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.