Abby who is a drug dealer that enhanced the book for me. Yet, I felt that Crash Into You was kind of slow and plodding. I did not tear through it like I did the previous books in the series. I failed to completely connect with the characters. To me, this is my leads favorite in the Pushing The Limits series, yet I am looking forward to Take Me On.

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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