Crash Into You by Katie McGarry -- PUBLIC

McGarry, Katie Crash Into You (Pushing the Limits Series #3), 496 pgs. Harlequin Teen, 2013. $17.99. Content: Language -- R (400+ swears; 100+ F ); Violence -- PG-13 (fistfights, threat of rape, car crashes); Sexual Content: R (threat of rape, sexual act strongly implied then referenced later)

Isaiah from Pushing the Limits and Dare You To is back, and this time the strong yet sensitive bad boy gets a love story of his own. The only solace in Isaiah's rough life comes from cars -- fixing them, driving them, racing them. But when good girl Rachel gets tangled up in one of his back-alley drag races, the couple is soon fleeing from the police. Even worse, the race money has gone missing, and Rachel and Isaiah have six weeks to recover it before the guy who organized the drag race comes after them. As they work together to save themselves, this tough foster care boy and angelic private school girl discover that love between them may not just be possible -- it may be inevitable.

I have mixed thoughts about this one. Although I typically enjoy romances, I had a very difficult time buying Rachel and Isaiah together -- mostly because their relationship moved so quickly and seemed to be based on little other than physical attraction, a shared love of cars, and a fear of running out of time before they'd earned their money. Before they even got to know each other, they were declaring their love and insisting they knew each other better than anyone else in the world. Only days later, they were talking marriage. It's very difficult to believe that a relationship like that won't run its course in a few weeks or, if they're lucky, months. And since the far-fetched romance swamped other every aspect of the book -- including the many, many other subplots -- it was difficult to become truly lost in the story for long.

Or perhaps I am simply a cynic looking at teenage love from an adult point-of-view. Die-hard romantics, especially teens experiencing love for the first time, may find themselves lost in this good-girl-meets-bad-boy romance and identify very strongly with Rachel and Isaiah. Fans of McGarry's previous two books will likely flock to this one as well, especially once they hear it is about Isaiah finally earning a love of his own. All in all, despite my own reservations I have a feeling the book will fly off the shelves in most libraries, which makes it a recommend read.

HS -- PUBLIC. Reviewer: Caryn