Walk the Edge (Thunder Road #2) by Katie McGarry
Publication Date: March 29th 2016 by Harlequin TEEN
Rating: 4 Stars
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Romance.
Find: Goodreads | Amazon
Goodreads Summary
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.

Walk the Edge was undoubtedly one of my most anticipated contemporary reads of the year. I loved the first book in the Thunder Road series and when I found out that this book would focus on Razor my excitement levels tripled. In Nowhere but Here, Razor has a quiet but intimidating presence and in this book we see his softer side come out and get some insights into the demons that haunt him. Plagued by the mystery surrounding his mother’s death, Razor internalizes a lot of his emotions and it’s only when he’s provoked that we really see the physical manifestations of the pain and confusion he’s in. A chance meeting with Breanna sets a chain of events in motion. Breanna is the towns genius. She is always searching for a problem to solve and relies on her logic to understand the situations she’s in. However, people are cruel and to them her intelligence is deemed abnormal and because of that, Breanna closed herself off and hid the person she so longed to be. When she meets Razor, she is quick to believe all the stereotypes that are associated with the Reign of Terror and believes that nothing good will come from their meeting. However, as circumstances force them to work together, she sees that there’s more to them that meets the eye and that Razor is just as much a victim of the town’s brutal judgments. As the two continue to grow closer, feelings grow and within the journey they take together they also take the time to grow as individuals and learn to embrace who they are. I loved both Razor and Breanna’s character arc and the romance was a bonus. Razor was a total sweetheart and he never pushed Breanna for more than she was willing to give. His patience and the way he confides in her about his mother was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

As much as I adored Razor and Breanna, I did have a lot of issues with some of our secondary characters, specifically Breanna’s family. Her parents had me raging. They basically emotionally blackmailed their eldest kids, especially Breanna, into staying close to Snowflake and giving up their ambitions so they can help take care of the younger siblings. Breanna was basically the parent in the household and what was worse was their complete disregard for Breanna’s feelings. On top of that when they find out about Breanna and Razor’s relationship they didn’t stop to actually ask her what was going on between them. They just assumed the worst and decided that they should play a role in her life by trying to keep her away from the one person that understands her and makes her happy. The comment her dad made about being a “Terror Whore” was the point of no return. I thought their actions were despicable and I hated their treatment of Breanna. 

I liked that we got to see more of the dynamics within the Reign of Terror group as well. After finishing this book I had a better understanding on how things work and it further emphasized how much of a family these guys are. I will say that all the secrecy and the lies were frustrating, despite their good intentions, because in the long run, as demonstrated in the Nowhere but Here as well, all these lies have done is hurt the people they were trying to protect. 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Razor and Breanna were two characters that had suffered so much from the town’s judgments but together they see beyond the hurt and take the time to heal and in the process fall in love. I also loved that we got to check in with Emily and Oz and I can’t wait to see what Violet’s journey has in store for us.