From critically acclaimed author Katie McGarry, comes SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME—a story of two people from different worlds pushing themselves, and each other, to get what they deserve!
SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME releases on January 30, 2018. Order your copy today!
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Synopsis
“Doesn’t matter who did it. Not anymore. I did the time. It’s over.”
When Drix was convicted of a crime–one he didn’t commit–he thought his life was over. But opportunity came with the Second Chance Program, the governor’s newest pet project to get delinquents off the streets, rehabilitated and back into society. Drix knows this is his chance to get his life back on track, even if it means being paraded in front of reporters for a while.
Elle knows she lives a life of privilege. As the governor’s daughter, she can open doors with her name alone. But the expectations and pressure to be someone she isn’t may be too much to handle. She wants to follow her own path, whatever that means.
When Drix and Elle meet, their connection is immediate, but so are their problems. Drix is not the type of boy Elle’s parents have in mind for her, and Elle is not the kind of girl who can understand Drix’s messy life.
But sometimes love can breach all barriers.
Fighting against a society that can’t imagine them together, Drix and Elle must push themselves–Drix to confront the truth of the robbery, and Elle to assert her independence–and each other to finally get what they deserve.
Review
4 stars!
Once again, Katie McGarry delivers a heartfelt and beautifully written coming of age story as two teenagers from two very different walks of life fall in love against the odds as they battle against the ties that bind them.
Hendrix has just returned home after serving time in juvenile detention for a crime he didn’t commit. He was a wild child and took a plea bargain to avoid adult prison and, as part of the Governor’s new initiative of a second chance program, underwent counselling and rehabilitation, and has turned his life around. Drix has had a difficult life and he made bad choices, going off the rails, and heading down a path of destruction, but he has come a long way in rebuilding himself, and while he is motivated to live a good life, he’s terrified of doing anything to tip the scales to send him back to where he used to be.
I can’t afford to take risks anymore. I’ve changed, and it’s time to play it safe. It’s time to realize I can’t chase anything that makes me happy anymore.
Elle is the daughter of the Governor. With wealth, beauty and privilege, on the surface she has a perfect life. But in reality she is struggling under the pressure and expectations placed upon her.
She believes in her father, and though she is forced to work the campaign trail with him, she works hard to make her parents proud, but more and more she is feeling the pull to find her own dreams and live a life that will make her happy.
It’s not okay. I’m seventeen years old, I don’t know who I am, and I don’t have any idea how to get my parents to take me seriously. I’m trapped, and I can’t breathe.
When Drix and Elle meet there is an immediate connection between them. But Drix knows that he has no business being with the Governor’s daughter. Not only does she deserve a good guy, but she is a temptation that threatens his very freedom.
“As much as I want nothing more than to be around you, as much as I want to touch you and kiss you and hear your laughter and your voice, I can’t. You and me – it can’t happen. Not in public. Not in private. I lost one year of my life, and I can’t lose any more.”
But they find something together that neither of them have experienced before – a solace and comfort, an understanding of their positions and the need for something more from their lives – and they develop a gorgeous friendship. But it’s a friendship that sizzles with their forbidden attraction to each other.
“You think it’s smart for a guy like me to kiss the governor’s daughter? You need to know who I was before, so you’ll stay away from me, and before, I wasn’t a nice guy.”
Elle studies me too seriously and long enough it causes me to shift my footing. “You want to kiss me?”
And as they spend time together, entering each other’s worlds and leaning on each other more and more, their friendship naturally morphs into something a whole lot more.
“What is this, Drix?” I whisper. “What is this between us?”
“I don’t know,” he says against by neck. “But I’m not ready to let it go yet.”
Katie McGarry writes gorgeous YA romance, and she’s done a wonderful job with Drix and Elle. It’s sweet, innocent and so beautiful, but their chemistry is strong. They may from two completely different worlds, but the connection they form is undeniable, and I loved watching them come together and find the happiness, support and acceptance that they both want so badly.
But their relationship is a secret, and is something that Elle’s family would never condone. And with Drix battling against the chains of his past and searching for answers about his conviction, and both of them fighting to get the future they so badly want, they’ll have to dig deep for the strength to face up to the storm that is coming their way.
“We’re trapped. I’ve told you from the get-go we’re trapped. We don’t get to make a single choice in our lives. We’re puppets who thought for a few seconds we didn’t have strings.”
