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May contain some minor spoilers!

I will begin with a disclaimer for this review: I really DID enjoy The Edge of Never but something is holding me back from LOVING it as much as I wanted to. My thoughts while reading fluctuated between: wow, this is great, definitely 4 stars, hold on this could be 5 stars, oh no back to 4, maybe even 3, back up to 5 again and so on. So obviously my feelings were a little all over the place. That said, I’ve settled on 4 very deserving stars. The book is truly good if not missing a little something I need in a 5 star book. But I won't be surprised if this is a 5 star read for many.

On the surface this is a sweet new adult romance between Cam and Andrew. Of course appearances can be deceptive, and there is definitely something simmering under the surface of what seems like a typical new adult book. In fact I initially thought this was YA, but the sex scenes alone pushed it out of that category.

In true new adult/YA-style, Cam has recently endured a pretty rough road with the loss of her boyfriend, her parent’s divorce and her brother’s incarceration. Cam is feeling alone and a bit lost with life and its purpose when she decides to take a solitary road trip across America on a Greyhound bus to escape from her mundane life for a while. Initially Cam comes across as a little reserved, and a bit naïve, and she is very protective of letting anyone in, particularly guys. Insert Andrew, who she meets on the bus and so begins their journey across America together.

I really liked Cam and Andrew together. There were some really touching and sweet moments between them as well as lots of fun and hilarious scenes. There was no insta-love, their friendship and then relationship developed at a very believable and good pace. Although I did feel by the end of the book when Andrew’s secret is revealed that they both had had A LOT to deal with. Maybe too much, which was why I wasn’t truly satisfied with Andrew’s secret when it was revealed. It felt like a bit of a stretch, with everything they had already gone through, that they had another life-altering issue to deal with. Also, even though I didn’t see it coming at all (or at least hadn’t correctly guessed it) I feel like I need to go back and re-read the book to see if I missed some vital clues that were given. It almost didn’t add up for me.

There were times I felt something truly sinister or serious was going to happen, particularly due to Andrew’s temper and urge to fight everyone, but it never came. There were no consequences to him bashing the sh*t out of two different guys. I wish that had have been dealt with as I can’t help but feel it glamourises fighting and sends the message that it’s ok for guys to lose their temper and put someone in hospital for looking at or (horror) talking to their girl. I can’t think of a bigger turn off than a guy fighting over me, I’d much rather a guy have a brain and use it rather than his fists.

I must also mention that I was way off with my prediction for Andrew’s secret. Throughout the book you definitely know he’s holding something back. With his comment about having to “own” Cam if he ever f*cked her, I assumed he must have been a closet Dom who was just holding out for Cam to be ready to embrace her submissive self (I’ve obviously been reading too much of that genre!). Not really sure now why he held off from sleeping with her for so long, even now that I know his secret. If anything he had a good reason to go for it straight away.

I’m giving this book 4 stars. It had the potential, at times, to reach 5 stars for me, but I think it would have been a better story if it had dealt with less issues, as some were explored and dealt with really well but some were rushed and breezed over too quickly (particularly the ending). Some simple or less serious conflicts or issues are more interesting (and believable) than lots of really dramatic or serious events.

The ending contained a bit of a pet peeve of mine in new adult books: marriage and pregnancy as the resolution to everything. I want these guys to have a chance together to make their relationship work, not be rushed into the responsibility of parenting and marriage so soon after dealing with a million other issues they’ve been dealt with. Cam and Andrew were supposed to travel the world together. I feel they were ripped off a bit.