Review: The Edge of Never

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Probably 2.5 stars

I have to say I went into this book with very high expectations considering the reviews it was getting. To say I was disappointed wold be an understatement.

Typically I try to write spoiler free reviews, but I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to do that with this one, so consider this your warning!

First of all, let me start with what I did like. I liked the characters that Redmerski has created here. Both Cam and Andrew were wonderfully written and I really didn’t have any issues at all with them on a character level. I actually sort of liked Cam’s strength and Andrew’s sweetness. And I really liked them together.

Unfortunately that might be where it ends for me. I get that this book is about strength and loss and how we move on with our lives and become who we were meant to be, but I don’t know what about this just rubbed me the wrong way.

Cam decides to up and leave her hometown for Idaho (because she sees someone eating a potato). So she boards a bus hoping to find herself. She’s lost her boyfriend in a car accident, her parents divorced, her next boyfriend cheated on her, and then her best friends boyfriend hits on her and her BFF doesn’t believe her and basically tells her to f*#k off.

What had me puzzled from the get go, was the weird ‘the worst is going to happen’ attitude the characters seemed to have. While at a club with her friend, Cam has a few drinks and goes to talk with a guy she met and her immediate reaction was OMG what if he rapes me. Then, her BFF’s boyfriend comes to her psuedo rescue (that she didn’t need) and beats the crap out of the guy telling her he could have raped her…. then proceeds to attack her while telling her he has been in love with her for years. O_o has she been so unobservant … has he hid it that well?

ANYWAY…. This all culminates in Cam’s fleeing by bus. She meets the one and only Andrew Parrish on his way to visit his dying father in a hospital in Wyoming

They slowly bond over the trip and eventually are set to part ways, but this happens right around the time she loses her confidence in being able to do this on her own. And low and behold some scumbag comes and tries to attack her… but our swarthy hero Andrew happens to save the day. From there she spills about the fact that she wasn’t visiting Idaho for the reason she said and so begins than epic roadtrip of sorts. They fight their attraction for each other, Cam, because she isn’t sure what she wants and Andrew… well, we don’t really know his hangups yet. He refuses to spill. ok… so at some point Cam, who is 20, divulges that she is sexually submissive…and Andrew… well, of course he’s sexually dominant.

I don’t even know why that is in this story to be honest. I get exploring sexuality and trying to find who you are, but that just seemed to be thrown in there as a plot point that made no sense what-so-ever to me. Also, Andrew seems to have some rage and anger management issues. She, Cam, seems to find this sexy and this also confused me. All of this isn’t what really bugged me… what did it, was the fact that over what I think was like 3-4 weeks of this road trip, Redmerski finally divulges Andrew Parrish’s big secret. And it’s that he has what he thinks is a terminal brain tumor.

Please tell me how it’s possible that he had absolutely no symptoms of this tumor that he’s known about for 8 months over the last few weeks and then suddenly he’s dying… I’m not buying it and I couldn’t seem to get past all the predictable plot devices used in this story to truly just enjoy it.

Even what was supposed to be a heart wrenching end, was unfortunately, predictable to me, and really just reiterated that there really wasn’t anything that stood out in this story for me. I’m struggling to understand if it’s just me in regards to this book, because I see all the raving reviews, but I don’t know if it’s because people just really love Andrew and that makes everything that bugged me about the plot and such okay or what… but to be honest, that wasn’t enough for me.

Andrew is absolutely sweet and swoony and really helps Cam find herself along the way, but I couldn’t overlook all the other things in this story that were predictable and really bothered me to give this a higher rating.

If you’re looking for a coming of age story and don’t mind a somewhat predictable plot with a big bow at the end … this might be for you.

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