Interview and Giveaway: Katie McGarry + Crash Into You

It's an interview kind of week on the blog, and today I'm honored to have one of my very favorite authors stopping by to chat about her newest release. I've adored Katie McGarry since the first moment I met Noah and Echo in Pushing the Limits, and my love for her and her stories has only grown with each book she's written. I've been waiting patiently (sort of) for Isaiah's story since the first book, and Crash Into You is the best yet in my opinion, tugging away on my heartstrings with every page until it reduced me to a puddle of emotional goo. Awesome.

Given how much I loved this book, it's with no small amount of excitement that I welcome Katie McGarry back to the blog!

Your books are always written from the dual first-person perspectives of both the male and female protagonists, giving us a much-appreciated peek inside both of their heads. What's one book you've read that you wish had dual points of view so you could more closely examine another character's train of thought or their motivations?

I definitely would have loved to have been inside Edward’s head in the Twilight series. I’m definitely not the person to pull it off, but I think it would be great if someone did a retelling of Anne of Green Gables from Gilbert’s point of view.

Rachel is (understandably) a big fan of Isaiah's many and varied tattoos. If she were to get one for herself to represent the events of Crash Into You, what would it look like and how sexy would Isaiah find it?

I think Rachel would get a single flame. It’s something special to both her and Isaiah and I definitely believe that Isaiah would find it unbelievably sexy!

You clearly did a great deal of research on cars and racing for this book, what is one fun tidbit or piece of trivia you learned over the course of writing Rachel and Isaiah's story?

One day while I was researching Crash Into You, my car wouldn’t start. The good news: I was with guys who knew everything about cars. This one guy had me pop open the hood and he was trying a variety of things to figure out what was the problem. After a few minutes, he decided it was the battery.

He maneuvered his car around to jump the battery, but before he jumped it, he asked for a Coke. It was a hot day and I thought he was thirsty. When he was handed one, he opened it then poured it over my battery.

I was all freaking out and like, “What are you doing?”

“It’s acid,” he said. “Takes the grime off the battery which is keeping it from taking the spark.”

Me, “Oh.”

Guess what—it worked!

Let's say you are invited to conduct an exclusive interview with one character from any piece of young adult fiction. Who would sit atop your list and what's the first question you would ask them?

Definitely Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders. He’s one of my favorites!

Are you still close with your brothers and the guys you grew up with?

Just for fun: What are Isaiah and Rachel's thoughts on The Fast and the Furious films?

They absolutely love the first Fast and the Furious movie! In fact, they can watch the scene where Dom says, “Smoke him,” over and over again.

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KATIE MCGARRY

Katie 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, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie is the author of the full-length Young Adult novels PUSHING THE LIMITS and DARE YOU TO, and the e-novella CROSSING THE LINE. Her debut novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS, is a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and an RT Book Reviews 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel.

Writing has given Katie an excuse to pursue her passions. Research for her books has provided her with the amazing opportunity to train with baseball players, ride along in a drag car at ninety-six miles per hour and experience boxing and mixed martial arts. The most memorable moments for Katie are when she speaks to groups of teenagers about her research, writing and the truth that no dream is out of reach. Katie would love to hear from her readers.

Website • Goodreads • Facebook • Twitter

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CRASH INTO YOU

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other

Releases November 26th from HarlequinTEEN

Goodreads • Amazon • HarlequinTEEN

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the amazing Katie McGarry, I have one ARC of Crash Into You to give away on the blog today. To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway