I started my book review blog in 2009 and I have read so many outstanding books that I wanted to share them again with my followers on #SegueSaturday.  I first posted this review in July 2012. I remember really getting caught up in the story and having a strong emotional reaction. 

Enjoy!

ABOUT THE BOOK

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with a jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with “freaky” scars on her arms. Even Echo can’t remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. 

But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo’s world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.

Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she’ll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

MY REVIEW

Echo and Noah are two lost teenagers who just want to “find normal again”.  Echo was one of the popular girls in school until she lost her brother from the war and an incident she can’t remember with her mother changed her life completely. 

Echo’s thoughts are “My father is a control freak, I hate my stepmother, my brother is dead and my mother has… well … issues. How do you think I’m doing?

Noah was part of a happy family until tragedy struck and he lost his parents in a fire and he and his two younger brothers were thrown into the foster care system which separated him and from his brothers. 

Noah’s thoughts are ‘Good.’  That is if you considered your foster mom and dad getting into a screaming match and throwing everyone’s gifts into the fireplace a good Christmas.  I’d always dreamed of spending my Christmas in a hellhole basement watching my two best friends get stoned.

Can Echo and Noah ever trust adults again?

Echo and Noah meet each other through their new high school clinical social worker, Mrs. Collins.  She recommends that Echo tutor Noah in some subjects.  They are total opposites, (Echo with the popular girls and Noah with the stoners), but do opposites really attract?  They push the limits to find peace in their lives and to find common ground with each other.

The reader will feel all of the emotions that the characters feel and more.  All of the characters are very believable and the storyline is important for all ages.

Check out Katie McGarry’s “Two Essential Ways to Build Your Characters” at http://harlequinblog.com/2012/07/two-essential-ways-to-build-your-characters/  Great ideas!

Thank you to Ms. McGarry, Harlequin UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity review this book.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Follow Katie on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest.