Book Playlist: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

This week marks the publication of Katie McGarry's latest novel Crash Into You. You can read my review of the book here, and below I've put together a playlist to go with the book. I just can't help it thinking of songs when I read Katie's books! Enjoy <3

Collide - Leona Lewis & Avicii

I'll pick you up when you're down
Be there when no one's around
When you're in unfamiliar places
Count on me through life's changes

I'm in tune with how you feel
Everything 'bout this is real
When you're in unfamiliar places
Count on me through life's changes...

Crash into me
At full speed
Crash into me We can collide, we can collide

 Shut Up and Drive - Rihanna

I've been looking for a driver who's qualified
So if you think that you're the one step into my ride
I'm a fine-tuned supersonic speed machine
With a sunroof top and a gangster lean

 Got you where you wanna go if you know what I mean
Got a ride that smoother than a limosine
Can you handle the curves? Can you run all the lights?
If you can baby boy then we can go all night

Cos I'm 0 to 60 in three point five
Baby you got the keys

Now shut up and drive

Angel - Leona Lewis

We're like Romeo and Juliet
Families can't divide us.
Like the tallest mountain or the widest sea
Nothing's big enough to hide us...

And I don't wanna go to sleep
'cause you are like a dream
For every night I say a prayer,
And I swear you are the answer
You're an angel, you're an angel, you're an angel.

Kiss Me - Ed Sheeran

Settle down with me
Cover me up
Cuddle me in
Lie down with me
Hold me in your arms

Your heart's against my chest
Lips pressed to my neck
I've fallen for your eyes
But they don't know me yet

And the feeling I forget
I'm in love now

Kiss me like you wanna be loved 

No Good Advice - Girls Aloud

Daddy always told me to remember,
Leave the boys, till later, don't you drop down
Mama said I'd never get to heaven
Hanging till eleven, with the wrong crowd 


Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson

Trying hard to reach out
But when I tried to speak out
Felt like no one could hear me
Wanted to belong here
But something felt so wrong here
So I prayed I could break away

About the book

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry
(Pushing the Limits, #3)
Published: 6 December 2013 (MiraInk)
Buy the book: Amazon|Hive

Review: Crash Into You (Pushing the Limits, #3) by Katie McGarry

Spoiler warning! This is the 3rd book in the Pushing the Limits series and may contain spoilers for the first two books. You can read my review of Pushing the Limits here or my review of Dare You To here instead.

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Author: Katie McGarry Website|Twitter
Published: 6 Deecember 2013 (MiraInk)
Format: Kindle e-book (ARC)
Pages: 352
Buy the paperback: Amazon|Hive|BookDepository
Buy the e-book: Kindle|Kobo

Source: Received free copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks MiraInk!

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
The girl with straight A's, 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.

My Review:
I absolutely adored both Pushing the Limits and Dare You To, so I couldn't wait to get into McGarry's third instalment! Crash Into You tells Isaiah's story as he meets and falls for Rachel, a girl who loves cars just as much as he does.

I loved what I'd seen of Isaiah in previous books and I was excited to dive into his character a little more. The book is written in alternating points of view between him and Rachel, and loved getting inside his head for those chapters. McGarry definitely wins at writing characters. Rarely do I read books where I connect with them so much and where they feel so real to me. What I loved about Isaiah in this book was seeing the slightly softer side to him, not only when it comes to his feelings for Rachel, but in other aspects of his life as well. There's definitely a lot more than meets the surface!

As well as those characters I've already come to know and love, I also fell immediately for Rachel, Isaiah's love interest in the story. She has a really interesting back story that instantly made me feel for her. Her family is haunted by the death of Rachel's sister Colleen, who Rachel herself never met. She's constantly living in the shadow of her older sister and her parents treat her almost like a replacement, not acknowledging her as her own person. Rachel also has the presence of her older brothers and twin brother Ethan to deal with, and they're very protective of her. I could sympathise for her fight to be independent and loved seeing her find her voice throughout the story.

As always, the chemistry the author has conjured up was intense and there were some great passionate scenes between Rachel and Isaiah. Overall I really liked their relationship. The two come from completely different backgrounds so it was really interesting to see the contrast and how that affected things. I think I would have liked a little more build up and the two getting to know each other. Things move pretty quickly and I felt a lot of the early relationship was purely based on looks. I think having read Dare You To earlier this year I was hoping for more of the love/hate kind of thing that Beth and Ryan had going on. By the end of the book, however, I was completely smitten with Rachel and Isaiah.

Speaking of Beth, I was excited to see how the events of Dare You To would impact on Isaiah's story. With Beth taking more of a backseat role, I was happy to see the presence of Abby, another of Isaiah's friends. She really stole the show with her bubbly persona, and I really enjoyed the developing friendship between her and Rachel.

