The Book Trollop: Dare You To by Katie McGarry

I waited for this book for a very long, long time!! I LOVED LOVED LOVED Pushing the Limits and in fact it was the very first book I EVER reviewed because of how much I freaking loved it. I just KNEW that I was going to LOVE Beth and Ryan's story just as much as Noah and Echo's and I wasn't disappointed!!

Here is what I thought about Beth and Ryan's story in

Dare You To

Description:

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...

My Thoughts:

As I sit here listening to the Dare You To playlist (yes I am that person and yes these songs are perfect for the book) I am trying to decide what I want to say.

From the very beginning of being introduced to Beth in Pushing The Limits, I just knew that Beth had a hard life and a story that would probably break any person, it almost broke Beth but luckily she still had one person in her corner.

When the book first starts Ryan tries to get Beth's number in Taco Bell that everyone is hanging out in. He was dared by his friends to get her number and he failed miserably. But what started off as a dare turns out to be something nobody thought would change their lives.

Beth is still an angry teenager who spends more time fighting, drinking, getting high and taking care of her mother. Her mother is still a drunk and a drug addict who has a boyfriend that likes to use her as a punching bag. Beth ends up going to jail for her mother and you are left yelling at Beth for being stupid and sticking up for her mother over and over again with the same results. But what we don't expect is the curve ball (you like that baseball reference hehe) that is thrown at us while Beth is waiting for the verdict of her fate. She has to go live with her uncle at his house in the backwoods country. The same uncle that left her to go pro in baseball and never came back for her until now. To say she has hostility towards him, would be an understatement. And wouldn't you know that the same cocky baseball player that she met at Taco Bell lives in the same town and goes to the same school.

Ryan can't believe that the same skater girl is going to his school and he is determined to finally win the bet that his friends gave him. But what he doesn't expect is for this girl to totally turn his entire life upside down. He gets to know her and realizes how scared of life she is. She has had to deal with more in her life than anyone he knows. He doesn't expect to like her, she's just a dare to him but what happens when he starts to see the girl behind the armor? How can he continue to win a bet when he's falling for the subject? But Ryan never loses and that includes bets.

"He stares at me as if he’s seeing beyond my skin and my heart pounds out of my chest so violently that he has to feel it. My nerve endings become raw. Somehow, Ryan’s seeing me and I’m exposed— as if I’m standing naked in front of a large open window. My hands slip from his neck, but as I try to step back, he clutches my waist, rejecting my escape."

Beth fights Ryan every step of the way. She challenges him and pushes him so he would leave and leave her alone. But what she didn't expect was for him to push back and push through her armor right into her heart. She can't figure out why a boy like him would be interested in a girl like her. She wants to leave him before he can leave her but just when she is going too, he figures it out and pushes her again. He needs her to stay, he needs to prove to her that she isn't just some girl, and he needs to show her his love...

“I don’t lose. Do you hear me? I don’t lose and that includes losing you. I’m done being kept in the dark. I’m done feeling like you’re slipping right past me. You are not saying goodbye to me. I’m in love with you and you love me back. You’re staying.”

This book is about trust and trusting others when you have been burned so many times in the past. Forgiving the ones who have let you down and learning to trust them again. Loving someone so much that you aren't afraid to stay and stop running from life.

“You’re a lot like that bird in the barn. You’re so scared you’re going to be caged in forever you can’t see the way out. You smack yourself against the wall again and again and again. The door is open, Beth. Stop running in circles and walk out.”

Beth and Ryan both grow up in this book and learn a lot about themselves. Their self-discovery is what truly makes this book amazing. Learning to trust yourself enough to know what you want out of life is what everyone must do. We have to stop listening to others and just live like we are suppose too, no holding back and no more caring what others are going to say.

I loved this story and I really hope we are going to get more information about Beth and Ryan in the future. Like did Ryan and his dad ever see eye to eye? What is Beth going to do in the future? Will they stay close even in college? Gaaahhh I need more!!

I don't do this often but while reading this book I thought about Liam Hemsworth as Ryan.. Don't know why but I surely didn't mind having to picture him..

So here is a gorgeous picture of this fine specimen of man/spank candy...