The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski
First in The Edge of Never series
1.5 stars
*There will be spoilers. I don’t want to spoil this book for people, but in all honesty I feel like I couldn’t give an opinion on this book unless I point out the things that bothered me.*
Camryn Bennett’s life has never been the same after the love of her life died in a car accident. She has a best friend, a job, and a family with problems. After a night at the hottest club in Raleigh, that left Camryn shocked and in a position she didn’t want to be in- she decides to leave. She grabs her phone and walks away from the only life she’s ever known. Camryn grabs a ticket for a Greyhound bus and finds herself on her way to Idaho. She meets Andrew Parrish on one of the buses to her destination. Andrew lives life to the fullest. Camryn finds herself doing things she would’ve never done before. Soon, Camryn finds herself being swept away by Andrew and she’s sees a side of him no one has ever seen before. Andrew has a secret though and it’ll either tear them apart or bring them closer. What to say about The Edge of Never. I’ve tried to stay away from reviews, but I’ve read a few. To be honest I don’t remember much of what I read, but I know they had problems with this book and their reasons for disliking it are probably similar to mine. Let me start by saying this it took me over a month to finish this book. When I requested The Edge of Never on Netgalley I was sure I would be denied. When I saw I was approved I was ecstatic because I really wanted to read this book. I had seen it around in groups when it first came out and it looked promising. Every now and then I would see a negative review on my newsfeed, but decided not to read them because I try not to read reviews for books I want to read or are reading. I wish I would’ve because I think it would’ve made me realize that this book wasn’t for me at all. It sounded like it would be my think and I’m sure it may have been, but it was horribly executed and I didn’t like it. This review will probably be formatted differently, but I’m trying to stick to my original formats. I don’t think that’ll work for this book though. I’ve decided to show my status updates or the gist of them in this review. I think it’ll give a better understanding as to why I have problems and my feelings towards The Edge of Never.
The first day I started this book was March 29, 2013. I didn’t finish it until May 6, 2013. Every time I look at that time line and think of how many days I wasted on this is beyond me. Of course it was the end of my winter guard season when I started this book and I had championships on April 6 so I knew that it would put me behind my reading schedule. I didn’t expect to fall so far behind that it would take me over a month to read this book.
My first status update is at 19% which for me was a great accomplishment for my first day during a busy season. This is my update. "I like it a lot, but I don't like some of Cam's POVs at times. Especially Andrew's. This bothers me a lot." This rings true for really the whole entire novel. I liked the book a lot at first. It was different and I was entranced. I didn’t want to put it down and Camryn’s problems were completely engrossing. Then we got onto the road trip and Camryn was on her bus of self-discovery. By this point she has already met Andrew and we even get his POV. At times I really liked Camryn and at others I stopped liking her. Once on the bus, Camryn became less entertaining and her musings were repetitive. I grew tired of her and just wanted her to be interesting again. Andrew had a terrible impression on me from the start. I didn’t like how he treated women. I’ll be honest slut-shaming doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s because I do it all the time and I don’t care if you judge me for that. I’m a high school student and I know what I’m saying and sometimes I regret and other times I stand by it. Andrew on the hand is a complete boneheaded moron. I didn’t like how he talked about younger girls like were all nothing but jail bait. I happen to like guys that are older than me but I’m not going to lie about my age and Andrew is just an idiot that wants an excuse to call a girl or woman a slut.
At 21% I’m wishing we were back in North Carolina and not on a bus. I personally hate buses mostly because I spent a week on one for a trip to Chicago. While the trip was fun I learned I have terrible charter bus sickness. Therefore this book brought memories of being in an uncomfortable sit. Trapped with kids I saw every day at school and was with them for even for longer. This book is completely uneventful thus far. And then this happens…
At 25% I’m thinking this book is going downhill and nothing will happen. Then at 26% Andrew decides to beat the living daylights out of some creep that has been watching Camryn on the bus. Creep follows Camryn into the bathroom and tries to pay her to give him a blowjob. Andrew being the SCRATCH stalker SCRATCH hero that he is comes to Camryn’s rescue and beats up Creepy-Mc-Creeper. Just when I think it can’t get any worse I come across this atrocious sentence. “The cops commend Andrew- sort of vacantly- for stepping in, but he really just seems to want to stop talking to them altogether.” Andrew receives no punishment for viciously beating a man in a public restroom.
I don’t know what world these people live in, but that is considered assault and Andrew should’ve been arrested not commended. Why isn’t Andrew in trouble for this? I think it’s ridiculous.
Then we get to 28% where my status update is exactly this: “I personally think Adam is killing this story.” I find this hilarious I forgot Andrew’s name and called him Adam. This shows right there that I wasn’t connecting to the story and he wasn’t doing himself justice. This is probably irrelevant, but I think it’s funny and it just shows that Andrew would be completely forgettable at this point for me, but all I could think about was how he brutally assaulted someone.
