Crash Into You by Katie McGarry Review

Title: Crash Into You
Author: Katie McGarry (Twitter)
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publish Date: November 26, 2013
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 474
Source: Publisher

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.

Rachel and Isaiah have built their lives in careful facades. They both have buried secrets - hidden pain - and they know that bringing them to life will only spell trouble. While Rachel is from the right side of the tracks and Isaiah is from, well, the opposite, there is a sort of undeniable, kinetic tension that draws them together. But nothing worth having comes easy, and Isaiah and Rachel will have to decide just how important they are to one another.

It's no secret that the second book in this series stole my heart. When I first heard that Isaiah was going to be the focus of this novel, I had a moment of pause, and they I realized that I was pretty excited about it. Katie McGarry, yet again, delights her ardent fans with a novel that offers us what we love most - love in its purest, finest and most raw moments. Fleshing out to polar opposite characters who have a painfully beautiful love for one another, Crash Into You will envelop you in a world of drama, rich, unbridled tension and passion. 

Isaiah is one of those characters that just speaks to my soul. On the outside, he's rugged and rakish with tattoos and piercing eyes, but on the inside, he's warm, tender and soulful. That's honestly the best way that I can describe his persona because his warmth and his character brings Crash Into You alive in the very best way. We fall for him from book one, but it's his rich energy that keeps us coming back for more. I was pretty sure that, by her description, I would Rachel. Entitled teens are usually a pet peeve for me, but there was a sadness about her that added depth to her quiet, pure and rather innocent persona. Her personality perfectly balanced with Isaiah's, and their complementary natures made the story - and the romance - soar for me. Another thing I loved about Crash Into You is that there are soft, sweet moments between the couple and then times when your adrenaline is fueled with heart-pounding drama. It provided a well-rounded storyline and, ultimately, solidified the fact that Isaiah and Beth would never have worked in a story like this. Rachel and Isaiah, however, created a sort of solid ground, or an eye to the storm that raged around them. There love was like coming home in Crash Into You, and while we see cameos of previous characters, these two take center stage. Last but not least, I have to mention how much I loved the secondary characters. They added such a dimension to the story, drove me nuts at times, but altogether sold me on the fact that I absolutely must know more about West.

Overall, yet again, Katie McGarry has stolen my heart with her writing. Crash Into You is even more rich and emotional than its predecessors, and I can't wait to see what we get with the next story. I can't help but give this one a 5 out of 5 and highly recommend it to all fans of YA, especially those who enjoy contemporary fiction.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.