Book Review: The Edge of Never

Howdy ho, Ranger Joe!

...Don't ask me where that came from, I was just trying to come up with a creative hello. I'm back with another book review! Today's blog post is reviewing the book The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski. I had purchased this book on my Nook when it was at a discounted price, (that tends to be the reason why I buy books on my eReader in the first place. I am poor).

The Edge of Never cover found on GoodReads

First of all, can we talk about this cover? The girl looks very Dianna Agron circa 2010 and the way the word "Never" is written makes it look super intense. I'm very satisfied with the way this book looks. However, I was always told not to judge a book by its cover, so this was not the deciding factor for me on whether or not I was interested in reading this book.

I purchased and read The Edge of Never sometime in June because the summary really drew me in. The book is about a girl named Camryn who is not satisfied with the way her life is headed, so she hops on a bus to nowhere--literally. She bus hops with no particular destination in mind and meets Andrew, a guy who saves her from some bus-lurking creep. Yes, this is your typical boy meets uninterested girl and makes her fall in love with him even though neither of them are ready for love; or so they think.

Andrew shows Camryn what life could mean for her, being the voice that tells her she is in control; if she doesn't like where she is going, she has to do something about it. But of course, Andrew has this deep-dark secret that Camryn literally doesn't find out about until about 10 pages to the end, which puts a serious damper on their relationship.

Altogether, I think this was a very cliche story, but I loved every second of it. 10/10 recommend. Almost two months later and I still frequently find myself thinking of this book. Something about Camryn and Andrew's relationship actually felt very realistic to me, regardless of their "Mary Sue" meeting.

Quote found on bookishtemptations.com

As stated in my previous book review on The City of Bones, I have a weird thing about words. This means that sometimes, the way authors phrase things tends to freak me out. I have a pet peeve about calling your significant other "baby" and once Camryn and Andrew are together-together, that's all they refer to each other as. Gag. Suddenly everything out of their mouths sound cliche and fake, and far too staged. Yes, I realize that it's a book so it doesn't have to be realistic, but to me it's pretty shudder-worthy.

Quote found on meetville.com

This particular quote had resonated with me, (I even recall tweeting it out, because we all know a tweet holds the official words of the heart). I think that the morals Redmerski included in her book were spot-on. Camryn had to own up to the things that were happening in her life, but she also had to let go and accept that better things could happen for her.

While this may not be some of America's best literature, it was at least a great summer read. It was just light enough that I sped through it in a day, but it had a plot line that didn't make me want to roll my eyes every few pages.

I am very excited to read the sequel, The Edge of Always, but it is $5.99 on the Nook, which, okay, I understand is really not that expensive, but that is like six $0.99 books that I could have devoured! I know that eventually I'll buckle down and buy it, especially because something very exciting happens at the end of The Edge of Never, and I am excited to see where it goes in the sequel! I can only wait so long, you know.

Thanks for reading!

Abby