Review- The Edge of Never (J.A. Redmerski)

Synopsis 

Sometimes life takes you off course . . .

Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett thought she knew exactly where her life was going. But after a wild night at the hottest club in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, she shocks everyone-including herself-when she decides to leave the only life she's ever known and set out on her own. Grabbing her purse and her cell phone, Camryn boards a Greyhound bus ready to find herself. Instead, she finds Andrew Parrish.

Sexy and exciting, Andrew lives life like there is no tomorrow. He persuades Camryn to do things she never thought she would and shows her how to give in to her deepest, most forbidden desires. Soon he becomes the center of her daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But there is more to Andrew than Camryn realizes. Will his secret push them inseparably together-or destroy them forever?

 - Goodreads.com

My Review

This book has pretty much everything you would want in a New Adult novel, romance, suspense, drama, times where you just want to pull your hair out, and some hot steamy moments. Overall this is a pretty great novel, even if I find the NA genre pretty much identical to YA except with more sex... not that I’m complaining or anything. 

I felt the story was written well, and the multiple perspectives worked well, even if at times the story felt a little one sided with Cams point of view taking up most of the book, it would have been nice to hear a little more from Andrew. I did have a few issues with the book, mostly the fact that it was originally written as a standalone novel, which was great, since standalones are as rare as hens teeth these days. However the author, decided (most likely due to the books widespread popularity) to write a second novel. Which, with the ending how it is seems absurd. However I am both curious and horrified to read it. I'm interested where the author intends to take the next book as this book had certain finality to it. But I'm also scared to read the next one because this one ended so nicely and I don't want to be either disappointed or heartbroken by the next one.

At times I felt the writing a little over dramatic and slightly unbelievable. In particular the scene where Cam confronts her best friend Nat about something that happened, while they were clubbing the night before. Nat way over-reacted in my opinion, and it just seemed so unrealistic for a best-friend to have that kind of reaction no matter how bad the news you had to tell them....or maybe my friends are just awesome. In saying that though, this scene in the book was the catalyst for the whole entire journey- literal and emotional- the Cam was going to take. So if Nat had been a reasonable person, there wouldn’t have really been a story to tell. 

The last 50 or so pages felt somewhat rushed especially considering the monumental discovery that happens in these pages and then suddenly its 2 months later and everything is fine and dandy. I wish maybe that she had continued with this monumental thing (which I don’t want to spoil for you) into the next book, instead of what appeared, quickly shoving it in at the end of this one.

Overall a VERY enjoyable read! Even though it seems like I only talked about the things that irked me, this book has a lot of great stuff in it, but i’ll leave you to discover that on your own. 

Things I loved about the book:

• The slow romantic build-up, with just the right amount of sex without becoming too sleazy.

• Characters that were so easy to like and relate too.

• Road trips, self discovery and romance. A perfect read for summer.

Things I didn't enjoy so much about the book:

• Ending was a little rushed, and since the author is releasing a 2nd book, I felt the stuff that occurred at the end should have been carried over to the second book.

My rating: 4/5