This book blew me away. I started reading around noon and didn’t put it down until I had read the entire thing. It. was. AMAZING. It was funny and the writing was excellent. Round of applause for J.A. Redmerski!
My favorite thing about The Edge of Never, is that it’s written in segments from Camryn’s POV then from Andrew’s POV, alternating the entire way through. I wish more books were written this way. I find more depth in books where I can see into each main character through their thoughts and not simply their actions as interpreted by the narrator. Of course, if done correctly one POV can give me just as much depth and understanding on multiple characters.
In true RavingsByRae style… here is the synopsis straight from GoodReads.com:
Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. And she thought that her life was going in the right direction until everything fell apart.
Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job. But after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she’s ever known, far behind.
With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. What she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. And she vowed never to fall in love.
But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. He shows her what it’s really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew’s dark secret push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?
This book is listed as New Adult Fiction. I am elated that “New Adult” is emerging as a true and necessary genre in the literary world. If ever I were to write a book it would undoubtedly be “New Adult”. These works of fiction are geared towards people out of high school (Young Adult) but not quite ready for all that adult stuff. The biggest differences is that the main characters aren’t teenagers. In most “New Adult” books I’ve read the characters are in their 20s, usually in college or just graduated. They are more mature but still not exactly settled in life. Kind of like me, which is why I enjoy reading this genre. Enough about my glee over “New Adult”. 🙂
So, Camryn and Andrew. I loved them. They’re both gorgeous, duh, this is fiction, right? Andrew is a possessive male but not in the over-the-top dominating way that you would see in Christian Grey or Gideon Cross or Gabriel Emerson. He’s a perfect amount of possessive, seriously… puuurfect. 🙂 So, they meet on a bus while they are both headed to places they don’t exactly want to be. Camryn is kind of aimless. No, Camryn is completely aimless. Andrew is off to visit his dying dad. But this book is not about their destinations… it’s about their journey, together.
Through a series of events they end up taking a sort of road trip. Because they are on a road trip, the book doesn’t include a whole lot of interaction with sub-characters. I loved that. Sometimes, I think authors delve too deep into side stories and other characters and lose focus of the main characters and what they have going on. This was NOT a problem in The Edge of Never. The story was about Camryn and Andrew, and I definitely never forgot that. Sure, there were friends and family along the way but it was mainly a love story and a journey of finding something that really mattered.
Although, not many people meet on buses and head out on road trips with strangers… this story was still believable. Their relationship moved at a believable pace. It wasn’t glacial but it wasn’t oh-my-god-I-won’t-be-complete-until-I-sleep-with-you kind of fast. I’ve heard people complain that the first half was too slow but I completely disagree. In order for the story to work the beginning needed to move at that pace. But trust me the second half is worth the wait.
There was an appropriate amount of apprehension about being with a stranger on a road trip. It wasn’t like “Oh, there was something in his eyes that made me believe he wouldn’t just gut me like a fish… so I slept with him the first night.” Uh, no. Yes… there was trust, just not dumb, infatuated, little girl trust.
I mentioned this book was funny… and it was. I laughed out loud on a few occasions. It was an overall fun book. It wasn’t predictable so I was excited to see what would come with each turn of the page (or each flick of the screen, in my case).
A relatively spoiler free excerpt:
“What-the-hell-is-this?” I ask turning around, holding up a box of Vagisil in my fingers.
He looks incredibly uncomfortable. “It’s… well, you know,” he winces, “for your… girly parts.” He nods uneasily towards my ‘girly parts’.
My mouth falls open. “You think I smell? Have you seen me itching?” I’m trying not to laugh.
Andrew’s eyes pop wide open. “What-No! I just thought it might help with the soreness.” I’ve never seen him look so embarrassed….
Who doesn’t love some good Vagisil humor? haha
I was seriously trying to guess Andrew’s dark deep secret the entire way through… and I was dead wrong. Happily wrong haha.
And because I know all you little pervs 😉 are here just to find out about the sex scenes I’ll tell you…. they were the bomb.com haha. What a great writer! It’s a steamy little read but it isn’t over the top… and isn’t over done at all. There isn’t a sex scene on every other page like some books. But whoa… totally worth it. 🙂
Have you read The Edge of Never? What did you think of it? Am I crazy for giving it 5 stars…? (NO! haha)
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