The Edge of Always (Edge of Never, #2)

by J. A. Redmerski

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

3.5 Stars

I'm still not 100% how I feel about The Edge of Always, and I feel like that's going to make it challenging for me to accurately convey my thoughts, but I'll try my best!

In The Edge of Never I felt like there was a very clear, overall conflict, and that made for a very clear plot. I knew exactly where the story was and I could see where it was headed. But I don't feel that was quite the case with The Edge of Always. At first I thought there was a clear, central conflict: the one hinted at in the synopsis Camryn's miscarriage. But, that conflict only actually takes up about 30% of the book.

After that, it's just mindless road trips. It felt different from the first book, because in The Edge of Never I felt like I knew where the story was going. It had an overarching plot driving it. But in The Edge of Always I didn't know what the endgame was, so I didn't know where the story was headed, and I didn't like that uncertainty. Then, at the ~65% mark or so, the book totally switched gears. It went from being a sort of self-contained story to a long epilogue. By that I mean, the first half took place over a series of months, which is typical for a book. But then the second half suddenly spanned like 3 years all on its own. The pacing completely changed and the focus completely changed. It kind of felt like I actually read a book and then a separate, long epilogue. The second half was almost completely dedicated to "what happens after".

But the main thing I'm getting at is that The Edge of Always lacked a strong direction. It didn't feel as focused and centered as The Edge of Never did, and that left me feeling a little lost and wondering where it was all going.

BUT, that doesn't mean I didn't like the book. For the most part, I did enjoy my time reading The Edge of Always. Andrew was as great as ever. He's one of my favourite guys in NA because he's just so damn sweet. He's a picture-perfect, amazing boyfriend. I love how he never loses patience with Camryn, even when she's being totally stupid. Although Andrew and Camryn struggle, I love how it never feels like their relationship is in jeopardy. There are so many books out there where the couple gets to an almost-breaking point where they might part ways and it's z0mg so intense. That doesn't happen in The Edge of Never—and I love that. There's never a point where Camryn and Andrew almost break up or almost lose faith in each other. They're always there for each other 100%, and that's so refreshing!

And as you might expect from reading The Edge of Never, this book has a few super swoony scenes that will make you melt! ;) I'll just leave it at that!

So ultimately, my only issue with The Edge of Always is the lack of clear focus and direction. And once it switched gears, I decided that it was structured a bit... oddly. It really felt like I read two different books with how the narration changed and the timeline changed. Although this book didn't wow me as much as The Edge of Never it was still a good read. I like how the author left nothing to the imagination. By the end, every single question I could have possibly had got answered, and I really appreciate that! I liked knowing exactly how things panned out for Camryn and Andrew, and it was cool to see Lily grow up! I bet we'll be getting a story from her point of view at some point!