Review: Crash Into You by Katie McGarry

Crash Into You by Katie McGarry
474 Pages
Release Date: November 26th, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Genre: Contemporary
Level: YA
Source: Publisher via Netgalley
Rating: 4 STARS

Goodreads Summary:
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.

Katie McGarry once again blows me away with her heart wrenching, emotionally aching, and beautiful story, Crash Into You. Out of all her books, Crash Into You is a really really close second to Pushing the Limits (one of my favorite contemps). What Pushing the Limits lacked in a bit of an absolutely mind blowing and book hangover-ness, Crash Into You filled; what Crash Into You had a tiny bit less of character amazingness (not to say that her characters aren't awesome), Pushing the Limits had. All of her stories have this whole tortured characters who in turn turn to each other for happiness and it just makes me so happy and fangirly that now, everyone has their happy ending. I don't know why, but I kind of expected this book to be a little bit fluffier than the other books and boy I was soooooooo wrong. It was a lot more dangerous and life threatening than I thought and my heart went through a lot while reading this book.

Isaiah, oh Isaiah, is the character I had a soft spot for ever since Pushing the Limits. My heart broke for him in Dare You To and it broke again in Crash Into You but did mend itself up by the end. Isaiah has had such a hard time in the foster system and we finally see his story and all the complications in his life. One being his mother, which I feel bad for not even thinking about. Just seeing the way his character develops in the story is amazing and I love it. (Don't worry Noah, you'll always be my favorite.) And Isaiah's protectiveness is ADORABLE and squeal worthy. I do want to touch up on Beth who I had a bit trouble connecting to at first.  I did end up being cool with her in Dare You To, but then when I started reading Crash Into You, it was so easy to fall back to getting angry at her actions; not for being with Ryan but for leading and using Isaiah like she did. For those who have read Dare You To, Logan, an adrenaline junkie/lunatic and one of my favorite characters in Dare You To makes an appearance in Crash Into You. And one word guys: BROMANCE. ;P

Then there's Rachel, I think out of all the heroines, she had it the worst in the book. My heart ached for her every single time anything bad whether it was small or big. It was easy to connect and relate to her more so than Beth and Echo. The way her family treated her and how much they expected out of her was INSANE. It was horrible seeing how much everything was put on her and it just kept adding throughout the story. I love her and Isaish together. They're so cute and just perfect for each other. And their car geek talk is so foreign but they make it seem so wonderful that even I want to learn about cars (even though that totally won't happen). Her family situation was much more complex and different than I thought it would be.

One of the reasons I was waiting on this book as my "Waiting on Wednesday" post was her older brothers. Now that I've read the book....I may be rethinking it. Maybe only one older brother is fine but more than that is just too much. I really didn't like how some things went unresolved in the book, like the conflict between Rachel and her brothers, who I may add I still have resent over. What they did made me so irate and just as frustrated as Rachel when she found out. I can go on forever screaming at them if they were alive.

Crash Into You is one for anyone and everyone, especially those who are fans of Katie McGarry and contemporary novels. This one will just stab your heart a lot but in the end it's worth all the pain; just having the chance and honor of getting to know Isaiah's and Rachel's story is something I will forever cherish and one I will recommend to all readers! Happy Readings!