So Bookalicious!: Review: Walk the Edge (Thunder Road #2) by Katie McGarry

Title: Walk the Edge
Author: Katie McGarry
Series: Thunder Road
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Publication date: March 29th 2016
Pages: 384 (hardcover)
Source: Publisher, Netgalley
Buy links: Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Indiebound

One moment of recklessness will change their worlds
Smart. Responsible. That's seventeen-year-old Breanna's role in her large family, and heaven forbid she put a toe out of line. Until one night of shockingly un-Breanna-like behavior puts her into a vicious cyberbully's line of fire—and brings fellow senior Thomas "Razor" Turner into her life.
Razor lives for the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, and good girls like Breanna just don't belong. But when he learns she's being blackmailed over a compromising picture of the two of them—a picture that turns one unexpected and beautiful moment into ugliness—he knows it's time to step outside the rules.
And so they make a pact: he'll help her track down her blackmailer, and in return she'll help him seek answers to the mystery that's haunted him—one that not even his club brothers have been willing to discuss. But the more time they spend together, the more their feelings grow. And suddenly they're both walking the edge of discovering who they really are, what they want, and where they're going from here.

Goodreads

Katie McGarry is one of my favorite YA contemporary authors. I first fell in love with her Pushing the Limits series and her new series has not let me down either.

Razor and Breanna are probably one of my favorite couples that McGarry has created so far. I liked both characters right from the very beginning. They have such different personalities and a complete different background yet they are so alike. They mad each other stronger in so many ways and that is what every couple should do. It was very clear why they fitted so well together and why they were attracted to each other in the first place. Another thing that was great about them was that they took things slowly and didn’t rush into anything even though that there was chemistry between them from the beginning.

Walk the Edge had all the elements that you can find in all McGarry her books. The main characters that are often from different backgrounds, the slowly burning chemistry between them and of course the personal baggage that the main characters bring with them. And it is exactly this combination of things why I love her books so much. In this book Razor and Breanna had some personal issues but they also shared some of them. Breanna never felt like she truly belonged in her family being the middle kid and the one with a freaky brain. Razor on the other hand felt like he belonged in the club but at the same time he does not know if he can really trust them because of the demons that hunt them. It was great to see how they both helped each other find their place in the world. Another thing that I liked about this book was that it talked an issue that is often present in nowadays society, cyberbullying. People need to pay more attention to this problem, so it is great when an author uses it in her books to show what kind of consequences it might have.

The book itself was pretty long, as most of McGarry’s books, but it did not feel long at all. Walk the Edge sucked me right into the MC world again and at the same time it also showed how it is to grow up in a large family. There was so much going on the entire time that I could not spot one dull moment in this book. The book was paced out pretty well and that is probably one of the things that I loved the most about this book. My only remark is that the ending felt a bit rushed to me. Bu if I had had the time I would probably have finished this book in one day; unfortunately I had work and other responsibilities.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I would definitely recommend it, especially if you are a YA contemporary romance fan. This book has it all – romance, kickass heroines, swoon worthy boys and though issues. I cannot wait for the next book in this series to come out!

Excerpt

School starts in a few days and tonight is senior orientation. My parents are currently in a meeting with my guidance counselor while I’m being propositioned.

                Propositioned. My lips tilt up sarcastically.

                My goal for this evening was to be noticed. Guess I succeeded. I was noticed, but not for my new choices in clothing, hair style, or because I dumped my glasses for contacts. Nope, I was hunted for my brain. All exciting and swoon worthy romance novels start off this way, right?

                Kyle misreads my body language and his dark eyes brighten. “So you’ll write my English papers for the year?”

                Fifty dollars per paper-that’s his offer. Standing in my sister’s second generation hand-me-downs of a sleeveless blue blouse, shorter-than-I’ve-ever-worn jean skirt and platform sandals causes me to consider his proposal if only for the course of a heartbeat. I’m the middle of nine children and, I’ll admit, new and shiny gains my attention, but this…this is wrong.

                “Do you know this is the first time you’ve spoken to me?” I say.

                He laughs like I told a joke, but I’m not kidding. Snowflake, Kentucky is a small town and everyone tends to know everyone else, but just because we breathe the same air doesn’t mean we communicate, or act like everyone else exists.

                “That’s not true,” he retorts. “We sat at the same table in fourth grade.”

                I incline my head to the side in a mock why-didn’t-I-remember-that-bonding-moment? “My, how time flies.”

                He chuckles then scratches the back of his head causing his styled hair to curl out to the side. “You’re funny. I didn’t know that. Look, it’s not my fault you’re quiet.”

                Kyle’s right. It isn’t his fault I became socially withdrawn. That blame falls solely on me. It’s a decision I made in seventh grade when I was publicly crucified.

                Blending into paint for the past couple of years has kept me safe, but it creates the sensation of suffocation. Everyone says the same thing: Breanna’s smart, she’s quiet. On the inside, I’m not at all quiet. Most of the time, I’m screaming. “I’m not writing your papers.”

                Kyle’s smile that had suggested he had a done deal morphs into a frown and acid sloshes in my stomach. Denying Kyle isn’t what bothers me as much as it worries me what he’ll mention to his friends. They’re the reason why I went voluntarily mute in seventh grade.

                Heat races up my neck as the repercussions of refusing sets in, but I don’t even consider agreeing. Cheating is not my style.

                Kyle surveys the hallway and, it it’s privacy he’s searching for, he’ll be sorely disappointed. He slides closer and a strange edginess causes me to step back, but Kyle follows. “Fine. One hundred dollars per paper.”

                “No.”

                “You don’t understand. My grades have to improve.” Easygoing Kyle disappears and desperation is hardly attractive.

                I steal a peek into the school’s main office, hoping my guidance counselor will beckon me in. Half of me hopes she’ll have life altering news for me, the other half hopes to end this insane conversation. “What you’re asking for is crazy.”

                “No, it’s not.”

                In an answer to the one million prayers being chanted in my head, my guidance counselor opens her door. “Breanna.”

                Kyle leans into me. “This conversation isn’t over.”

And don’t miss the first book in the Thunder Road Series,

NOWHERE BUT HERE!

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, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine's 2012 Reviewer's Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.