Two guys, Chris and Ryan, are hanging out, daring each
other to pick up attractive girls. They're passing time
until school starts and they can get on with impressing
baseball scouts. In a fast-food place, Ryan is dared to
chat up a dark-haired girl with a nose ring. But she
refuses to give him her name. She's Beth, and her home
life is pretty troubled. Her pals are two fostered kids,
her mother sits in bars getting men to buy her drinks until
Beth has to come and haul her out. There's a violent
boyfriend on the scene, who hates Beth. Beth wants better,
but she's responsible for her parent and can't either leave
her or bring a boyfriend around.
DARE YOU TO follows Ryan, getting told that he has a heck
of a fastball, contrasted with Beth, sitting in a police
cell because she took the blame for her probationer
mother's activities. It's a heavy load for a seventeen year
old. The cops tell her that her uncle Scott, a lawyer, has
signed for legal custody of her and while she's resentful,
in his home next morning she thinks that with a house like
this, he must buy brand-name cereal. Scott was a well-
known shortstop and he's investigating Ryan's potential for
a team when he asks Ryan to meet Beth, who'll be starting
at that school soon. Beth begrudges the fact that Scott,
just one step away from a trailer park, has done well for
himself out of sport, while her own family life went
downhill. So she's not inclined to be polite to Ryan, and
while the boy still thinks she looks great, he isn't
prepared for the chaos she brings.
There's strong language, violence and hard drug use in this
tale of young people trying to better themselves. Parental
support for Ryan turns to pressure when the boy wants to
attend a writers' competition one Saturday instead of
baseball. Neither of the two young adults has it easy, and
author Katie McGarry takes us deeply into her characters'
lives as they become friends. The issue of success through
sport is an important one in today's society, when money
follows fame, and aggression against women is another major
topic addressed in this book.
DARE YOU TO is for older teenagers and the grungy style
will appeal to those who like realism in their stories,
while there is plenty of baseball action for sporting
fans.
f anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk's home life, they'd
send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who
knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the
day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between
her mom's freedom and her own happiness. That's how Beth
finds herself living with an aunt who doesn't want her and
going to a school that doesn't understand her. At all.
Except for the one guy who shouldn't get her, but
does….
Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star
jock—with secrets he can't tell anyone. Not even the friends
he shares everything with, including the constant dares to
do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl
who couldn't be less interested in him.
But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction
neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the
flawless image risks his dreams—and his life—for the girl he
loves, and the girl who won't let anyone get too close is
daring herself to want it all….
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