Jennifer Echols
Going Too Far
MTV
ISBN-10: 1416571736
ISBN-13: 978-1416571735
Young adult contemporary
March 17, 2009
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…
This book was way too short. It also packs such a punch that much more of it might have made my head explode from pure reading happiness. Ever felt like you loved a book so much, so hugely, that it could become this giant ball of happiness that grew to Blob proportions and threatened to consume all the other happiness you’ve ever felt for other books?
No? Well, you don’t know what you’re missing then.
First of all, I’ve got to give props to Ana over at The Book Smugglers for a fantastic review that has stuck with me. Like crazy glue. Crazy, glorious gobs of it. There is so much that appealed to me about this book – try everything – that it’s hard to know where to start. Just thinking about it has me wanting to sink into it all over again, but then I’d never get anywhere for the nirvana it offers. I wouldn’t care about anything else after the high this book gives off. I’m going to mentally slap myself out of it for the sake of this review…
Meg let’s us know right off the bat that she is serious about not taking life serious, to the point of just about any and all forms of personal endangerment no parent wants to see their kid subjecting themselves to. Our intro to Meg is her planning to get it on with the town jerk, drunk, high and on a railroad bridge of all places. With two fellow classmates equally as drunk and just a few feet away. Obviously, an audience is no object, and it’s just sex. No biggie. Meg is the ultimate town bad girl after all; if it’s knowledge of the carnal or other equally “bad” things kids shouldn’t do, she’s the go-to girl.
Our intro to Meg is extremely blunt and in-your-face, a character trait that doesn’t relent one iota the entire book. It’s all or nothing with Meg, who has her reasons. While reflecting on her, I can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about her, let alone the whole book. She tells it like it is, no matter how small or large the topic. Her mouth gets her in trouble at times, as she’s got this no-holds-barred lookout on life. Picture one of those crash test dummies literally crashing against a wall in a junked out car. This is our heroine, and it’s her path to certain doom…unless officer John After has anything to say about it.
John is everything Meg is not: serious, dedicated, responsible and loyal. If it sounds like I’m describing man’s best friend, the canine, it’s not intentional, but hey, John happens to be a cop, too. While Meg’s path through life meanders and doubles back on itself, John’s makes a straight beeline. No tarrying, do not pass go and he would never think of collecting the two hundred dollars. When he appears on the scene of Meg and her friends’ illicit railroad bridge party, I honestly thought he was much older. He acts for the most part like a forty year old man, wizened and sporting the kind of experience only an older adult would seem to gain from life. It’s obvious right off though that something about Meg gets under his skin, something that almost seems impossible given his staid demeanor. He decides to teach Meg and her friends a life lesson by having each ride with one type of emergency personnel for a week in order to see what happens to people that live life too close to the edge. Each will have to see what happens at robberies, traffic accidents, etc. John chooses Meg as his detainee and the results are nothing short of the best, most romantic and enjoyable read I’ve had this year so far.
John was like my favorite candy; I loved the way Meg unwrapped all his layers, stripping away the barriers John had erected. At the center of it all is an intensely riotous void that no one had ever touched. Not until Meg. Once Meg enters the picture, that’s when that void became so riotous, like combining two chemical substances and watching them combust.
This was the biggest, best feel-good book I’ve read in a long time, a great example of why I love to read romance. I’ve wanted to get more into contemporary romance and just hadn’t found any that really appealed on the level that this young adult version has. Too often the dialogue is cheesy silly and the characters make me want to wince in embarrassment for their overall ridiculousness. In short, adult contemporary romance wasn’t doing it for me. Going Too Far features two well-rounded characters in probably the most honest and intense manner I’ve ever read (Do you get me? EVER.). Thanks to Meg’s directness, there is very much this air of total honesty, brutal honesty (not Jerry Maguire brutal honesty, real and sincere brutal honesty). It’s an approach that plays off of John’s aloofness perfectly, drawing him out of his shell in spite of his best efforts to remain a stoic cop. It’s almost as if he has no choice but to weather – and somehow embrace – the hurricane that is Meg.
Going Too Far, the title, says it all. It’s what Meg does. She pushes herself first and foremost, but also everyone else around her. If it’s an authority figure, she knows they already have predisposed thoughts about her, so she flies in the face of their authority. If it’s her parents, she does anything and everything to try their love and patience. If it’s Officer After, or Johnafter as he’s affectionately (and not-so-affectionately by some) called by friends, she does everything she can to goad their attraction to the surface.
