CRASH INTO YOU by Katie McGarry

Title: CRASH INTO YOU
Author: Katie McGarry
Publisher: Harelequin Teen
Release Date: November 26, 2013
Number of Pages: 474
Source of Book: eARC from publisher at NetGalley

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.

First Thought:
I seriously adore all of Katie McGarry’s books! Once I start, I can’t stop reading them.

There’s something so addictive about Katie McGarry’s writing style…I’m drawn into these stories immediately and lose sleep staying up too late reading them. McGarry has a way of writing wounded characters who are finding their first love in such a real way that you are rooting for them to work through their issues and find happiness. Her books are mature in the themes that they deal with, and her characters’ home lives are nowhere near perfect, and the way in which they struggle with their issues, feelings, and relationships feels very real. The books deal with serious issues without being preachy. They have romance. They have friendships. They have major family issues. They have excitement (especially this one with the drag racing that occurs). Most of all, they have heart. That heart comes through more clearly because of the way McGarry writes the multiple perspectives of her characters. Once again, true to her style, we get the male voice and female voice in alternating chapters. And there are some chapters that are so deftly connected in the place one ends and the next begins that it led to gasp-worthy moments. Getting that first person voice of each main character as they delve into the relationship, and seeing how damaged they are, allows the reader to connect even more.

One of the really fun parts of reading CRASH INTO YOU, the third book in the series, is that the main characters from the first two books (PUSHING THE LIMITS and DARE YOU TO) are brought in as major secondary characters as Isaiah gets his turn to tell his story. And Isaiah is not what you may have thought from the parts of him we saw from other characters’ perspectives in the first two books. I loved that Isaiah was different than expected, and getting to know more about him made my heart break for him. He is so much more than I thought, and that’s a wonderful surprise. Then we get to meet Rachel, a girl with a dysfunctional family on the inside who tries to make all appearances on the outside seem perfect. These two, from different sides of town, as opposite as they may seem at first, connect in a way that is what both of them need. But things are never easy in situations such as this.

I hope we keep getting more stories in this world with these characters. I’m excited Rachel’s brother West gets to tell his story next (which means he’ll be finding someone special) in TAKE ME ON, but I really hope we get more from Logan sometime soon, too! Whatever it is, whoever the characters are, I know I’ll read whatever Katie McGarry writes next!

Final Thoughts: If you’ve read and enjoyed the first two books, you’ll definitely want to read this one when it comes out! And if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?! If you like a good romance with layered characters who need to find the right one to support them, check out Katie McGarry’s books.