From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane 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.
My Review:
Just like I loved Pushing the Limits and Dare You To, I also loved Crash Into You. The character development was well done, and the plot was fast-moving. It was one that always held my interest.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD
I really liked Rachel's character. She definitely has a lot of pressure put on her by her family. I was not a fan of her parents, and my opinion on her brothers wavered. Sometimes, I would think I liked some of them, but then they would do or say something to make me dislike them. It was awful that Rachel felt like she had to be Colleen's replacement, but what was even worse was that her mom actually really did want her to be exactly like Colleen. She didn't really try to get to know Rachel as Rachel. I also didn't like how the pressure Rachel's family put on her made her feel like she had to hide her panic attacks. She had suffered panic attacks when she younger, and her family knew that, yet they still made her speak in public because they thought she had gotten over the attacks. When West and Ethan knew that she still had the attacks, they still wanted her to make the speeches about Colleen. I feel like they shouldn't have told her she still needed to do the speeches, because doing the speeches was physically making her sick. I liked getting to read about Rachel doing the things she loved. She had a passion for cars, and though I didn't understand any of the technical car terms, it was still interesting to read about.
Isaiah is recovering from his heartbreak in this book, after Beth starts going out with Ryan. He thought he had loved Beth, but in this story, he finds out much more about what love really is. He has had a tough life, losing his mom to jail when he was six, and being shuffled from one foster home to another for the years following that. His mom had gotten out of jail two years before this book starts, and at the beginning of the book, she is trying to visit him for the first time. It is clear that he is mad that she took so long to try to visit, so he doesn't want to see her. Even with all of his issues, he has a good heart and he cares about people. He doesn't have an easy time forgiving his mom for the things that have happened in their past, but he tries.
The romance between Rachel and Isaiah is well developed with many good moments. They meet in an interesting and illegal way. They race against each other in a street race, and the race is soon broken up by the cops. They escape, and when his car breaks down, Rachel takes him in her car. That same night, they share an intense kiss in his apartment. It is clear that they both like each other, but it isn't easy for them to make their relationship work. Rachel and Isaiah are from completely different lives, and he doesn't think he is good for her. Her brothers wouldn't approve of him if they knew about him, so, once their relationship starts, it stays a secret.
The minor characters in this book are well done too. There are cameos of Noah and Echo, and Beth and Ryan. Beth and Ryan are there less because Isaiah isn't friends with Beth anymore. He still is friends with Noah, though, and they live together in an apartment. Ryan's friend, Logan, makes some appearances in this book, and he surprisingly becomes good friends with Isaiah. They both like to race their cars. Abby is an interesting, and I hope I find out more about her in the later books. She is a drug dealer, but she still becomes Rachel's best friend. She's not the type of person that Rachel would usually be friends with, and Abby doesn't typically do friendships. It is an interesting friendship, but it is well-written and developed.
If you like YA contemporary, read this book.
Katie