I could probably speak about the characters all day long, because there are so many incredibly strong relationships in this book. I loved the exploration of the relationship between Rachel and her brothers, especially her twin brother Ethan, as well as the tension between Rachel and her mother. I really enjoyed the scenes between Isaiah and his social worker Courtney too, and of course Isaiah and Noah's friendship was another highlight.

The book centres a lot on Rachel and Isaiah's love of cars, and there are plenty of scenes involving things like drag races. I felt these scenes and the exploration of the gritty underworld of illegal street racing really added a sense of danger to Crash Into You. I could really feel the fear of both characters as they get swept up in this dark world, and there were plenty of tense and exciting scenes.

With characters I cared so much about, this was bound to be an emotional read, and there were some really powerful scenes in Crash Into You that tore at my heart a little bit. I loved getting to know Isaiah and discovering Rachel, who had so much about her and has become one of my favourite characters from the series. Excitingly the next book will focus on Rachel's brother West, so I'm super excited to read that one! I think Dare You To has become my favourite book of the series, but Crash Into You was still an enjoyable and powerful read.

Rating: 4*
What to read next: Take Me On by Katie McGarry, the next book in the Pushing the Limits series, which will be published in 2014
Books like this: Perfect Chemistry by Simole Elkeles

News Round Up! 19th October

News Round Up!

 

 

Each week I recap a few of the latest YA news stories that have popped up on my radar. For even more book and film related news then head over to FangirlDaily.com! Check out some of this week's new releases at the bottom of this post as well.

MiraInk have revealed the UK cover for Katie McGarry's Crash Into You. As well as that, Pushing the Limits has been given a redesign so that the whole series matches. See the covers over on the MiraInk blog.

Veronica Roth has revealed she will read from Allegiant at 11.59pm EST for the launch of the book. The pre-recorded video will be available via the official series website on the 21st October. Read the story over on Hypable.

The Fault in Our Stars film has wrapped, with John Green sharing pictures and memories of the shoot on Twitter. See some of those photos and read the full story over on FangirlDaily.

Five new stills from the Vampire Academy movie adaptation have revealed, including scenes of Rose and Dimitri in training. See the photos over on FangirlDaily.

Sarah Rees Brennan and Holly Black will be touring the UK in November. Read more and see the dates over on YAInterrobang.

 

New releases

 

 

 

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

Amazon|Goodreads

 

 

Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diane Peterfreund

Amazon|Goodreads

 

 

 

The Fall of Hotel Dumort by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson

Amazon|Goodreads

 

 

 

Revealed by P. C. and Kristin Cast

Amazon|Hive|Goodreads

Waiting on Wednesday (#4) Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted over at Breaking the Spine and gives bloggers a chance to highlight future releases we're excited about.

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Published: 1st November 2013 (MiraInk)

Amazon|Goodreads

Plot summary: 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.

 

 

I just finished Dare You To this weekend so how could I not choose this book?! Especially given that Dare You To had a teaser of this book at the back which totally had me hooked. So far I've been blown away by Katie McGarry's writing and the amazing chemistry creates between characters. This book will be Isaiah's story and I can't wait to find out more about him!

 

What book are you waiting on this week? Let me know in the comments, and if you have your own post then link me up and I'll be sure to stop by!

News Round Up! 8th June

Here's my latest round up of news stories that have caught my attention this week. Enjoy!

Malorie Blackman, author of the Noughts and Crosses series, was revealed as children's laureate this week. You can find out more about the role in the quote below and on the children's laureate website:

 The role of Children's Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field.

A brand new website has launched this week covering news from various YA fandoms, including The Mortal Instruments and Divergent. Fandomsnews.com also features YA reviews. Be sure to drop by and check it out!

Both the YA Crush Tourney, hosted by The YA Sisterhood, and the NA Crush Tourney, hosted by NA Alley, have kicked off. Make sure you check out the contenders so you can root for your favourite young adult and new adulated fictional crishes!

The first picture of Theo James as Four in the upcoming Divergent film has been released, which is, let's face it, the moment everyone's been waiting for! See the picture over at EW.com.

New characters posters for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones featuring Isabelle and Alec were revealed this week. You can see both the posters over at Fandomsnews.com. What do you think of them?

And finally the cover for Crash Into You by Katy McGarry was revealed over on the HarlequinTeen Faceboook page. The book will focus on Isaiah's story. I loved Pushing the Limits so I'm really excited for this!

Which of these news stories are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments and check out some of this week's new YA releases this week!

New releases:
Dare You To by Katie McGarry
Amazon|Goodreads

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Amazon|Goodreads

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Amazon|Goodreads

The Oathbreakers Shadow by Amy McCulloch
Amazon|Goodreads

Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards
Amazon|Goodreads