Pushing the Limits

June 18, 2012
In a novel brimming with dark memories, veiled secrets, and steamy moments, first-time author McGarry introduces two teenagers struggling to regain normalcy after their lives have been shattered by separate tragedies. When high school
social worker Mrs. Collins asks Echo, a
senior, to tutor Noah, she agrees, even though Noah has the reputation of being a “girl-using stoner boy.” Though the students initially clash, they discover they have something in common: both are
desperate to look at their personal files, housed in Mrs. Collins’s office. Noah wants to locate his younger brothers, who were placed in a separate foster home, and Echo needs to know the truth about an incident—wiped from her memory—that left her arms badly scarred and led to a restraining order against her mother. As the teens hatch their plan, they begin to fall in love. This somewhat sensationalized “opposites attract” romance may dwell a little too long on Noah’s infatuation with Echo’s red hair and large breasts, but its suspenseful plot, dramatic conflicts, and tragic characters will keep readers engrossed. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

August 1, 2012
This intense and intriguing debut delves into the psychological difficulties of two teens who fall in love. Echo can't remember the night her mother apparently tried to kill her. She wears long sleeves and gloves to hide the awful scars left on her arms from that night. Noah lost his parents in a fire but saved his two younger brothers. Now all are in foster care, but Noah has been separated from his brothers and is determined to gain custody of them when he turns 18. Meanwhile, Echo and Noah meet and are instantly but secretly attracted to each other, even though Noah has developed a "bad boy" image. Both see Mrs. Collins, an experienced psychologist, as their school counselor, and neither wants to trust her. McGarry follows the teens as they interact, fall in love, fight and work through their difficulties. Told in alternating chapters for both Echo and Noah, the story slowly uncovers the teens' secrets and builds to resolutions for both. While the romance will attract many readers, it serves mainly as the framework for a psychological examination of the two as they work through their problems. Although a bit overlong, the story remains interesting and sometimes compulsively readable throughout. Outwardly different but inwardly similar, Echo and Noah just might make it. A probing, captivating story. (Romance. 12 & up)

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September 1, 2012

Gr 8 Up-High school seniors Echo and Noah have regular therapy sessions with the school's clinical social worker. Both struggle to understand past traumatic experiences that have left them scarred, and both need help to move forward. As part of the therapy, Echo is enlisted as Noah's tutor. Their initial resistance to this arrangement eventually blossoms into a romantic relationship, defying the school's social stratifications. Echo is grappling with numerous tragedies, including the death of her brother, her mother's bipolar disorder, the remarriage of her father to her childhood nanny, and an accident that has disfigured her body and left her unable to remember the traumatic event. Noah feels responsible for the house fire that killed both of his parents and forced him and his younger brothers into foster care. His deteriorating academic performance, habitual marijuana use, and reputation for sleeping around have cemented his reputation as the school's bad boy. Plot pacing keeps the story moving along to a satisfying, if predictable, conclusion. Some readers may be concerned about Noah making statements that imply that he owns Echo, such as when he declares that he "claimed" her and "I did just mark my territory." Filled with amorous descriptive passages such as "I gazed into her beautiful green eyes and her fear melted" and "enjoying the teasing taste of her tongue," this poignant narrative, which is told in the two protagonists' alternating voices, will find a following among those who enjoy contemporary teen romances.-Babara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, NY

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