Review: The Edge of Always by J.A. Redmerski

Five months ago, Camryn and Andrew, both dealing with personal hardships, met on a Greyhound bus. They fell in love and proved that when two people are meant to be together, fate will find a way to make it happen.

Now, in the highly anticipated sequel to The Edge of Never, Camryn and Andrew are pursuing their love for music and living life to the fullest as they always swore to do. But when tragedy befalls them, their relationship is put to the ultimate test. As Camryn tries to numb her pain, Andrew makes a bold decision: To get their life back on track, they'll set out on another cross-country road trip. Together they find excitement, passion, adventure-and challenges they never could have anticipated.

I think I've started writing this review ten times, only to delete, delete, and delete again. I really don't know how to start.... I fell in love with Camryn and Andrew, their relationship, their passion and spontaneity, and their fearlessness. The Edge of Never blew my mind, but I'm not sure I can say the same about its sequel. 

**There are minor spoilers in this review.

Camryn has a moment in The Edge of Always in which she decides she doesn't want to try to relive great times because it might ruin the initial memory. That's kind of how I feel right now. Like I wish I hadn't revisited Camryn and Andrew and had just held on to the memory of reading a truly amazing book.

“It’s like, you know, it doesn’t matter what you do, even if you try to replicate an experience down to every last detail, it’ll never be the way it was when it happened naturally the first time.”

That's not to say The Edge of Always wasn't worth my time; it just wasn't what I hoped for. I felt like it dragged on, and while the message the book gives is one I can admire and hope to aspire to, it seemed redundant. 

The tragedy to which the blurb is referring was indeed that, but it didn't feel like it could have been the main event that put their relationship at risk. It was obvious what was going to happen, and the way it played out made this twist fall flat. I was pretty annoyed with Camryn for how she acted, and while everyone handles grief differently, I felt like Andrew's feelings were totally ignored. 

In true Andrew fashion - where all his worries lie with Camryn - he decided to "fix" things on the road where everything began. 

“Because this is our life. We met on the road; we grew to know and to love each other on the road. It's where we were meant to be for however long, and it's what we're going to do until it becomes clear that we're meant to do something else.”

This is where I got excited, because it is what I loved so much about the first book. It reminds me of my husband and I and how we took a road trip from Texas to Maine where we settled down. Totally spontaneous, totally the most amazing thing we've ever done. Enter nostalgia again... 

We experience some more epic scenes with Camryn and Andrew, but like I said, a lot of it felt redundant. Some of it even irrelevant. There are some major time gaps in which we skip over months, even years, and it made everything feel rushed. Like the author just wanted to get it over with. 

One aspect that irked me was how Camryn and Andrew are always saying how they don't want to end up like "those people," meaning people who settle in one spot, work to pay bills, and raise a family in a single location. Yes we all have a choice, but when you have a child, it's not just about what you want to do anymore. Your life isn't over, but money is important if you want to keep the heat on and your baby fed. I'd love to just up and go on a whim when my little man got a little older, but not all of us have a six figure trust fund to fall back on... I guess it just seemed unrealistic and accusatory. (I have a separate post about this topic - Bookish Rants.)

All that being said, I still felt the electricity between Camryn and Andrew and J.A. Redmerski's writing style always gets me hooked, no matter what. I'll always remain a huge fan, but I'm kind of wishing that The Edge of Never was a standalone novel. The Edge of Always is still a great read - the emotion is very real and if you were hooked by the first novel, you won't be able to help yourself - but...it just didn't live up to its predecessor. 

3/5 Stars.

Cheers!!

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

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?

I knew I loved J.A. Redmerski when she came out with The Mayfair Moon, but wow did she blow my mind with The Edge of Never. 

Camryn's life isn't exactly in shambles ~ because she doesn't let it fall apart ~ but the pain of what she's been through is enough to knock anyone flat on their ass. Instead of letting the hurt consume her, Camryn shuts it off, not allowing herself to feel anything except the oppressing lack of living, a trap that she's allowed herself to fall in to. 

