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….
Beth has an alcoholic mother with a boyfriend who beats her. He likes to beat on Beth too so after the last time she moved in with her mother’s sister and has been doing just fine. That is until the bartender at the local bar calls her to come get her drunken mother one night. Beth helps her mom out of the bar but the mom takes it upon herself to start smashing her boyfriends car. Asshole boyfriend shows up and starts beating on Sky, the mom, and Beth’s had enough. She picks up the bat to hit Trent and that’s when the cops show up. Trent accuses Beth of destroying his car and her mom doesn’t stand up for her.
Beth gets arrested and that’s when her uncle Scott shows up. He and Beth used to be the best of friends and he wants her to have a better life. He insists on taking her home with him and tells her that if she tries to contact her mother he’ll have Sky put in jail for the secrets she’s hiding in her apartment. Beth doesn’t want her mother to go to jail but Scott’s rules are ruthless and Beth is belligerent. Besides that she has to leave her friends and start a new school.
When she starts school she’s approached by Ryan who is a star baseball player. Ryan is under a dare to get Beth to go out with him and to stay on a date for at least an hour. Ryan’s all for it until he starts spending time with Beth and realizes he really likes her – more than likes her. But Beth is keeping secrets and while she does tell Ryan some of them trust is a big issue for Beth. Ryan has to get through to Beth that he loves her and that she can trust him but Beth is too focused on saving her mother to see the love that’s right in front of her.
You know, I don’t normally read YA books but when I see a story that sounds interesting I pick up the book whether it’s adult romance, NA or YA. This was one of those times that the story sounded interesting enough to read and I’m so glad I did.
I love that the relationship between Beth and Ryan started on a dare but that was what got Ryan close enough to get to know Beth. She wasn’t pleased with the attention he was giving her but she more or less tolerated it because she could get something from him as well, rides into Louisville. They kind of end up being at cross purposes but finally Beth agrees to date Ryan…as friends.
Ryan knows that he wants more from Beth but he doesn’t want to scare her. I was a bit peeved at Beth for being so focused on her mom but she had her reasons. Unfortunately her mom really didn’t want to be saved so it kind of sucked for Beth. I loved that in the end Beth and Ryan trusted each other and all of their secrets came out. I loved Beth and felt for her but I also loved Ryan and felt for what he was going through as well. I just loved their love story!
This was just a non-stop page turner. It had alternating 1st person pov’s from Beth and Ryan. I liked that we saw both sides of the coin as I thought it made the story so much more emotionally charged. This was an amazing book and one that I will definitely re-read in the future. This is book 3 in the Pushing the Limits series (2nd full length novel) and so far I’m a huge fan of the series.
Rating: 5 out of 5
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I know exactly what you mean about being frustrated with Beth and her devotion to her Mom. Aside from my frustrations with that, this book was damn near perfect. I loved both Beth and Ryan (and it's saying something about Beth because going into this book, I didn't really care for her). But still, this book was fantastic and I'm so glad that you enjoyed it!