Authors are Rockstars – The Katie McGarry Month – Why we love ….

Posted 9 August, 2013 by Danny in Blog, Bookworms, Danny, Featured, Heather, Pushy / 18 Comments

For the month of August, we are celebrating our favorite author Katie McGarry. As part of the “Authors are Rockstars” tour, we decided to celebrate Katie not only for a single day, but for a whole month!

 The Authors Are Rockstars Tour is hosted by the fantastic bloggers Fiktshun, Two Chicks on Books, Magical Urban Fantasy Reads. Thank you girls so much!!

KatieMcGarryMonth

Last week we had Katie over for an Interview and this week, we will tell you exactly why we love Katie’s Books, her writing, and just her as a person! And we have an epic giveaway, so stay tuned!

Katie McGarry Month Schedule:

  • Interview with Katie McGarry – Friday, August 2nd
  • Why we love Katie McGarry’s Writing & Characters – today! 
  • Interview with Katie’s Editor at HarlequinTEEN – Margo Lipschultz – Friday, August 16th
  • Crash Into You Surprise!!! – Friday, August 23rd

Why We Love Katie’s Writing and Characters

by The Bewitched Bookworms

1.) Shattering Heartbreak

Katie definitely knows how to break our heart. She truly does not shy away from torturing her characters and in result, takes our hearts in her hands and squeezes it into a gooshy, little pulp. In Pushing The Limits, Echo’s story was incredibly heart-wrenching and terrible, and it made us cry horribly.

In Dare You To, Beth was the character that tore us into pieces as she had such a sad upbringing and family situation. We can only dare to speculate how Isaiah’s story in Crash Into You will pulverize us.

But as gut-wrenching, heart-rending and just plain make-us-sob-like-emo-pre-teens inducing her stories are, it’s that emotional core that grips us, holds us and ultimately makes us rejoice at the love stories she builds for us.  We swooned when Noah and Echo finally wound up together…we fell so hard for Beth and Ryan… and now, with Isaiah…..and Rachel…. well, let’s just say we’re already stocking up on tissues, chocolate and chocolates.  And believe us, our men know, when we’re reading Katie’s books, they need to LEAVE.US.ALONE!  They’ll know when we’re ready to leave Katie’s world.  🙂

2.) Intense and compelling characters

The characters in Katie’s books are outstanding in their personality and incredibly intense. No matter how high the stakes or how impossible their situations may seem, they always overcome the odds somehow in the end…

And it’s not just the love the main couples have for each other (although it’s always so incredibly sweet), but the way all the interactions play out.  Remember Echo’s relationship with her mother?  INTENSE!!!!  Or Noah’s with his brothers???  Or Beth and Isaiah???  Or Echo and Lila?????  It’s more than just the bond of lovers that Katie’s writing celebrates.  It’s the bonds that tie all her characters to each other that are visceral, vital and oh-so-raw!

3.) She makes you care, even if you don’t want to care…

If you read reviews from Pushing The Limits, people often mentioned that they didn’t like Beth. She indeed was a very complicated character.  She was tough.  Brittlely, brutally so… and we also were deeply concerned about meeting her again in Dare You To. We know we weren’t the only ones to start Dare You To with a certain amount of trepidation.

But with Katie’s outstanding talent, she made us fall in love with Beth so completely that we were all majorly surprised!  Beneath Beth’s hard shell is such a complicated, dare we say sweet?, girl and Ryan is the perfect boy to love both sides of her.  *sigh*

4.) Good – Bad – or in between?

It’s also astonishing the way she develops characters outside of a box. Classic bad boys like Noah will tell you their story and suddenly you realize that a simple label cannot be easily attached to Katie’s characters. Noah had a rough life, but when we got to know him in Pushing The Limits, we realized what a wonderful boy he really is and nothing like the bad boy image he outwardly displayed.  When she writes about his thoughts about what his mother would think of his tough-guy persona…well, if we hadn’t already been a sobbing mess, that would have tipped us over the edge!

The same thing goes for Beth in Dare You To-– once we saw the character develop, we finally understood and simple labels are just that.. labels!

5) Hope!

Despite all these horrible situations that Katie’s characters found themselves in, Katie never lets us lose hope. This is one of the most important aspects of her books, the redemption she offers both characters and readers through the catharsis of her stories. Without hope we have nothing, and Katie always ends her book with it! It may not be a perfect solution, but with an honesty and truth to character, she gives the reader something both satisfying and believable and ultimately satisfying.