Pain hurts, but pain that's so powerful that you can't feel anything anymore, that's when you start to feel like you're going crazy.

She's had this dream to travel, to see the world, but after everything, it feels impossible to even know where to start. Until one night, Camryn, in her long streak of bad luck, gets pushed over the edge.

That was when I realized that everything I did from that point on produced the same results: This is your life, Camryn Bennet. This is your life.

She jumps ship, pushing everything conventional to where it belongs: far away from anywhere she is. The bus station is her savior, and the next step to that life she thought she could never reach.

Andrew Parrish. Mm. Mm. Mm. He's got a dirty mouth and a special way of looking at the world. As much as she'd like to admit otherwise, Camryn is drawn to him, to his green eyes and pretty smile, to his spontaneity and mischievous ways.

I can't even believe I let myself get comfortable with him and as a result I'm no longer able to make fear my bitch.

He brings her out of herself, and for the first time, Camryn can see who she truly is.

This book is incredibly beautiful. It makes you want to live life, every moment, to the fullest. What I loved most was the truth of it, how real everything was. You know when you're watching a movie, and people wake up in the morning and immediately kiss like there's no such thing as morning breath? Or how the girl always wakes up with perfectly applied makeup and silky smooth hair? Psh. Not in this book. It is so refreshing to witness all the imperfections and the little embarrassing moments that make us all human. Redmerski builds real characters with traits that we can all relate to and that make the emotions we feel with the characters all the more beautiful.

Camryn and Andrew's relationship is unique. They surprise themselves, bringing out the best in each other and making each other face those things that pushed them to run in the first place. And Andrew... He broke my heart, made me cry, and had me praying that the little secret he'd been hiding never reached its full potential. That little tidbit made me feel like I'd been thrown against a wall, disorienting me to the point that I couldn't (or didn't want to) see or think straight.

Love, love, love the writing style. Redmerski creates hilarious and blunt dialogue between the two main characters, and the two voices of Camryn and Andrew are superbly written. I'm a huge fan of dual point-of-view, especially when the author can create two distinctly different voices, something I'm sure is extremely difficult, but Redmerski pulls it off with ease. And the story itself just flows, moving and gaining momentum that covers all the bases and leaves nothing to be desired.

The Edge of Never is real, raw, and genuine to the core. The journey that Redmerski leads you through is the reason why we all love reading in the first place. She makes us feel, effortlessly allows us to fall in love, pushes us over the edge until we cry, and gets us laughing out loud.

My absolute favorite book of this year. Highly, highly, highly recommend.

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J.A. Redmerski, New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of THE EDGE OF NEVER lives in North Little Rock, Arkansas with her three children and a Maltese. She is a lover of television and books that push boundaries and is a huge fan of AMC's The Walking Dead.

Visit J.A. Redmerski via

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Happy Reading Everyone :)

Tuesday Prelude

Tuesday Prelude is a weekly meme inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. Since I could never stick to just two lines, I decided to amp up this post to give you a little more of an in depth look into my current read.

This week's tease:

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?

Andrew Parrish. Holy wow. He's one of those characters that you wish, with all your might, truly existed. He's carefree, spontaneous, hilarious, and unpredictable.

"Live in the moment," he says as if making a serious point, "where everything is just right, take your time and limit your bad memories and you'll get wherever it is you're going a lot faster and with less bumps in the road along the way."

He's romantic, in his own way, and he sees things in the simplest and purest of ways, luring Camryn out of the hole she's hidden herself in.

"I don't think you ever really fall out of love with someone," I say and see a flicker of thought move through her eyes. "I think when you fall in love, like true love, it's love for life. All the rest is just experience and delusions."

But for all his laughs and mischievous grins, Andrew has this other, darker side to him that's just as afraid as Camryn.

"It's better to shun emotion than to fall for it and let it make you its bitch - and since nothing lasts forever, in the end everything that was once good, always hurts like hell."

What's happened to him to make him think as such? Camryn's told him her reasons, but she comes to realize that Andrew can be more closed off than she ever was.

$0.99

Happy Reading Everyone :)