In order to find true happiness, Noah must find a way to let go of his guilt, and Echo must face her grief. They also grapple with the question of what forgiveness means.
Through dealing with their emotions and their past baggage, Echo and Noah are free to forge ahead with their future without anything weighing them down.
We know that Noah’s mother’s name was Sarah, but we never learn his uncle’s name. Was that a deliberate choice on your part and if so, why?
It was a deliberate choice. There are certain titles in our lives that carry great weight. For instance—mom and dad. For most of us, just saying or hearing those words can bring up a ton of emotion.
Noah is an orphan. He lost his parents to a house fire at the end of his freshman year of high school, and he believed that he had no other blood relatives. In Pushing the Limits, he learns that this isn’t the case.
I didn’t give Noah’s uncle a name because I wanted the reader to focus on the relationship itself. Noah has an uncle—a living blood relative. A link to the world, and this is important to him because he believed that beyond the life he had created for himself, he had nothing that rooted him—no place he was wanted. The discovery of his uncle is a huge revelation to Noah, and I wanted the reader to feel that impact.
How do you think Echo’s relationship with her mother changes between the end of Pushing the Limits and the end of Breaking the Rules, if it changes at all?
Because of the incident between Echo and her mother that left Echo scarred, their relationship will always be complicated. In Breaking the Rules, Echo struggles with the meaning of forgiveness and with her need for her mother to accept responsibility for their damaged relationship.
Echo slowly realizes that her issues with her mother extend far beyond the night she was scarred, to her mother’s general attitude of hardly ever putting her daughter first. Echo initially realizes this is her issue with her mother at the end of Pushing the Limits, and she deals with this epiphany in Breaking the Rules.
At the end of Breaking the Rules, we see Echo’s mother take baby steps toward accepting responsibility for her role in the broken relationship with her daughter, and we see Echo extending forgiveness. Forgiveness for Echo means putting the past behind her, yet setting boundaries with her mother that will keep any possible future relationship healthy.
After all they’ve been through in Pushing the Limits and Breaking the Rules, is there still more to Echo and Noah’s story?
One of the most popular questions from readers after they finished Pushing the Limits was: Are you going to continue Echo and Noah’s story? So I wouldn’t be surprised if readers ask the same question at the end of Breaking the Rules.
To be honest, I know every twist and turn in Echo’s and Noah’s lives. They became living, breathing people to me, and I love them so much that I often couldn’t help but peek into their future to see how they fared.
I wrote Pushing the Limits as a young adult novel. Breaking the Rules, because of its more mature themes, pushes the boundaries of young adult; Echo and Noah start off as teens at the beginning of the novel, then grow emotionally into adults by the end. This means that any future book about the two of them would no longer be in YA territory, and that’s a factor I’d have to consider before continuing their story.
Will I write another novel about them? I don’t know. If the opportunity arises, the timing is right, and I feel that the next chapter of their lives is a story that needs to be told, I wouldn’t rule it out. But for now, I’m going to focus on the other characters in my head who are begging for their story to be told.
Playlist for Breaking the Rules
Theme:
“Can’t Hold Us” (feat. Ray Dalton) by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
“Try” by P!nk
“November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses
“One of Those Nights” by Tim McGraw
“Wake Me Up” by Avicii
Noah:
“Why Don’t You & I” (feat. Alex Band of the Calling) by Santana
“It Will Rain” by Bruno Mars
“Some Nights” by Fun.
“My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit
“Hard to Love” by Lee Brice
Echo:
“The Game of Love” (feat. Michelle Branch) by Santana
“Glass” by Thompson Square
“Wide Awake” by Katy Perry
“We Belong” by Pat Benatar
Songs for Specific Scenes:
Echo and Noah play in Colorado Springs: “We Owned the Night” by Lady Antebellum
When Noah meets the priest: “Something to Believe In” by Poison
Noah at the police station: “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins
The night after the party: “Just Give Me a Reason” (feat. Nate Ruess) by P!nk
When Noah goes to the church: “From the Inside Out (Live)” by Hillsong UNITED
Noah goes after Echo: “Highway Don’t Care” (feat. Taylor Swift) by Tim McGraw
Songs to describe Echo and Noah’s future:
“Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts
“Home” by Phillip Phillips
About the Author
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. She is also the author of Pushing the Limits, Dare You To, Crash Into You, Take Me On and the novellas “Crossing the Line” and “Red at Night,” as well as Nowhere But Here, the first novel in a brand new series coming soon.
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.
Katie McGarry and Harlequin TEEN
are thrilled to introduce
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“Brimming with dark memories, veiled secrets and steamy moments…its suspenseful plot, dramatic conflicts and tragic characters will keep readers engrossed.”
—Publishers Weekly on Pushing the Limits
If you loved Breaking the Rules, don’t miss these other great titles by acclaimed author
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Pushing the Limits
Dare You To
Crash Into You
Take Me On
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Escape into a world of unforgettable characters and extraordinary stories with compelling Harlequin TEEN titles from bestselling authors and new voices alike, ranging from contemporary fiction to paranormal romance…and everything in between!
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Captivating, mysterious, fun and deep…for readers of John Green or any realistic YA authors, I would highly recommend this new wonderful novel.”
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Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named Leila. She crashes into their
lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most.
Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila’s own 4,268-mile
journey that she discovers the most important truth—sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you’re looking for is to get lost along the way.
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Oz
It’s three in the morning, and Mom and I continue to wait. The two of us deal with the heaviness of each passing second differently. She paces our tiny living room at the front of our double-wide while I polish my combat boots in my room. Regardless of what happens tonight, we have a wake to attend in the morning.
The scratching of the old scrub brush against my black boot is the lone sound that fills the blackened house. We both pretend that the other isn’t awake. Neither of us has turned on a lamp. Instead, we rely on the rays of the full moon to see. It’s easier this way. Neither of us wants to discuss the meaning of Dad’s absence or his cell phone silence.
I sit on the edge of my twin mattress. If I stretched my leg, my toe would hit the faux-wooden-paneled wall. I’m tall like my dad, and the room is compact and narrow. Large enough to hold my bed and an old stack of milk crates that I use as shelves.
Mom’s phone pings, and my hands freeze. Through the crack in my door, I spot her black form as she grabs her cell. The screen glows to life, and a bluish light illuminates Mom’s face. I quit breathing and strain to listen to her reaction or at least hear the roar of motorcycle engines.
Nothing. More silence. Adrenaline begins to pump into my veins. Dad should have been home by now. They all should have been home. Especially with Olivia’s wake in the morning.
Unable to stomach the quiet any longer, I set the boot on the floor and open my door. The squeak of the hinges screeches through the trailer. In two steps, I’m in the living room.
Mom continues to scroll through her phone. She’s a small thing, under five four, and has long, straight hair. It’s black. Just like mine and just like Dad’s. Mom and Dad are only thirty-seven. I’m seventeen. Needless to say, my mom was young when she had me. But the way she slumps her shoulders, she appears ten years older.
“Any word?” I ask.
“It’s Nina.” My best friend Chevy’s mom. “Wondering if we had heard anything.” Which implies neither Eli nor Cyrus have returned home.
From behind her, I place a hand on Mom’s shoulder, and she covers my fingers with hers.
“I’ll be out there watching their backs soon.” Now that I’ve graduated from high school, I’ll finally be allowed to enter the family business.
A job with the security company and a patch-in to the club is all I’ve thought about since I was twelve. All I’ve craved since I turned sixteen and earned my motorcycle license. “They’re fine. Like I’ll be when I join them.”
Mom pats my hand, walks into the space that serves as our kitchen and busies herself with a stack of mail.
I rest my shoulder against the wall near the window. The backs of my legs bump the only piece of furniture in the room besides the flat screen—a sectional bought last year before Olivia became ill.
Without trying to be obvious, I glance beyond the lace curtains and assess the road leading to our trailer. I’m also worried, but it’s my job to alleviate her concern.
I force a tease into my voice. “I bet you can’t wait until Chevy graduates next year. Then there will be two more of us protecting the old men.”
Mom coughs out a laugh and takes a drink to control the choking. “I can’t begin to imagine the two of you riding in the pack when the image in my mind is of both of you as toddlers, covered in mud from head to toe.”
“Not hard to remember. That was last week’s front yard football game,” I joke.
She smiles. Long enough to chase away the gravity of tonight’s situation, but then reality catches up. If humor won’t work, I’ll go for serious. “Chevy would like to GED out.”
“Nina would skin him alive. Each of you promised Olivia you’d finish high school.”
Because it broke Olivia’s heart when Eli, her son, opted out of finishing high school and instead tested to gain his GED years ago. Eli’s parents, Olivia and Cyrus, aren’t blood to me, but they gave my mom and dad a safe place to lay low years ago when their own parents went self-destructive. Olivia and I aren’t related, but she’s the closest I have to a grandmother.
“Chevy wanting to take his GED.” Mom tsks. “It’s bad enough you won’t consider college.”
The muscles in my neck tighten, and I ignore her jab. She and Olivia are ticked I won’t engage them in conversation about college. I know my future, and it’s not four more years of books and rules. I want the club. As it is, a patch-in—membership into the club—isn’t a guarantee. I still have to prove myself before they’ll let me join.
My dad belongs to the Reign of Terror. They’re a motorcycle club that formed a security business when I was eleven. Their main business comes from escorting semi loads of high-priced goods through highly pirated areas.
Imagine a couple thousand dollars of fine Kentucky bourbon in the back of a Mac truck and, at some point, the driver has to take a piss. My dad and the rest of the club—they make sure the driver can eat his Big Mac in peace and return to the parking lot to find his rig intact and his merchandise still safely inside.
What they do can be dangerous, but I’ll be proud to stand alongside my father and the only other people I consider family.
Mom rubs her hands up and down her arms. She’s edgy when the club is out on a protection run, but this time, Mom’s dangling from a cliff, and she’s not the only one. The entire club has been acting like they’re preparing to jump without parachutes.
“You’re acting as if they’re the ones that could be caught doing something illegal.”
Mom’s eyes shoot straight to mine like my comment was serious. “You know better than that.”
I do. It’s what the club prides themselves on. All that TV bull about anyone who rides a bike is a felon—they don’t understand what the club stands for. The club is a brotherhood, a family. It means belonging to something bigger than myself.
Still, Olivia has mounting medical bills and between me, Chevy, my parents, Eli, Cyrus and other guys from the club giving all we have, we still don’t have enough to make a dent in what we owe. “I hear that 1 club a couple of hours north of here makes bank.”
/>
“Oz.”
As if keeping watch will help Dad return faster, I move the curtain to get a better view of the road that leads away from our house and into the woods. “Yeah?”
“This club is legit.”
And 1 clubs are not legit. They don’t mind doing the illegal to make cash or get their way. “Okay.”
“I’m serious. This club is legit.”
I drop the curtain. “What? You don’t want gangsta in the family?”
Mom slaps her hand on the counter. “I don’t want to hear you talk like this!”
My head snaps in her direction. Mom’s not a yeller. Even when she’s stressed, she maintains her cool. “I was messing with you.”
“This club is legit, and it will stay legit. You are legit. Do you understand?”
“I got it. I’m clean. The club’s clean. We’re so jacked up on suds that we squeak when we walk. I know this, so would you care to explain why you’re freaking out?”
A motorcycle growls in the distance, cutting off our conversation. Mom releases a long breath, as if she’s been given the news that a loved one survived surgery. “He’s home.”
She charges the front door and throws it open. The elation slips from her face, and my stomach cramps. “What is it?”
“Someone’s riding double.”
More rumbles of engines join the lead one, multiple headlights flash onto the trailer, and not one of those bikes belong to Dad. Fuck. I rush past Mom and jump off the steps as Mom brightens the yard with a flip of the porch light. Eli swings off his bike. “Oz! Get over here!”
I’m there before he can finish his statement, and I shoulder my father’s weight to help him off the bike. He’s able to stand, but leans into me, and that scares me more than any monster that hid under my bed as a child.
“What happened?” Mom’s voice shakes, and Eli says nothing. He supports Dad’s other side as Dad’s knees buckle.