Book 2: Dare You To

Book 2: Dare You To
Author: Katie McGarry
Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

I read Crash Into You, the third book in this series before the New Year, not realizing it was a series—which is fine, since each book is a great stand-alone love story. While Crash Into You remains my favourite of the series, Dare You To is a close second.

Ryan is a baseball player with an overbearing father, and enough family drama to write his own soap opera. Though, he appears more to have an affliction for writing zombie stories—and that is JUST fine by me. Beth is not sports minded. She'd rather have one night stands with bad boys, smoke pot, and try to save her mother, a woman trapped in an abusive relationship.

Ryan and Beth couldn't be more different—which of course, is what makes them so perfect together. Opposites attract, so the cliche goes.

While the plot line may seem cliche, the author does a great job of steering it clear from total cliche-dom. McGarry is a skilled writer with the ability to give me that "warm fuzzy falling in love feel." It's written in first person, present tense, which is the style I'm using for my "super secret development project." It's not my natural voice, but I love the versatility, and McGarry's work is worth studying. She has a fabulous voice I have no doubt today's youth can relate to.

Ryan isn't my kind of guy. But I get why Beth falls for him. Their romance was believable, and the story is filled with all kinds of conflict and emotion to power you through the pages. I actually finished this a few days ago, but haven't had time to write this post.

Next on my list is Dangerous Boy, written by my agent Mandy Hubbard. Can't wait!

- Dawn