Review: 'Crash Into You' by Katie McGarry

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: November 26, 2013

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance

Buy Links: Hardback (on sale) | Kindle | Nook

Goodreads

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

This book is technically the third in the 'Pushing the Limits' series, but all of the books in the series are standalone books. Katie McGarry takes a smaller character from the previous book and gives them their own love story. I was especially excited for this one because the male lead, Isaiah, had been a small character in the first two books (2 of my all time favorite books by the way) and he was always one of my favorite characters. I couldn't wait for him to get his happy ending and, as expected, McGarry didn't disappoint. 

This book is about Isaiah and Rachel. Isaiah is close friends with the two leads from the first two books. He's been dealt a hard hand in life. He's lived in the system his whole life with his mother in prison. He fell in love with his best friend Beth and was brutally rebuffed by her. He is closed off to the world except for his best friend Noah and his main goal is to turn 18 and make a life for himself. He is careful not to let anything or anyone distract him. Rachel comes from a perfect looking family and tries hard to be the perfect daughter, sister, and student. Her mother had her later in life because her first daughter had died and Rachel tries very hard to live up to the shadow cast by her dead sister. Rachel also has a panic disorder which results in terrible panic attacks. The one thing she and Isaiah have in common is their love of cars and that love of cars brings them together one fateful night.

I have loved all of McGarry's books and I think 'Pushing the Limits' will always be my favorite because I read it first, but this is the one I could relate to the most. I too have been diagnosed with panic disorder and can relate to Rachel on a very real level. Panic attacks are one of the WORST things a person can experience and Katie McGarry nailed it as far as they feel and what goes on inside your head when they happen. It was really nice to read a character I could relate to on such a personal level and in a way it made me feel not so alone in the world.

I honestly believe Katie McGarry is the master of dual points of view. I have read a lot of books with dual points of view; some terrible, some so-so, and some really great, but McGarry's are on a whole other level. She does such a great job of keeping both voices unique and deciding what should be told in each voice. I am floored again and again by her ability to write the teenaged male voice. I think she must have been a boy in a past life. She does it so flawlessly and honestly while not making me hate the guy. All of her books have been written in dual points of view and I hope they will all continue to be.

This book had a lot of car talk in it and I didn't find myself bored by it once. This is saying something coming from me. I know NOTHING about cars and care even less about them, yet this book kept me enthralled throughout. Rachel's and Isaiah's love was on the front burner of this book and I couldn't get enough of them even if it happened to revolve a lot around cars. Just like all of McGarry's books this one is a must read. It sits with the first two in my all time favorite books list. This book is a really quick read; both beautifully written and perfectly paced. Crash Into You just reiterates my lifetime obsession with Katie McGarry and her books, and I absolutely CANNOT wait to read her next book, and the one after that and the one after that and the one after that...