Sunday 14 April 2013

"The Edge Of Never" by J.A Redmerski

5 Hearts Review: J.A Redmerski's "The Edge of Never." 

Amazon UK:    http://amzn.to/1BswVjB
Amazon.com:   http://amzn.to/1vZYP67


Synopsis:

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?

Review: Surj Harvey

J.A Redmerski really blew me away with this book…. What an amazing story of loss, heart break,  self discovery and hope. Camryn and Andrews story had me feeling all sorts of emotions from the word go. There were times where I was just howling with laughter but other times where I cried… no not just your average quiet tears but those ugly tears where you just can’t catch your breath . Yup, be prepared to go on quite an emotional ride with this one … and believe me once you start reading, you want to put this book down.

Camryn Bennett has never found her place in the world. She’s always known that societies norms were not for her, that she's destined for something different, something more but what that is she doesn’t know. A series of tragic events lead Camryn to leave her hometown of Raleigh and embark on a journey. She has no idea where she's going when she packs her bags but the growing urge inside her tells her it’s time:

… the sense of breaking free from it all. That itch, although vague and stingy, 
compels me to obey it. I don’t know why, I can’t explain it, 
but it’s there and I can’t stop myself from listening to it.

When Andrew and Camryn’s paths cross on the Greyhound bus, is it a chance encounter or is it fate? Camryn is escaping from a life that is conformist. Andrew is running, but from what we don’t know. What we do know is that both characters are on journeys of self discovery , to find out who they really are and to find their fit in the world. 

Camryn's character is guarded and she has an emotional detachment from all that is around her (or so she likes to believe). She comes across as tough and very defencive. Andrew is her exact opposite. He is very matter of fact, will say how he feels and is so humorous at times he will have you rolling around with laughter. He knows which buttons to press when it comes to getting a reaction out of Camryn and on more than one occasion just winds her up like and lets her go like a set of chattering teeth : 

Andrew: “You’re probably better off anyway”, he says, putting the MP3 player in his bag.
“I don’t listen to Justin Bieber or that crazy meat-wearin’ bitch,
so I guess you’ll just have to do without”.

Camryn: OK defences are back up. Bring it on.

As their trip on the Greyhound progresses, we find a growing attraction between the characters . An attraction both of them try to fight but for different reasons. Camryn admits he’s good looking, very good lucking but she won’t allow herself to feel anything. Andrew is fighting an internal battle… he’s starting to feel more than friendship for her but he knows the secrets he’s keeping will break her:

We’ve slept next to each other and touched one another, yet still here we are, 
standing on opposite sides of a thick glass. We reach up and touch our fingers to the glass, 
we look into each other’s eyes and we know what we want but the glass won’t fucking budge.

Andrew teaches Camryn how to let go of the past, how to feel and how to experience everything life has to offer, even giving in to her deepest darkest desires (oh yes we get some very hot sex too!!!!). 

“You dwell on the past, you can’t move forward. Spend too much time planning 
for the future and you just push yourself backwards, or you stay stagnant in the
same place all your life. Live for the moment where everything is just right,
take your time and limit your bad memories

This book is amazing. It is so beautifully written and so descriptive so that you will feel you are on a journey with the characters… a fly on the wall, a by- stander watching as their story unfolds. I could picture every place visited, every bus journey, every bar frequented so clearly in my mind and it was this that really helped with my connection to the story and the characters. 

“The Edge Of Never” made me feel every extreme of emotion possible. Complete highs with the dialogue between Andrew and Camryn where I laughed so much there were tears and where my heart just swelled for them as I saw their connection grow Then there were the complete and utter lows… and I mean gut wrenching, heart breaking, sobbing into your pillow kind of lows. I won’t spoil it for you but believe me, you will not see the twist at the end coming with this one so have a box of tissues ready. 

My two favourite quotes from the book: 

“I think when you fall in love, like true love, it’s love for life. 
All the rest is just experience and delusions”. 

She got pissed when I accused her of Bieber fever (it pisses me off that I even know what the 
fuck that means- I blame that on society. 

I have rated this book 5 Hearts. Would I change anything, add anything, take anything out? Absolutely not. Every bit of this book counted, it mattered . 


"The Edge Of Never" Playlist: 

Alice in Chains – Would? (Andrew is listening to this on his MP3 player in the bus)

Aerosmith – Dream On (Andrew also listens to this on the bus)

Bad Company - Feel Like Makin’ Love (the ‘coincidental’ song Camryn at first hates because her parents listened to it, but it’s the first song she hears coming from Andrew’s earbuds)

Danny Jones – Raisins in My Toast (LOL! This crazy song is what Andrew mimics at the Waffle House)

Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son (song plays in the car)

The Eagles - Hotel California (the first song they sing together while in the car)

The Rolling Stones – Laugh, I Nearly Died (Andrew performs at Old Point Bar)

The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow (Andrew and Camryn’s duet)

The Civil Wars – Poison & Wine – (sung twice, first by them both lying in bed one night and then later towards the end…)

Bad Company - Ready For Love (they listen to it in the car the night before they make it to Texas)

Kansas - Dust in the Wind (they don’t sing or play this song at all, but the author always envisioned it being played in the background in a movie version during a scene near the end that I won’t reveal here!)

1 comment:

  1. ""The Edge Of Always" which is released on 5th November 2013. I got all excited thinking it was 11th May 2013 (In the UK, we write the day and then the month... lol!!!)"

    Yeah... I understand... Same thing happened with me... I live in Brazil and was like "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! I think I'm gonna die!!! One month to... Oh, never mind" LOL
    But still, I super agree with you! I wouldn't change anything! It's perfect! I really hope "The Edge of Always" is even more perfect (if it's even possible)!

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