This series is just not as strong as the Pushing the Limits series. I don't enjoy the characters and plots nearly as much. Especially with Walk the Edge.
Breanna is the perfect child in her large family, smart and responsible, the one with the photographic memory. That is until she meets Razor, a member of the Reign of Terror, the one everyone warns her to stay away from.
The story felt a bit weak for me. The whole blackmailing concept was a bit far fetched, it almost made Breanna too perfect. I like Emily and Oz much more than these two.
I do still love Katie McGarry's books and will continue to read anything she writes. I just would rather have more Pushing the Limits.
Thomas Turner, better known to his fellow Reign of Terror motorcycle brothers as Razor, is conflicted. He wants to be unquestionably loyal, but when a police detective reveals new information about his mother's death, he can't leave the case alone, despite warnings from his father and other gang members. Having always believed she committed suicide, he's compelled to find out whether the Reign of Terror were in fact involved in her alleged murder.
Breanna Miller has always felt like an outcast, both in school and at home (she is the middle child of NINE siblings). She's super smart and dreams of going away to an elite school, where she's even managed to secure a scholarship, but is denied the chance because her parents need her at home. Her parents rely on her to help take care of her younger siblings and generally seem to ignore the fact that time and again, Breanna gives up on her dreams because of her family. Her only friend, Addison, has a lot of problems of her own, and as such, isn't someone Breanna feels she can turn to.
Like everyone else at school, Breanna is initially afraid of Razor, and there are all sorts of rumours about what the members of the Reign of Terror have to do to patch in. After Razor helps her out one afternoon when her brother's forgotten to pick her up, Breanna starts wondering about the mysterious Thomas Turner, and soon the two can't stop thinking of each other. Breanna's brain is constantly looking for puzzles to solve, and Razor just happens to have some messages in code that could help him figure out what really happened to his mother.
Once Breanna realises that a) Razor is not the dangerous criminal she feared, but actually a very smart and chivalrous boy and b) contrary to what she expects, he doesn't find her a brainy freak, but is fascinated by the way her brain works,, she starts warming up to him. Unfortunately, someone snaps a picture of the two of them, which out of context looks really salacious, and uses it to blackmail Breanna. She's terrified that the picture will be leaked on social media, potentially ruining her chances to get into college and away from her smothering family.
There is frequently an opposites attract, protagonists from different worlds theme in Katie McGarry's books, and this one is no different. Razor is the close-mouthed, emotionally closed-off loner, a motorcycle-riding bad boy with a dangerous reputation. He's grown up among members of the motorcycle club, and would never conceive of trying to leave them to live a different life. He's always wondered if his father's love of women was partially responsible for his mother killing herself, and once he discovers that his mother's death wasn't a suicide, but that she was quite possibly run off the road, he can't stop digging into the case, no matter what the older Reign of Terror members tell him.
Breanna is a loner in a different way, and despite her large family, feels like she has no one to turn to. The fifth of nine siblings, she is seen as an annoying younger sibling by the four eldest and as a nagging older sibling by her four youngest. Because she's extremely smart and well-adjusted, her parents constantly ignore her to prioritise more pressing needs in the family and rely on her for babysitting duties. She's denied her wish to go away to a prestigious private school because her parents, who both have to work full time to support their giant family, can't spare her. At seventeen, Breanna is pretty much raising her younger siblings, and that is not a job a young girl should have to have.
To add to her troubles, the star football player wants to pay her to write his essays for him, and when she continues to refuse, he manages to secure an incriminating photo of her and Razor together. The fact that nothing at all happened is completely irrelevant. The photo is snapped at exactly the wrong moment, and Breanna is worried that she's going to have to agree to the douchewad's demands, in order to make sure her future isn't ruined.
I have yet to find a Katie McGarry book that I don't like and she tends to do excellent pairings, with deeply likable protagonists, often in interestingly fucked up situations, who find solace in each other. In this, I was furious at Breanna's parents, who so selfishly kept reproducing and expecting their children to pretty much raise each other. I honestly don't understand how Breanna's mother, who works as a nurse, could ignore contraception in such a way. As far as I could tell, they were not religious nuts who believed safe sex was a sin. Who has nine children, when it's quite clear that they can't support said children both financially and emotionally? They completely ignore Breanna and all her troubles during the first part of the book, only to go mega overboard on being protective in the second half, once they discover she's been dating a biker. They made me really angry.
The "we know best, just never ask any questions" attitude of the older Reign of Terror bikers was also pretty frustrating. As they are clearly set up as law-abiding and above board, despite all the rumours in the local community about them, it was obvious to me that they hadn't conspired to murder Razor's mother, but their complete inability to be open with him, and insistence on blind, unquestioning loyalty, even when the kid is clearly struggling, was baffling to me.
