The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski

The Edge of Never (The Edge of Never #1) by J.A. Redmerski 

Released November 15, 2012

Spoiler Free Review by Krystal

"Twenty-year-old Camryn Bennett had always been one to think out-of-the-box, who knew she wanted something more in life than following the same repetitive patterns and growing old with the same repetitive life story. And she thought that her life was going in the right direction until everything fell apart.

Determined not to dwell on the negative and push forward, Camryn is set to move in with her best friend and plans to start a new job. But after an unexpected night at the hottest club in downtown North Carolina, she makes the ultimate decision to leave the only life she’s ever known, far behind.

With a purse, a cell phone and a small bag with a few necessities, Camryn, with absolutely no direction or purpose boards a Greyhound bus alone and sets out to find herself. What she finds is a guy named Andrew Parrish, someone not so very different from her and who harbors his own dark secrets. But Camryn swore never to let down her walls again. And she vowed never to fall in love.

But with Andrew, Camryn finds herself doing a lot of things she never thought she’d do. He shows her what it’s really like to live out-of-the-box and to give in to her deepest, darkest desires. On their sporadic road-trip he becomes the center of her exciting and daring new life, pulling love and lust and emotion out of her in ways she never imagined possible. But will Andrew’s dark secret push them inseparably together, or tear them completely apart?"

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

This is the story of Camryn Bennett and Andrew Parrish, two people who have come to a cross roads in their life where they realize they have to find something else, some other way to cope with the struggles they are facing or they will slowly fade away from the world entirely. They both have their own emotional issues that they are facing all alone; so they both decide the path they have to choose needs to be something different and unconventional. As luck would have it, they both find themselves coincidentally on the same bus, traveling to different places, and hoping to find some type of internal peace. 

“Pain is pain, babe. Just because one person's problem is less traumatic than another's doesn't mean they're required to hurt less.”

Camryn isn't your typical girl. After losing her high school boyfriend/love of her life to a car accident at 18, the now 20 yr. old Camryn just seems to be in limbo. She just started a dept. store job not too long ago and she just seems to be drifting her way through life, with no happiness attached to it. She is numb to the world. She can no longer find a way to believe in love, hope or dreams. She is just looking for a way to find complacency. Once her best friend's boyfriend of 5 yrs. hits on her and her best friend since the 2nd grade doesn't believe her, it's too much. Camryn decides to throw some crap into her bag, (a few articles of clothes and some necessities) and goes to the bus station. Her random travel choice  based on the woman behind the counter's baked potato, she buys a bus ticket to Idaho.

On this bus trip that has multiple stops, she meets Andrew, a 25 yr. old hot as hell dude who is playing his I pod too loud behind her. Thus starts the whirlwind romance of these two characters. Andrew was on the bus on his way to Wyoming from Texas to visit his dying father in the hospital. Since she was on her way to Idaho for no apparent reason, Camryn ends up on the journey with Andrew to see his father.

“Maybe sometime during this road trip you agreed to, we’ll be able to tell each other the things we don’t want to tell”

I fell right into the book headfirst. The story was slow building and took a few chapters to pique my interest primarily because Camryn was so indifferent.  In fact, the first 50% of it flew by as I got to know Camryn and Andrew. The POV shift didn't bother me at all, especially since it wasn't ever a rehashing of what we'd just seen through Camryn's eyes, but Andrew taking over from the moment of the switch onward.

One thing I did love - Andrew.  He is spontaneous, fun, and not afraid to say what he is thinking. His thoughts, what he said, the way he said it, all rang true. It's semi-rare to find this, especially in young adult novels, and it's refreshing as hell when I do stumble onto one of them. Andrew, from the very start was carefree, easy-going, unpredictable, sweet, and endearing. 

This book has emotions. Lots of it. Sometimes it felt like the author had problems with where to put what. But the characters - they grew on me. The relationship between them was my favorite thing about this book. Even though they did move quickly, it was realistic. They latched on to my heart and made me laugh (literally, out loud), cry, smile, swoon - they poured all that overwhelming emotions into me. And I gobbled it all up.

But all good things must come to an end. Andrew has a major secret—one that will change everything. The twist at the end seriously had me guessing and was expertly handled throughout the book as so vague that I didn't have a clue until right before the bomb dropped, but still hinted at enough that it didn't come out of left field.

Overall, I give The Edge of Never 4 stars. The over use of babe and baby got annoying. I really like when he called her babe the first because it was said before anything happened between the two of them... they need another nickname! Most of all... I didn't like was how quick the ending happened! It felt so rushed. I felt they could have cut back on some of the events in the beginning or the middle of the book, to give a little more for the ending. 


Honestly, though it was an enjoyable read, the story doesn't bring anything new to us. A heroine who is running away from her life, a hero who is running away from his, these two strangers meet and get together into a road trip that will change both their lives forever. That is it. That was supposed to be it. But Redmerski created this simple tale with such love and care and a touch of 'real' that it turned out to be something completely different than what you would expect from the blurb. In a completely good way.

Purchase: Amazon