Review: The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski

Goodreads Summary:

Sometimes life takes you off course . . .

THE EDGE OF NEVER

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?
Due to sexual content and language, this book is recommended for 17+ – Adult Contemporary Women’s – New Adult Fiction

Publication Date: November 15, 2012

This book drove me a little crazy if I’m being completely honest. There were parts I completely loved and then other sections where I had a few WTH moments. The book was intense and emotional and the author certainly kept me guessing about what direction the story was going.

The novel opens with Camryn having a falling out with her best friend. She’s also still reeling from the loss of her first love who died in a car accident. Feeling depressed and lost, she takes off on a bus with no exact destination in mind. Along the way, she meets Andrew, another lost soul of sorts, and they begin a relationship.

The first half of the novel was a little slow as Camryn and Andrew get to know each other on the bus trip. There’s a creepy guy on the bus with them and when Andrew comes to the rescue, they ended up growing closer. I liked Andrew from the get-go and Camryn was for the most part relatable. I enjoyed the dual POVs as well and thought it was sweet to see how natural their feelings developed for one another.

Spoilers Ahead

Although the first half was slow, I still liked it a lot and thought it was on the way to being a 4 or 5 star book for me. However, the second half went in an unexpected direction and I felt like I was reading a completely different novel. It wasn’t bad per se, but I felt like everything that happened was too much. In the second half, the couple falls in love, Andrew loses his father, Camryn discovers Andrew has terminal cancer, Andrew goes into a coma, Andrew survives and Camryn is pregnant.

I don’t mind sex in novels, but the explicit sexual content in this one felt like it came out of nowhere. I thought the whole dominant and submissive angle was also an odd choice.

End of Spoilers

This is a very popular book and highly rated on Goodreads and Amazon. Although some of the book didn’t work for me, I’d still recommend it to readers looking for a romantic new adult novel that features a memorable road trip.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars