Series: Pushing the Limits #3
Published by Harlequin Teen
Published: November 26th 2013
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he girl with straight A's and the perfect life—that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy family…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 after the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.
The last thing Isaiah needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks. But when their shared love of street racing puts their lives in jeopardy, Isaiah and Rachel will have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Honestly, I’m not even sure where to start with this one. By far this was my least favorite of the “series”, but I didn’t hate it. Actually, I really enjoyed a good chunk of it (hence the 3 stars), but there was one part that I couldn’t get past and that was Rachel’s family. They were by far the most despicable family I have encountered in YA and I have come across some doozies. Seriously thank goodness for Rachel and Isaiah as they were the one part of the story that I really really loved.
Crash Into You is the story of Isaiah, a 17-year-old boy that has had a rough life. Living in foster care for 1 year Isaiah has learned to be tough and to count on no one but himself, Noah and previously Beth but even she isn’t there anymore. Trying to keep his secret of where he is living Isaiah decides to try a one-time street race with a guy from the neighborhood that is bad news. Unfortunately what was supposed to be one night turns into something Isaiah never expected when he meets Rachel, a girl that is so completely out of his league and his opposite. As these two become more and more entwined Isaiah learns that he isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Rachel has some secrets of her own. Now they both have to figure out just how much they can trust one another and is their love worth it.
Seriously I loved Isaiah in this book. We met him in Pushing the Limit and got to know more of him in Dare to You, but he shined in Crash Into You. I don’t know if it was Rachel that brought it out of him now that Beth was no longer there to drag him down and break his heart, or if it was the fact that he was destined to be the main character. His background story was sold, he had that loveable bad boy thing going for him, and he is fiercely loyal. Basically, Isaiah was everything to this book. And truthfully Rachel was no slouch either. She brought something to the table. She was rich but she wasn’t spoiled and I liked that a lot. I also liked that she never once looked down on Isaiah or where he lived or his friends or his history. She saw what was in front of her. Basically, these two were magical on the pages. When they were alone or with Logan and Abby(wish the next book was about these two) the book was amazing.
What brought Crash Into You down was 100% Rachel’s family. I got more and more infuriated by her parents with every turn of the page. The whole family was really vile to me. They were selfish and self-centered and never once thought about Rachel as a person. She was there as a replacement, as the girl that made the mother happy so the rest of the family could live their lives, as the girl that got no say in what she wanted to do or how she felt. Her brothers were pathetic and her parents were the worst parents in the world. Straight up, I hated the whole family and have no desire to find out what happens to any of them. No thank you.
Basically, if I could have had a book that was filled with Rachel, Isaiah, Logan, and Abby with some cameos by Echo and Noah I would have had a winner. I loved seeing Isaiah and Rachel’s relationship deepen and their trust grows. I loved the friendships they formed and the growth of them as individuals. It was the family that brought it down, simple as that. I will probably skip the next book since it is Rachel’s brother, but I look forward to what McGarry has in store for us next.
I totally agree with you about the family, but I’d actually like to read West’s story. Maybe it’ll give a clearer insight into why the family is so screwed up? Although if that’s McGarry’s purpose, I think she should have chosen Ethan instead, since he’s more connected to Rachel and that would make more sense if she’s going to be interwoven into the future stories like Isaiah was for the other two books in the series.
I agree about Rachel’s family being terrible. I can see how that would be a big turnoff, but watching her breakout from her dead sister’s shadow and make her own life away from her family was probably my favorite part of the book. The reason I gave the book 3 stars was all the drama. I know drama is kind of Katie McGarry’s thing, but it was just too much for me here!
Rachel’s family is completely despicable. I couldn’t stand them at all, and so I was so excited when at the end Rachel stands up to them. But, then her mom makes her feel guilty for not sticking up for herself and Rachel just accepts it like, yes, Mom, you’re right.
I had some issues with this book too, which put Crash Into You in last place in terms of my favorite of this series. I am still looking forward to the next installment (but not necessarily from West’s perspective). I would love, love, love to see Abby have her own book.
OUCH! Guess that means you’ll be skipping the fourth? Cause it’s about West… I was frustrated with the Youngs as well. The parents just…ugh. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR KIDS. The oldest brother was a pain, the second didn’t seem real since he was only in a couple scenes so I get you there too. But I genuinely liked West and Ethan. They were too overprotective of Rachel and that whole thing with STEALING HER MONEY made me want to murder them on her behalf. But I do genuinely think their hearts were in the right place. They were concerned over her panic attacks and all that. I know Rachel feels like a replacement, which sucks, but West and Ethan also feel like they wouldn’t exist if their older sister hadn’t died.
With all the attention on Rachel, they might as well not exist anyway in their parents’ eyes. I hate that their parents forced Rachel into the speeches when they knew she had difficulty with public speaking. West and Ethan get to live with the fact that their parents consider them placeholders, that they’re not good enough to replace their dead sister, and that’s rough on them too. And THAT is why I actually am excited about Take Me On. We’ve seen Rachel’s side of living in the Young house; I’m really interested to see West’s perspective.
Oh, and yes to the Isaiah-Rachel-Abby-Logan-only book. I’d have been okay with that too. I am holding out that Katie writes Logan’s story one of these days. I absolutely adore him!
Mary @ Mary Had a Little Book Blog