Seriously! What is not to love ? And now we are all looking forward to Katie’e newest release Crash Into You which will be about Isaiah’s story and I know this boy will break our hearts too!

CrashIntoYoubyKatieMcGarryAbout Crash Into You

Coming November 26th 2013 by Harlequin Teen

Goodreads| pre-order:  Amazon

From acclaimed author Katie McGarry comes an explosive new tale of a good girl with a reckless streak, a street-smart guy with nothing to lose, and a romance forged in the fast lane

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that’s who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers…and she’s just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can’t get him out of her mind.

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.

 

Find Katie McGarry:

Find Dare You To and Pushing The Limits 

Katie McGarry at the Bewitched Bookworms

Thank you all so much for stopping by today and celebrating Katie with us! And now, thanks to HarlequinTEEN and Katie, we have an awesome Giveaway for you!

HarlequinTEEN is donating 2 Paperback copies of Pushing The Limits and 2 Hardcovers of Dare You To. Katie McGarry is giving away one ARC of CRASH INTO YOU, and the Bookworms are offering 1 copy of your choice of titles from Katie McGarry for 2 International Readers!!

So in total, we will 7 winners! YES!!!

The Giveaway runs until August 31st – the entire length of the “Authors Are Rockstars” Tour and our Katie McGarry Month!

The Books provided from Harlequin & Katie are US/Can only

Please all enter via the Rafflecopter below!

And next week, we will have Margo – Katie’s Editor here for a chat about Katie, her writing and her books! 

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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18 Responses to “Authors are Rockstars – The Katie McGarry Month – Why we love ….”

  1. I adore Katie. I felt the same way about Beth – she irritated the crap out of me in PtL, so I was nervous about Dare You To. Not only did I adore Beth, but I think I fell harder for Ryan than I did Noah.

    I also wasn’t so impressed by Isaiah, but here I am reading Crash Into You and I am blown away by how much I am crushing on him! And Rachel is phenomenal, and the complexitity of her family relationships is staggering.

    I wanna write like Katie when I grow up.

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  2. It`s an easy question. She writes books that inspire readers to believe in love and change the way you see people. I love her writing, it`s catchy and real, with true feelings poured in it. It`s like she brings the characters to life in the best of ways. She`s a YA Contemporary goddess *giggles*
    MaijaS recently posted..Review: Breach by K.I. LynnMy Profile

    Reply »

  3. I don’t think there’s much I can really add to this post other than to say I COMPLETELY AGREE. Her characters never fail to amaze me, and she can suck me into a story like no other. Which is definitely saying something because I’m typically not a huge fan of contemporary YA:)

    Miss your face!

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  4. Leslie T.

    I love Katie’s books because the characters are easy to relate too, they feel real and have real emotions and problems. I love her writing and how fluidly it moves and the depth it provides. I can’t wait to read Crash In To You! Thanks for the giveaway 🙂

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  5. Great post ladies. I finally reviewed Pushing The Limits & it was a HARD review! A wonderful book that truly knocked me on my butt! My 1st foray into YA Contemp & I had the book I read from BEA12!! I just kept looking at it over and over again.
    I couldn’t articulate my feelings. I swear I wanted my review to sound so New York Book Times-esque. Full of SAT words, insightful statements, etc. you know, those almost pretensios sounding book reviews we love to hate,and secretly wish we could master.
    Lolz
    I think I failed when I threw in my Dean Winchester GIF!
    Love ya Katie McG! Love ya Bewitched ladies!
    Have a great day everyone <3
    Bella’s Shelf recently posted..Pushing The LimitsMy Profile

    Reply »

  6. Karin

    I have to admit something awful. I have had Pushing the Limits on my Kindle app for months and have not yet read it. I’m kind of intimidated as everyone loved it so much and now I’m scared it won’t live up to the hype. I’m sure I will love it, I need to just read it!

    Okay, new plan for this weekend….. 😀

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  7. Cnd

    The reason I love Katie is because her stories have this realness towards them. Yes, it’s a nice break from the YA I’m used to reading, but hey some teens might be going through the same scenario. I sort of see them as a way to keep our eyes open.

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  8. Viki S.

    I like Katie’s books because she gives us reasons to care about her characters. She just kind of makes us empathetic towards them. Thank you.

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  9. Ryver

    I haven’t read any of Katie’s but even though they are on my tbr pile. I heard so many wondering things about Katie and her books. Katie seems like she really cares about her readers and I love that in authors.

    Thanks for the great giveaway!

    Reply »

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