Pushing The Limits Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Hey, everyone! I'm so excited to have the opportunity to kick-off the PUSHING THE LIMITS blog tour! Both Noah and Echo are easily two of my favorite contemporary characters out there. They captured my heart and will just as easily capture yours. It takes a brilliant writer to write a book as powerful as this one, so I was so excited to learn that we were able to ask Katie McGarry a few questions about her debut novel, the moral of her story, and her journey to getting published.

So, without further ado, I'd love for you all to Meet Katie McGarry!

Pushing the Limitsdeals with themes of traumatic experiences, falling in love and self-discovery.  What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

 

That we are more than just the sum of our past and that, no matter the situation, there is hope.

 

My characters, Echo and Noah, are two teenagers dealing with very traumatic pasts. Each day, they wake up facing the dilemma of whether they’re going to let what has happened to them destroy their future, or whether they’ll permit love to heal their old wounds and scars.  You’ll need to read the book to discover which path they choose.

 

Of all the characters in Pushing the Limits, who do you relate to the most and why?

 

Overall, I’m a strange combination of all of them. If you take Isaiah’s loyalty, Beth’s insecurities, Lila’s devotion to friendship, Echo’s memory loss, and Noah’s unwavering love for the people around him, then you create me.

 

In your bio you describe your teenage years as the “best and worst” years of your life.  Did any of the “bests” and “worsts” inspire scenes and/or situations in Pushing the Limits?

 

Yes!  One of the best moments of my life was when a guy I was totally into refused to take me to a Homecoming Dance. “Devastated” just doesn’t do justice to what I felt.

 

I ended up going to the dance with a group of friends and right when another guy asked me to slow dance, the guy I was infatuated with showed up and told me he was a “jerk” for not taking me. I spent the rest of the dance with him. The roller coaster of emotions I rode that night made its way into the dance scene in Pushing the Limits.

 

As for the worst moments…I drew upon heart-wrenching events I experienced as a teenager to write some of the more emotional scenes in the book. Specifically, I called upon the grief of losing my best friend whenever Echo and Noah talked about their personal losses.

 

Pushing the Limitsis told in alternating chapters from both Echo and Noah; why did you decide to tell the story from two different points of view?

 

Because I wanted to write a love story and there are always at least two sides to a love story. In that moment when our eyes meet that gorgeous guy’s across the room, we wonder if he’s looking at us. I love having the opportunity to answer whether or not he really was.

 

As a debut novelist, what has been the one thing that has surprised you the most about the journey of having your story published/becoming a published author?

 

When I began my journey to become published, I was absolutely terrified of everyone: agents, editors, anyone who worked for a publishing house. The first time I ever pitched my book at a conference, I shook like a leaf in a hurricane. I have been happily surprised at how nice and amazing everyone has been. I’ve also been shocked by the amount of people who work on my book: editorial, marketing, PR, sales…the list is endless.

 

The second most surprising part of the journey is how large and how supportive the writing community is. I had no idea the number of book bloggers there are in the blogosphere and I have been blown away by how friendly and helpful they are.

 

What was the last great book you read?

 

Between Shades of Grayby Ruta Sepetys. This is a definite must-read! I cried several times during the book. Sometimes so much that I had to put the book down so I could properly sob. Ruta does an amazing job of combining grief and fear along with mingling just the right amount of hope.

 

What are you working on now?

 

I am currently working on the revisions for the companion novel to Pushing the Limits. The book is called Dare You To, and it tells the story of Beth, a secondary character in Pushing the Limits. Dare You To will be released in 2013.

 

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Before we keep sharing our amazing surprises, check out what PUSHING THE LIMITS is really about.

"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.

So wrong for each other...and yet so right.

No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

"An edgy romance that pulls you in and never lets go. I was hooked!"-Gena Showalter,  New York Times bestselling author of the Intertwined series.

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Echo and Noah both attend the same high school, but that's where their similarities seem to end. Their paths cross however, when, on the first day of school after winter break they both meet their newly appointed school social worker. Katie McGarry wrote Pushing he Limits in alternating points of view, one chapter by Echo, the next by Noah. Check out the excerpts below, taken from the first chapters of Katie's debut novel. Every stop on the blog tour features new excerpts - the completely tour schedule can be found here.

Excerpt #1

Echo:

“My father is a control freak, I hate my stepmother, my brother is dead and my mother has...well...issues. How do you think I’m doing?”

That’s how I would have loved to respond to Mrs. Collins’s question, but my father placed too much importance on appearance for me to answer honestly. Instead, I blinked three times and said, “Fine.”

Noah:

Fresh paint and the scent of drywall dust made me think of my father, not school. Yet that smell slapped me in the face when I walked into the newly remodeled front office. With books in hand, I sauntered toward the counter. “’Sup, Mrs. Marcos.”

“Noah, why you late again, muchacho?” she said while stapling papers together. The clock on the wall flipped to nine in the morning. “Hell, this is early.”  Mrs. Marcos stepped around her new cherry desk to meet me at the counter. She gave me crap when I came in late, but I still liked her. With her long brown hair, she reminded me of a Hispanic version of my mother.

“You missed your appointment with Mrs. Collins this morning. Not a good way to start the second term,” she whispered as she wrote my tardy slip. She tilted her head toward the three adults huddled together in the far corner of the room. I assumed he middle-aged blond woman whispering to the rich couple was the new guidance counselor.

I shrugged and let the right side of my mouth twitch up. “Oops.”

Please visit Kristen Simmons Blog for the next excerpt from Echo and Noah.

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You can find the rest of the blog tour here to check out the other amazing excerpts!

 

Tuesday, July 31st * Book Bday* - Kristen Simmons Blog

Wednesday, August 1st - Total Bookaholic

Thursday, August 2nd - Sit Here and Read

Friday, August 3rd - Mundie Moms  

Monday, August 6th - Bookhounds YA
Tuesday, August 7th - I Read Banned Books

Wednesday, August 8th - Bethany Griffin

Thursday, August 9th - I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

Friday, August 10th - Kelly Creagh

 

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Harlequin is graciously giving away one (1) copy of PUSHING THE LIMITS and a special blue ribbon to one winner in the US or Canada. This ribbon is extremely significant to the story! To enter, simply fill out the rafflecopter below!

Ends August 10th.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 Also, check out the amazing grand prize giveaway on Katie McGarry's blog here for the chance of winning a Kindle Fire in celebration of this wonderful blog tour! 

 

Posted by Lili at 07:30

 giveaway, Interview, Katie McGarry  59 People left their mark

I'm a 18 year old from a small town in New Jersey that's a newcomer to the book blogging world. Because I am an incoming senior in high school the closest thing that I have to a job is being a volunteer at the town library, so I spend most of my time reading and persuading my parents to let me buy more books!

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