While I care about as little about motorcycle gangs as I do sportsball players, I am a sucker for well-written, emotionally resonant romance. Because this is YA, there aren't really any smexy times, although there is some pretty impressive UST and some great smolder and kisses. McGarry keeps delivering books that hit me right in the feels, even when some parts of the story annoys me. I will eagerly await the next book in the series.
Judging a book by its cover: There are a number of different covers for this book, all of them variying degrees of meh to awful. The version I read actually had a pretty decent cover, which fits with certain scenes in the story. A blond guy in black jeans and a white t-shirt, walking along the train tracks on a railway bridge - this could be a scene of Razor in the book. Several of the key scenes in the story take place near just such a bridge, so I think it's quite fitting, and much better than say, the headless couple leaning against a convertible (had it been a motorcycle, it would have fit better) or the badly photoshopped couple embracing, while pouting out of the image that make up the other two covers of the book that I have seen.
Goodreads Synopsis:
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 cyber-bully'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
Review:
Again another fantastic read by Katie McGarry!
I think I liked this book slightly better than the first one as there was more drama and tension which made for an entertaining read.
In the first book we were introduced to The Reign of Terror Motorcycle Club but in this book we saw a different side to them. In book 1 we were taught to trust them completely because Oz did, but in this we actually doubted them. There were grey areas to the club that we didn’t get to see previously which I don’t know how I feel about. Yes they are a family and would do anything for each other but they have a lot of rules that can be a bit much to take sometimes like when something is labelled “club business” even when it involves those outside the club.
I loved Breanna and Razor together, although they are completely different they were drawn to qualities mirrored in each other. I also loved that we got to see a lot of Oz, Chevy and Emily in this book :D I did miss Olivia as she was one of my favourite characters from the first book. It would have been nice to see what she thought of Breanna and her relationship with Razor.
I liked the addition of the social media site ‘Bragger’ and how it affected Breanna as today everything is online and blackmailing people with pictures etc is sadly a part of our society. I wasn’t expecting things with Kyle to turn out the way they did but was happy with the turn of events.
I love listening to the playlist after I finish Katie’s books and reliving the feelings and emotions of particular scenes. ‘Blank Space’ was also the perfect song to represent Razor.
I’m so excited to read the next book as I’ve been dying to read Violet and Chevy’s story since ‘Nowhere But Here’!! It’s going to be a long wait until 2017 though :(
This review is also available on my blog, Bows & Bullets Reviews
Katie McGarry is a contemporary YA writing god. I mean, I know I’ve said it before, but it deserves repeating. She manages to take the same basic formula (boy with troubles + girl with troubles + difficult situation = swoony romance), but it feels different every time. Even though you know it’s going to work out in the end, there are moments where you just can’t wrap your head around how that’s going to happen.
Razor may be my favorite male of the series thus far. He’ll probably be beaten by Chevy when we get the next book, but I definitely like Razor more than Oz….not that I didn’t like Oz. ANYWAY, Razor is tough and has a reputation for being the baddest of the bad for the Reign Of Terror. He’s the strong, silent type, but he’s so sweet. They way he treats Breanna had me melting for the entire novel. I felt so bad for him, watching him struggle with his trust of the club, his father, and his father’s newest piece of ass. In fact, his entire relationship between him and his dad just broke my heart. His dad is a man I don’t care for. Even in the end, I couldn’t get over certain things. I’m not even talking about the big secrets he kept, it’s more about how he could have put more effort into his relationship with his son. Instead of being such a man-whore, he could have spent more time with Razor, progressing that relationship and helping with his grief instead of burying himself in women to avoid his own grief.
Breanna’s family was not any better. Though they weren’t necessarily abusive towards her, they tended to forget about her if she wasn’t directly in their line of sight or depending on her to be responsible when they needed help with the other kids. She’s the 5th of 9 children and she’s the responsible, smart one. Her role as the responsible one is used and abused. No one is caring for her, no one is looking out for her best interests. They just use and abuse her. I just really sympathized with her. I was an only child, but I was always very responsible and I can easily see myself as having been put into her role had there been siblings. I love how she steps up for Razor and acts more confident.
This story introduces a subject we haven’t really touched on a lot in YA, or at least, not one I’ve read about a lot in YA. Privacy issues and blackmail are a big problem. The idea that a person’s future can be hinged upon keeping questionable pictures off the internet is mind-boggling. For all the good computers have done the world, there are quite a few horrendous downsides. When did social media start to factor in to college acceptances? Why does that matter? It brings up a whole set of issues in my mind that just keep the wheels spinning and spinning. That’s something Katie excels at. On the surface, she gives you a teenage love story with just enough angst to keep it interesting without going overboard, but she weaves deeper lines into it. Her novels stick with you and the issues they bring up just make you think.
Bottom line? This is lines up with all the rest of Katie’s work. It doesn’t beat Pushing The Limits for my top spot, but it’s still a solid 5 star read. What more do you need to know?
****Thank you to Inkslinger PR, Katie McGarry, & Harlequin Teen for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review****
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