Book Review: Going Too Far

Author: Jennifer Echols

Publisher: MTV

Paperback: 245 Pages

Summary From Book:

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, shes 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 everthing 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....

My Thoughts:

Plot: 5 stars

Characters: 5 stars

Cover: 5 stars

Overall: 5 stars

Again, like Forget You, I was drawn into this story as soon as I started reading it.  After reading Forget You I was eager to go out and buy another of Jennifer Echols books. Instead of buying one more of her books I bought two, Going too Far and Endless Summer, which actually added up to three books since Endless summer is two books in one (a deal? I think so :P ).  I'll do a review for Endless summer when I'm finished reading it, so far it's looking good! Anyway, back to this review.

Really good story and I loved the characters. Meg and John are two very different people who are brought together in this story.  They're so different that you wouldn't think they could even get along until they get to know each other and dive into each others heads and hearts.  Meg, a 17 year old girl who doesn't show much care about her life and what happens in it. Sleeping around, getting drunk, doing stupid things that could put her life in serious danger. She's seen as a troublemaker by many including her parents. Then there's John After, an 19 year old police officer who shows a lot of care in other lives.

After an incident at the railroad track Meg is forced to ride along with John on his night shifts for a week.  At first this is a dreadful thought for Meg who now is missing her spring break.  For John, it's a mission to save Meg.  His fear is that if she continues down the path she's headed she will end up dead. 

I found this story idea very appealing. I mean, Meg and John are so different and I couldn't wait to read how their story progressed. Having to spend a whole week together, what would they find out about each other? Would John be able to help Meg change her ways? Why does Meg act the way she does? And what is it that makes John so attached to that bridge that he drives by it every night during his shift?  All questions that kept me reading.  I found this story to be full of emotion, love, anger, sad, and more love.  Although I can't say I can relate to Meg I did like her character. She was lost and reading the story I felt for her. You can also say I felt for John too. Who can resist a nice, loveable, sexy cop?? Seriously though, he's a great character and there was just something about him that made me feel bad. He seemed trap to me which made me want to jump into the book and give him a big bear hug. I definitly loved how Echols developed these characters as the story progressed.  I love being able to feel with  and for characters as I read a story and that's something I was able to do with this book for sure.

Randomness:

Something strange that I did find, and it is totally my own problem, was that I couldn't quite ever picture John in my head. He is perfectly described in the book so I shouldn't have had this problem but for some reason I was a blank.  Has this ever happened to anyone? It rarely happens to me. Like I said he was described very well in the book and for crying out loud there's an image of a guy on the front cover who I'm sure is suppose to represent John. Yet there I was, a complete blank.  I mean, sometimes on other occasions if I don't like how a character is described I end up just picturing something I do like instead. So you think that if I couldn't get John's image right in my head I would have just made something up myself.  I didn't because I was really set on seeing him the way he was described. The cover of the book only shows half of a mans face, from the chin to just above his mouth.  So when I did look to the cover for some help I'd try to picture what the top of this face would look like.  Guess what?? I stilllll had problems.  I'm not exactly sure what was wrong with me. Considering how well John is described I don't think anyone else will have this problem. It was definitly just my problem. My mind was just being very strange.

Anyway, this was an awesome story and I highly recommend it.