I feel like the entire book is one long, great quote and I’d meant to give yall a couple – but I forgot to bring the dang book! Trust me when I saw the dialogue is phenomenal. It literally doesn’t stop from the beginning till the end. The ride this book takes one on is filled with witty scenes as Meg and John embark on a short, week-long lesson in life together in a small po-dunk Alabama town (which kind of tickled me as this is my neck of the woods), learning from one another in spite of themselves. It is one of the best, most enjoyable books I have ever read and I will love it. Always. As I said in my Watch List post a few days ago:
If life were this good I might actually expire on the spot, and since I don’t want to die, I’ll just keep reading and waiting for the next book to come along and shock and awe my reading senses to kingdom come.
Except, I’m not sure any other book will ever shock and awe my reading senses to kingdom come. I feel like petting this book with the dumbest, teary-eyed grin you’ve ever seen and saying, “Game over. I’ll continue to read, of course, but this, this is it – game over.”
Rating: Five Insanely Huge and Indulgent Scoops
For more on the author and her work, visit her site.
February 21, 2012
May 1, 2012
May 1, 2012
February 28, 2012
April 3, 2012
April 3, 2012
May 8, 2012
February 28,2012
May 1,2012
July 3,2012
You can’t possibly know how much I love you right now! *hugs*
and also: johnafter *le sigh*
LOL, I couldn’t believe at first that his last name was After. Too cute. :D Man, makes me want to read book again. I need to order my own copy now!
She has a new rom drama coming out next year and it sounds glorious as well. After reading Going too Far I went and bought her backlist of romantic comedies. I can’t wait to read them!
I’ve been eyeing her romantic comedies now lol – this morning actually! What’s coming out next year? I need to look at her site again. *bouncy*
A book called Forget You
“Zoey’s life in her Florida beach resort town is happy and organized. She’s the captain of her high school swim team, and she works for her dad at his popular water park. Then her dad has an affair with one of his employees, and her mother has a breakdown. But Zoey begins a committed relationship with a hot lifeguard, which makes her feel stable, even if things aren’t perfect at home. Everything is still under control.
Until she has a car accident that she can’t remember. She should have been with her boyfriend that night, but he doesn’t seem to know anything about the accident—and he doesn’t seem to care. The person who does care, and knows more than he’s telling, is Doug, Zoey’s darkly handsome arch-enemy who saved her from the wreckage. As Zoey begins to piece together what happened that night, she finds her sense of control over her life was only an illusion. And she inches closer to discovering the darkest secret of all: why Doug has fallen in love with her. “
Oh man!! That sounds awesome! Thanks for the summary. :D Will watch for it like a dang hawk.
Oh, just another book to add to the TBR pile. Looks like I have to lump you with the awesome Booksmugglers as far as reviewing goes. Damn, and here I thought I was safe from book buying for at least a week!
This sounds like an opposites attracts story where each character tries to unravel each other’s layers till they see what is deep down inside.
Nice review :D
Exactly! And thanks – you just helped me think of what might be a good and common YA trope. :D
I loved Going Too Far! And, yeah, I know what you mean about that giant ball of happiness threatening to consume the happiness you’ve felt for all other books. I couldn’t get Going Too Far out my head for ages. Like you, and Ana, I loved it so much I started checking out her romantic comedies and bought all three. I read Major Crush and wasn’t disappointed. It’s not like Going Too Far in tone, but it’s fun and the characters are great. Her next drama sounds terrific, too, and I can’t wait for it.
Eeeee! Jump in the Going Too Far Love Boat with us. LOL.
WOW Kmont! That is one awesome review and you have me completely pumped up to read this book! I love books with layers!
*races off to check library catalogue*
The library has it! *happy dance*
YAAAY! Love it when the library comes through! Hope you enjoy it. :)
I read a review that raved about this book a while back and your review just clinched it for me. I’m getting it! lol Sounds great.
I’ve recently been adding more Young Adult bks to my reading diet. Gawd after reading your review I must add this as my next YA bk on Good Reads. Just finished Intertwined by Gena Showatler loved it! Great post!
I loved this and while I had it in my to be read pile until I read your last post about Going Too Far, I was not sure when I would get to it. I pulled it out and I am so very glad that I did because it is completely amazing! So, thank you for helping me bump it up!!
Great review, KMont. This book sure did pack a nice punch considering it’s premise and length. I read it in the summer and really enjoyed it as well. I did so love how direct Maggie was throughout the story. It was refreshing.
I loaned my copy to Katiebabs yesterday… she’s probably read it by now. LOL