Review - Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

Title and Author: Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV Books

Publication Date: April 20, 2009

Paperback: 245 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Romance

Summary:

All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far... and almost doesn't make it back.
John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won't soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won't be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge - and over...

 

Review:

The first thing that drew my attention to this book was the cover (isn’t it pretty?) and then the plot.

Meg’s a wild girl who experiences frequent panic attacks when she feels confined. All she ever wanted is to break free and escape the small town in which she lives, and all she has to look forward to before graduation is the spring break trip to Florida.

Her chances of going to Florida are completely ruined when she is arrested for trespassing on a train bridge where two kids had been previously killed, though.

Her punishment is to spend spring break riding in the police car with the same cop that arrested her - John After, who she first assumes to be much older than he actually is.

While all Meg wants is to leave town, John made a choice to stay, to serve and to protect. Meg simply can’t understand that and pushes him beyond his limit. He pushes back and the chemistry between them grows as they question each other’s choices.

Reading the plot, I was pretty sure I would enjoy this book but I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. It was absolutely addicting.

I loved the way Meg and John’s relationship developed and how it was so complex and intriguing. The chemistry between them and their banter was incredibly well written. I just couldn’t get enough of it.

Jennifer Echols does a great job in telling Meg’s story and in making her a likeable character. Meg hides behind a rebellious façade and her blue hair to protect herself but as the book develops you start to understand her more and more. You can’t help but to like her and want things to go her way. And John… Well, John is much more complex than he first seems to be. He is dealing with some unsolved problems himself and you only find out exactly what those problems are towards the end of the book. The development of both characters was beautifully written and explored. The more you read the more real they become to you.

I enjoyed reading about Meg and John on night patrol more than I can express and it was great to see her realize she was falling in love with him. They push each other to their limits and that keeps the reader on edge, wanting and even needing to know what will happen between them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were great, the chemistry between Meg and John was fantastic and the plot was fast paced and enjoyable.This was my first time reading Jennifer Echols, I’d seen her book around, but for some reason I never had the initiative to pick on up. Then I saw the cover and synopsis for Going Too Far and I just had to have it. I think originally I’d saw the title as Boy In Blue or something along those lines, but after reading the novel I think that the title, Going Too Far, fits it perfectly.

I was expecting to like this novel, I figured it would be good, what I hadn’t expected was how much I wa ...more

Going Too Far is one of those books I read in one sitting, both because it was fast paced and also because I couldn’t put it down. I wanted to know what would happen to Meg and John and when the end of the book came, the impression that they were out there living happily together stayed with me.

Rating: Must Read