This is a beautifully written story. Drix and Elle’s stories are different with very different obstacles, but their journeys are similar as they figure out who they want to be and how to make that happen, and I was captivated as it all unfolded. I could feel their angst and despair, and my heart ached for them at the seemingly hopeless positions they were in.
“We’re stronger together, Drix. I promise we are. Please don’t give up on us. Please don’t give up on yourself.”
“I don’t know,” he says into my hair. “I don’t know where to go from here. I don’t know how to be the man you deserve when we can’t even be seen together in public. I don’t know who I am, especially when I’m never going to be anything more than who I was.”
The strength of these characters absolutely floored me, and more than that, the strength of love, and of family, is beautifully shown, and I loved the addition of Drix’s family and friends, who had an important part to play in his story. The perfect family doesn’t have everything, but they have each other’s backs, and I loved the relationship that Drix had with the people in his life.
And as the story all comes to a head, with secrets revealed and everything on the line, I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough, desperate to see how it was all going to end, and feeling everything along the way.
Amazing things are going to happen because that’s what happens when you find your wings and finally fly.”
This is a beautifully written, emotional story that is heartfelt and real, with characters that you cannot help but love and cheer for. A gorgeous coming of age book, and I loved it!
4 stars.
An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Excerpt
~Ellison~
The sights and sounds of the midway fade, and all I hear is buzzing. I close my eyes as more pissed-off tears fill my eyes. Why won’t they go away?
“You okay?” a guy asks.
I open my eyes and focus on the ground. My eyes are red, I know they are. I can feel the puffiness of my skin. I take a deep breath, look up to explain I’m okay, and freeze.
Holy hell. It’s the boy from Whack-A- Mole. He’s so much more breathtaking this close, and I have no idea how that’s possible.
“Are those guys bothering you?” he asks.
My forehead furrows. Yes, they are, but telling him the truth and inviting him into my problems seems wrong.
“Since you’re so talkative, I’ll start the conversation,” he says. “If you want to get rid of those guys then stand here and talk to me, and I’ll stand here and talk to you. You can smile like you know me because it’s tough to make me smile, and it will seem fake. Then I can try to win you a stuffed animal. Won’t be a snake, but it will do. Those losers will catch on we’re friends. Eventually, they’ll keep walking, and then they’ll return to their loser frat house where they’ll play with themselves for the rest of the night because they don’t know how to properly talk to a girl.”
I blink because all thought processes have taken a mini break. Either that or I’m having a stroke.
“Just a smile. Maybe a few mumbled words. Tell me anything. Doesn’t have to be poetic. Just your lips moving in my direction without your current blank expression.”
I blink again, many times, as the sights, sounds and smells of the midway blast back as if someone had pushed the play button on my life. I flash the perfectly practiced public smile I’ve used too many other times in my life.
“I don’t know how to get them to leave me alone.” I pause, then the bitterness leaks out as well as a grim grin. “At least not without a baseball and a well-placed throw. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to continue their genetics.”
The right side of his mouth tips up, and my eyes narrow on him. “I thought you didn’t smile easily.”
“I have a twisted sense of humor, and I didn’t think a girl like you could make me laugh. You’ve done it twice now. That’s a record for the past year.”
I bristle, still on the dangerous edge of anger. “A girl like me?”
“Yeah, one that’s out of my league. Listen, if you want to get out of this situation without it escalating, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll take a step back, and you can do whatever you need. I’m all about helping, but I’m not looking to get into a fight. Your call on how this goes down, but if it’s violence, you’re on your own.”
He says he doesn’t want to partake in violence, but there’s an essence about him that says he could drop anyone at any time and do it without breaking a sweat.
He’s looking at me, I’m looking at him, and the flutter in my chest returns.
Pre-order Campaign
Pre-order SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME, register and you will receive AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER, a novella that features your favorite Pushing the Limits and Thunder Road characters!
From the Pushing the Limits series, Noah, Beth, Isaiah, West and Logan are all grown up. Catch up with your favorite characters as one of them finally says, I do.
Pigpen, Eli and Addison from the Thunder Road series: Three separate personalities who still needed to find love…and still had someone important to meet.
This is a limited time offer! So hurry! Registration ends on February 3, 2018! You must register your preorder to receive AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
Giveaway
A $100 Amazon Gift Card for one winner!
ENTER HERE GIVEAWAY HERE
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Katie McGarry
Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.
Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine’s 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.
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