Blog Tour: The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski

Today I am excited to be hosting a leg of J.A. Redmerski's blog tour for The Edge of Never hosted by:

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 rather than living off her family’s money. 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

Release Date: November 15, 2012

Sounds like a good read, right? Well, do you want to know what I thought? I am going to share my review with you right now!

I want to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review for a blog tour being sponsored by AToMR Tours. Receiving this book for free has in no way influenced my opinion or review.

First off I cannot say enough about the cover of this book. I totally love the picture chosen to represent the main character, Camryn. This would be exactlty how I would picture her if this picture were not presented to me. And I love the color scheme of just the grays and blacks. It's simple and tasteful and to the point. The picture itself tells a story of an emotional roller coaster ride.

As for the characters, well, I really liked them all very much.
Camryn Bennett is the perfect 20 year old girl. She's feisty and emotional and still trying to find her way in life. She really has no idea what she wants and figures that she needs to set out and try to find herself. One can tell she feels stuck in her life and feels that there is nowhere for her to go. Being stagnant is skewing her perception of things and she feels the need to break out and be free. She's had a hard life the past few years with the "love of her life" dying, her brother being put in jail, and her ex cheating on her.
Andrew Parrish is just the thing she seems to need. He's funny and suave. Gorgeous and talented. He's smooth and tells her what she needs to hear. He pushes her to see herself as someone special, something worthwhile, someone who is going places if she would only let herself go. But he has his own baggage that he brings to their friendship, baggage he is not willing to share with her. Baggage that he feels will change their relationship and hurt her, and he has no intention of letting that happen. He wants her to feel free and keep her from pain. He knows pain, as much as she does, but he doesn't want to let her in to that part of his life.
The secondary characters are kind of just there in the story. Natalie is Camryn's best friend. She's self centered and a little annoying. She is loud and obnoxious. Her boyfriend Damon, who Camryn has known for many years, is a lowlife drug dealer that can't pull himself out of that rut. And Adrew's brothers, Aidan and Asher, also are just kind of there. We don't get to know any of the secondary characters all that well. But that is not the point of the story. The point of the story is to get to know Cam and Andrew and watch them grow and change.

At first, I enjoyed the road trip that Cam and Andrew were on. I liked how he instantly felt protective of her, despite not knowing her. This really made me fall for him. I did find that the story was a little slow as they made their way to Wyoming. So I kind of just chugged along until about half way through the book. Them BAM the story turned in a totally different direction than I was expecting. That's not to say I wasn't expecting the attraction between the characters but I wasn't expecting the strong sexual content that just kind of appeared out of nowhere, that's for sure. Once they started their second road trip, things certainly got more interesting. The attraction between the two grew stronger and stronger until finally is just burst and you saw that they needed each other and were good for each other. And I spent the second half of the book waiting for Andrew's ball to drop. Waiting for his secret to be release. Not having any idea what it could possibly be at all. I did finally figure it out when they went to meet his mom, and I was certainly saddened by what I knew was going to happen. The storyline is reminiscent of the movie Dying Young, and that is about as spoilery as you are going to get from me!

Redmerski's writing is good.  All in all, I found the writing fairly flawless otherwise and I liked the way it flowed. She adequately separated the voices of the male and female characters and you certainly knew whose POV you were reading.

Redmerski certainly takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride throughout this book.  And while I didn't love the first half of the book, I rather enjoyed the second half and the end certainly had my eyes welling up with some tears. For contemporary romance fans with a bit of erotica, this is the book they should read. 

J.A. Redmerski is the author of THE EDGE OF NEVER, THE DARKWOODS TRILOGY and DIRTY EDEN. She's a werewolf & zombie fanatic, book addict and a happy hermit obsessed with the Universe and AMC's The Walking Dead. She lives in North Little Rock, Arkansas with her three children and a Maltese.
The Official Site of J.A. Redmerski

You can follow the rest of today's tour stops below to find out their thoughts on Redmerski's book!

Always YA at Heart ~ Review

The Muse Unleashed ~ Review

Paranormal & Urban Fantasy Reviews ~ Review

Starry Night Book Reviews ~ Review

StuckInBooks ~ Review

What's Beyond Forks? ~ Review

The Ramblings of a Toddler's Mom ~ Review

Nick's Book Blog ~ Review