BLOG TOUR REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Walk The Edge (Thunder Road #2)

I am so in love with Katie McGarry's Thunder Road series. Both Nowhere But Here and now WALK THE EDGE have gripped me like a book hasn't done in such a long time. Read on for my review, and then enter to win one of three finished copies (US Only) in the Walk The Edge blog tour, organized by Irish Banana Tours!

Walk The Edge (Thunder Road #2), by Katie McGarry
Publish Date: March 29, 2016
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: ARC, provided by the publisher
Genre: young adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 5 STARS

(Synopsis) One moment of recklessness will change their worlds.

Smart. Responsible. That's seventeen-year-old Breanna's role in her large family, and heaven forbid she put a toe out of line. Until one night of shockingly un-Breanna-like behavior puts her into a vicious cyber-bully's line of fire—and brings fellow senior Thomas "Razor" Turner into her life.

Razor lives for the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, and good girls like Breanna just don't belong. But when he learns she's being blackmailed over a compromising picture of the two of them—a picture that turns one unexpected and beautiful moment into ugliness—he knows it's time to step outside the rules.

And so they make a pact: he'll help her track down her blackmailer, and in return she'll help him seek answers to the mystery that's haunted him—one that not even his club brothers have been willing to discuss. But the more time they spend together, the more their feelings grow. And suddenly they're both walking the edge of discovering who they really are, what they want, and where they're going from here.

After finishing Nowhere But Here (Thunder Road #1), I thought no one could top it. As it turns out, Katie herself did. She welcomes us back to Thunder Road and the Reign of Terror MC in Walk The Edge, a story that I found so compelling, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. 

Razor was very much on the periphery in Nowhere But Here. It's his nature - he's quiet and broody and chooses to observe rather than engage with those around him. Despite his membership in the Reign of Terror, he still relies on himself more than anyone else. 

Maybe that's one of the reasons why he related to Breanna so well. She's exactly the same - child number 5 of 9, she's the one most often overlooked. At school, she just tries to keep her head down and not stand out, despite her unique ability to solve riddles and codes. Although both she and Razor are constantly surrounded by people, they are still very much on islands by themselves.

Everyone says the same thing: Breanna's smart, she's quiet. On the inside, I'm not at all quiet. Most of the time, I'm screaming.

Both Breanna and Razor caused my heart to break time and time again. For Breanna, I felt so angry on her behalf. Her family treated her terribly. They either took advantage of her, or ignored her, or flat out verbally and emotionally abused her on purpose. I could feel her clawing need to escape the suffocating confines of her life. It's no wonder that, after getting over her initial trepidation toward Razor and the Terrors, that she would find a strange sense of belonging in their version of "family." Interesting that the non-blood ties in the club are stronger than the blood ties Breanna shares with her entire family. 

For Razor's part, he pulled on my heartstrings as he tried desperately to understand the circumstances surrounding his mother's death and the role, if any, that the Terror - and his father specifically - played in it. Although I fell in love with the club in book 1, I was pretty furious with them in Walk The Edge. Couldn't they understand that there are some things that are even bigger than the club? Like, and 18-year-old boy's need for closure in regards to his mother's death? The fact that they refused him answers infuriated both him and me. 

Razor's and Breanna's relationship looks wrong on paper, but when you dig deeper, you see that these two are exactly what the other needed. Razor gave Breanna his attention, his loyalty and his protection. She gave him the benefit of the doubt and help when no one else would. They worked so well together - both on the puzzle surrounding Razor's mom's death and on the mystery of who was blackmailing Breanna with compromising pictures that could be posted to a Facebook-like site. Their love was so incredibly sweet and heartfelt - it was my favorite part of the book.

"And you're the person this entire town has trashed, a person belonging to the group I've been raised to believe is evil, and you're the only person who is able to make me feel as if every part of me is beautiful."

I open my mouth, hoping that doing so will force the right words. That I can explain how being near her makes everything that's impossible about me seem possible.

We saw a lot more of Chevy and Violet in Walk The Edge, so I'm presuming their story will take place in book 3. I can't imagine liking the third book in this series more than this one. Of course, I've heard that before, and you know what happened here. 

KATIE MCGARRY was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, and reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie would love to hear from her readers. Contact her via her website, katielmcgarry.com, follow her on Twitter @KatieMcGarry, or become a fan on Facebook and Goodreads.

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