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.
From Goodreads
Isaiah got his heart crushed by the one woman he thought he could trust. Having been abandoned by his mother & bounced around the foster system for years, he's a bit prickly. He's got a great family (meaning the people he has chosen as family) who will do anything for him, but that still doesn't make him any less intimidating. In walks the gal with a car he's drooling over & the attitude to go with it. Rachel is the token daughter in a family filled with secrets & lies. To escape the pressures at home, she speeds around in her Mustang. When things go sideways at the street race the night she meets Isaiah, nothing will ever be the same.
You guys know I love me some Katie McGarry books. As I said in my WoW yesterday, I may not be able to wait for the boxed set to buy this book. Isaiah has been my favorite character all along, so to have a book featuring him was almost enough to make me squeal. I couldn't have imagined it would get even better when we get introduced to Rachel.
Both of these teens are stubborn & hard-headed to their own detriment, but the benefit of others. They are loyal & trustworthy despite having shady tendencies. Getting to learn about their vastly different, yet eerily similar backgrounds was a lot of fun and made this a unique read. I don't know a lot about cars, but even I appreciated the muscle displayed during the racing & mechanic shop scenes.
McGarry has an entertaining writing style since we get the story from both perspectives. It would be repetitive if done by almost anyone else, but the lens she uses to show us the interactions is what really drives the story home for me. I adored getting to see the parts of these two characters that almost no one saw & how they allowed each other to see what they couldn't actually face themselves.
While the romance was a little speedy in my opinion (I'm not a fan of insta-love because for me it's not very realistic) it worked well for how this story played out. There is definitely some language, violence, minor drug scenarios (although little to know actual usage mentioned), these things all served their purpose.
Personally, I am the biggest fan of the fact that Katie isn't afraid to break her characters; both emotionally & physically. You'll just have to read to find out what I mean. :)
ARC graciously provided by Around the World Tours
I sent this video to Katie since a lot of the lyrics remind me of scenes in this book & Isaiah in general. I know it's long, but it is well worth it. Enjoy!
