Just Finished Reading … Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

ByJen
31 Comments

Crash Into You (Pushing the Limits #3)
by Katie McGarry
To be published by Harlequin Teen
on November 25, 2013

Source: e-ARC from publisher via NetGalley

Connect with the author: website  | Facebook | Twitter.

Summary of the book from Goodreads: 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.

My take: Crash Into You and I had as many emotional ups and downs as a YA love triangle. Overall, I did enjoy the book, but to use a car metaphor, some of it was a bit of a bumpy ride for me.

Katie McGarry tells the kinds of stories that many, many teen and adult readers of YA are clamoring for–unflinching and emotionally intense. I applaud her for tackling issues of social class that many other YA books handle in a much more superficial way.  Some of her characters endure things that no one should have to — abusive parents, foster care, bullying, and neglect. In my review of Pushing the Limits, I said that book “teeters on the edge of melodrama.” To me, these books always seem to walk a fine line between intense and overwrought, and part of my enjoyment of reading these stores is watching them go to the very, very edge of believability without falling over that edge.

I love Isaiah — he’s my favorite character out  of all three books — and I was very excited to read his story. I had mixed feelings about Rachel.  The “poor little rich girl” character is a definitely much trickier to create than the underdog characters that Katie McGarry writes so well. Rachel is given some problems — a dead sister and a serious case of anxiety — but those pale in comparison to those of characters like Echo, Noah and Isaiah. Rachel is also saddled with rich, clueless parents and overprotective brothers — all of whom came off as flat and predictable.

As Rachel and Isaiah bonded over their love of cars, I grew to like Rachel more. I don’t know what a carburetor does, but I do love a book that teaches me something new through characters who are passionate about something. The car talk and the racing were, for me, some of the strongest aspects of the book. I also really liked the character of Abby —  a brash yet vulnerable drug dealer and friend of Isaiah.

Toward the middle of the book, I went through a phase of finding Rachel irritating, mostly because I had to hear her say over and over and over that she was “weak.” I do understand that her anxiety disorder makes her feel “weak,” but I used my kindle’s search function to count. She said it a minimum of eighteen times, and I’d had enough. I thought her condition — and her complicated feelings about her dead sister — could have been incorporated into the story in a more subtle and interesting way.
By the last quarter of the book, I had fallen in love with the story again. Those last few races and then a bit of no-no-no-after-all this-am-I-going-to-get-an-Allegiant-style-ending anxiety got me emotionally invested.  This is why people — including me — enjoy these books.
Yes, they can be a bit over the top, but in the end, I think most YA fans would rather read a book that makes them feel something than one that just leave them completely unmoved.  If you loved Pushing the Limits and Going Too Far, I think you’ll also like Crash Into You.
There are cameos from all your favorite past characters and Isaiah is still one of my favorites. I really, really wish the next book in the series was going to be about Abby, but it looks like I will have to be patient for that!

Jen has been blogging about books since 2011. In that time, she has read and reviewed over 1500 books. She loves helping readers find their perfect next read and helping books find their audience.

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31 Comments

  1. I didn't really like how Rachel was portrayed as being weak because of her panic attacks, she was perfectly fine in some stressful situations! For me I liked the romance in this, but wasn't the biggest fan of the rest of the story.

    Reply

    1. The fact that her anxiety fell away when she was driving was believable to me, I just got tired of hearing her say that she was weak. Even if that is how she sees herself, I didn't need to hear it that many times.

      Reply

  2. I got irritated with Rachel in the middle too probably for the same reason though I couldn't identify it; I was also irritated by Noah in the middle as well for similarly unidentified reasons-maybe just repetitiveness in his thoughts. But I warmed up to it by the end except I was mad about the fakeout!

    I think my fave character of the three ends up being Ryan or maybe even Abby though I liked Noah a lot in this book.

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  6. You know what? This is the first, non glowing review I have seen of any book in this series. I'm glad you still enjoyed it, but I know exactly what you mean about the bumpy ride. Especially if it is a series that you have been enjoying. I have fallen out of book love and then back into it during the course of a book before while reading.

    Great review!

    Michelle @ Book Briefs

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  7. I still have to read this one. I'll probably be like you – I get annoyed when characters start to use something as a crutch, which it sounds like Rachel's anxiety is to an extent. I have some family members that have anxiety and I know what's that like and not like. I'm still planning on reading this. I'll have to see what I think. Thanks, Jen!

    Tressa @ Tressa's Wishful Endings

    Reply

    1. For me, it did become a bit of a plot device. I am very familiar with anxiety and I'd never say "oh, anxiety isn't like that" because everyone experiences things differently. I would have liked more contrast between the lack of control that anxiety made her feel — the feeling that you can't control your thoughts or even your physical reactions — against the control she feels behind the wheel. But that's just me 🙂

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  10. I haven't read these books yet. I'm not too big into contemporary so I don't read it very often, but if I do ever need a good contemporary fix I'll probably check these books out. They sound pretty dramatic, but when drama is done right it can be fun to read.

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  12. My review of this book was a rant mostly because of Rachel. So I can understand how you did not take a shining to her at first. I ended up giving it a reluctant four stars anyway. Lol.

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  13. I haven't read any of these books yet, but now I am intrigued. I could kind-of see some of the things that did not impress you about Rachel even in the books description that you provided first. She came off a little annoying to me in the description (I cannot put my finger on it–it was just there). But I am glad that I went ahead and read the rest of the review–because now I am intrigued. I want to start the series now. 🙂

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  14. I do like a book that is emotionally intense, I want to FEEL stuff. At the same time it SO stresses me out!
    I read the first book and I liked it a lot but I've been terrified to continue them for some reason. All the drama and angst stress me out, even though while I'm reading them I'm fully invested. So one day…

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  15. I feel like you do when it comes to McGarry's books–so the drama! But yet I CAN'T PUT THEM DOWN. And also like you, Isaiah is hands down my favorite, I do love me some tattooed, car racing, alpha male Isaiah;) Rachel was ok–is it bad to say I still would prefer Beth be with Isaiah?? I know Rachel balances him out but her character type doesn't resonate with me as much as someone like Beth (I felt much the same about Echo.)

    And YES to Abby! I do hope she gets her own book one day–meanwhile I will obviously be waiting for West's story because he was by far my fave of Rachel's brothers:)

    Great review!

    Reply