Breaking the Rules (Pushing the Limits, #1.5)(113)

The theme of Pushing the Limits is that there is definitely hope. While this theme continues in Breaking the Rules, this time I also tackled the idea of letting the past go.

A lot of us have had something happen in our lives that becomes baggage—chains that weigh us down. If we hold on to those emotions, they can hinder our future. These emotions can impact how we deal with new experiences and relationships, and potentially can color them in a negative light.

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