At 37% I found myself in a particularly bad mood and this line wasn’t helping Camryn because now she proves to be a dumb idiot with this line. “She pulls it from between his fingers and all the while she watches every little move his hand makes until falls away from behind the counter. Slut.” She just called some random girl checking them in at a motel a slut. Like really? I guess in some ways I can’t be completely mad at Camryn for calling a girl a slut, but this girl obviously is just checking him out not doing anything threatening to her precious non-existent relationship. They are still just friends and Camryn shouldn’t freak out because this girl is a complete stranger. I’m probably going to lose any credibility about what I just said when I say this, but in some strange way I get why Camryn called the girl a slut because I experience this jealousy every so often when I see something that annoys me to no end with the guy I like, but I get it. I get why Camryn is angry, but the thing that makes me mad is the fact that she doesn’t know this girl at ALL! I feel like she doesn’t have the right to categorize or call someone a slut just for checking out Andrew.
At 38% I’m finding the story a little bit more entertaining, but I still can’t stand Andrew. Then at 43% I ditch this book and immerse myself in The Coincidence in Callie and Kayden (which is so much better). About nine days later I pick The Edge of Never back up again. You’re probably wondering why I need to know when you started reading again. Well you don’t, but I feel like unless you know that I pretty much wasn’t about to pick this up then. I did though because I felt like I still needed to give this book a chance.
At 50% I get to a scene that shocks me. It was hot, but I also felt frazzled and unsure of how to react to what I just read. Camryn and Andrew part take in a little escapade that leaves Camryn still in the friend zone. I don’t know why but this made me dislike Andrew even more. I felt like he was playing her and she was just too dumb to realize it.
At 56%
Luckily her purse wasn’t stolen. Too bad though because I wonder if the police would’ve gotten involved. Probably not because this book doesn’t have a lot of police involvement, except for what happens next and yet they still manage to get away. Andrew gets in another fight this time with some drunk guy that decides to hit on Camryn. He of course doesn’t take no for an answer and Andrew decides to almost kill him. I’m so totally done with that fact that this guy doesn’t get in trouble. What the hell?
At 71% I reach the conclusion of this, "I'm letdown by this. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. I only have a mild liking for it." I know it may seem like I completely hate this book, but I don’t. There’s just so much more to dislike than there is too love. I had such high hopes for this book and they were crushed.
At 73% these two finally have some sex. At least sex that I documented. I documented this little scene because of this line that I just can’t get over. “His green orbs flash on me once and then he looks down at me spread before him.” This doesn’t bother me at all in fact I was enjoying the sex scene until I read this and then I couldn’t stop laughing and take anything seriously. I wanted to take this part seriously because well it’s a serious part but if you say something so dumb I’m going to think you’re just an idiot. Andrew has green orbs for eyes.
At 89% I come across this scene, "I can't think of anything else other than the fact that she gave him a blowjob on the road. The last time I've read that or seen in it a movie was in Thinner and we all know how that turned out. Plus I'm pretty sure I can guess what Andrew's big secret is." For some reason, this scene was just weird. It was sexy (although the trucker driving next to them would probably disagree), but just weird. I still stand by my hopes of a gypsy walking out in the middle of the free way or interstate and them running them over and being cursed. I mean that would’ve made for an epic 10% of this book.
Then we are gifted this beautiful quote by Andrew, ”Baby, you are the best sex I have ever had,” I (Andrew’s POV) say and she purses her lips as if to say: Yeah, right, you’re just saying that because you’re currently biased. “And I mean that because you’re sitting in front of me and because I cherish my nutsack.” This pisses me off! He pretty says this to get out of being in trouble and then he says after a few lines of talking, “I devirginized your innocence, made you more comfortable with yourself sexually. And that is so hot to me.” By this point I’m done with Andrew. He is no Casanova and if I was Camryn I would’ve kicked his precious “nutsack”.
On to Andrew’s big secret because let’s address it. I saw that coming from a mile away. Of course I didn’t realize it was that serious, but it was definitely obvious when she met his mom. I have to say though even though I was pretty much in a serious hate-like relationship with this book I loved the ending. That probably sounds ridiculous but it makes me kind of curious about The Edge of Always. Maybe I’ll read it.
Since this was completely out of format here’s my usual scale system. :D
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 2
Swoon Worthy Scale: 1.5
The Villain- LOL There was obviously no villain.
Villain Scale: None
I’m going to talk about Camryn’s best friend, Natalie. She was an OK character. Even though she was funny I thought she was also a complete moron. No wonder she’s Camryn’s BFF.
Character Scale: 2
Cover Thoughts: Once again a beautiful cover as fooled me. I want that braid. It looks so perfect, but let’s face it we all know Camryn’s hair was way greasier than that.
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