If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but does….Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock—with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn't be less interested in him.
But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams—and his life—for the girl he loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all…
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Some may call Ryan Stone an adrenaline junkie, but the truth is, he just can't stand losing; when it comes to baseball and dares, he has to win. Such is the nature of his and Beth Risk's relationship. He is dared to get her number, she dares him to be more, he dares her to trust, they each dare the other to be better . . . and they're both determined to win.
Ryan and Beth are totally different, the Jock Boy and the Skater Girl, the rich boy and the poor girl, and yet they understand each other more thananyone else, as both of them are in the impossible position of choosing between their family's happiness and their own, and whether to live the lives paved out for themor forge paths for themselves.
Sometimes the pressure we feel is self-imposed; abandoned by the uncle who promised to change her life, Beth's drug-addict, alcoholic mother is all she has, andshe considers it her responsibility to care for the only family she has left. Scott Risk's reappearance in her life doesn't change that. As Beth's life is turned completelyupside down, she knows that giving in to the life where she has family, friends, and a boy she loves, would mean giving up on the mother she's vowed to protect.
Ryan has never questioned his destiny to play baseball, as the sport is the love of his life. But after the summer that saw his brother estranged by parents who seem todespise each other and only care about maintaining the family's perfect facade, Ryan begins to wonder how much of his dream has been dictated by his father, and what desireshe's been suppressing for the sake of pleasing his parents.
Defying parents can feel like stabbing yourself in the back, even when you know it is right. Unearthing dreams you never realised you possessed can be overwhelming--especially whenthey put a wedge in your plans. Katie McGarry shows that daring to open your heart or admit what you truly want in life is not selfish, as you are not responsible for other people'shappiness, and you cannot live your life to please those around you. - Payton (QBD)
Guest, 17/03/2017
