The Edge of Everything is a good mix of adventure, survival, and a bit of the supernatural.

Zoe's life has been tough lately. Her father was recently killed in a caving accident. A blizzard is coming, and when her mom leaves her with her very energetic little brother, she lets him go outside with their two dogs. He gets lost in the blizzard, and Zoe must go find him. She's near death herself when she finds him and carries him to a neighbor's house that has been empty since their deaths. But they aren't alone, and when she is attacked by a brutal stranger, a mysterious man saves her and attempts to kill the attacker.

The mysterious man is a bounty hunter from the Lowlands. He's been sent to kill the man who attacked Zoe, and since Zoe asked him to let the man go, there's going to be "hell" to pay. You see, the Lowlands is a place where evil people are taken when they die to become bounty hunters and bring other deserving souls to the Lowlands. But "X," as Zoe names the mysterious man, is different than most souls in the Lowlands. And that's pretty much all I'm going to tell you.

Let's just get this issue out of the way: The instalove is brutal. I mean they fall for each other so fast it is mind boggling. Now, let's move on. Since X didn't fulfill his assignment, he must go back to the Lowlands, and he's sure to be punished. He promises Zoe that he will someday come back to her...if he can.

In the meantime, Zoe is determined to make the authorities find her father's body deep inside a very dangerous cave, or else she's going to do it herself.

There is much more to the story and several more interesting characters. The Edge of Everything really kept me entertained. The danger mounts (several different times) and there are some big surprises. I also had an issue with how reckless Zoe is when exploring the cave--she takes risks that I don't think were realistic, but I guess they were necessary to the story.

The big issues are unresolved at the end, but there is some closure for certain elements of the story. The Edge of Everything is an interesting mix of genres that I haven't seen much before, and I'm excited to read the sequel. I think my teens will enjoy it too.

This is a unique YA fantasy with a sweet romance. Zoe's father recently died in a caving accident and under her care, her baby brother, Jonah goes missing in a blizzard. She sets off after him and doesn't realize that this will place her and Jonah in the path of evil. They are saved by the mysterious X. He speaks strangely and claims to be from the Lowlands. This book raises questions of good and evil and whether exacting revenge for the sake of good is the right answer.

Let's start out by saying I am not typically a fantasy fan. Not that it's not good. More so that it's not really my thing. However, the plot sounded interesting and I love stepping outside my comfort zone to experience new types of literature. The Edge of Everything follows Zoe as she meets X, who happens to be a member of the Lowlands, and their tumultuous relationship.

The idea behind the story was interesting, but I feel that the beginning didn't get the point across very well. The beginning was choppy, not flowing well at all, and confusing. There was very little explanation about X, and maybe that was author Jeff Giles' idea to keep the reader in the dark much like the characters, but I found it frustrating when trying to understand where this book was going. Zoe was a typical teenager girl and her character was done well. She was emotional, attached, and trying to figure out what exactly she wanted in life. I think many readers can relate to that. Even though the beginning and most of the middle of the book was confusing, choppy, and moved slowly, the end of the book kept me intrigued. I read the last 20 percent of the book quickly and found myself really wanting to know what happen. Had the rest of the book been like that I would have been much happier. I was a little disappointed in the ending because it left things hanging a little, but not quite a full-on cliffhanger. I would have liked more of a closing unless a confirmed book two was already ready to come out in the next year. If a second book comes out I would be willing to check it out in hopes that the next book flows a lot like the end of The Edge of Everything.

With everything said, I give The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles a three out of five stars, with the end redeeming it a bit.

A strong premise and an even more promising idea of star-crossed lovers, I just couldn't find anything to draw me in.

The writing style didn't fit, for me, and I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I'm sure this book will be popular among all my friends, and on Goodreads, it just didn't resonate with me.

I began reading this book with no expectations or ideas and yet it quickly consumed me. I quickly became utterly intrigued and could only hope that it wouldn’t dissipate into disappointment. It didn’t. Somehow this has become one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.
Full of grief and love, of sin and mercy, THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING tears apart the wall between worlds and unfurls a most remarkable love story.
-pooled ink Reviews

I received this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, so the first thing that drew me was the cover. The simplistic artwork, yet the powerful and minuscule illustrations, really came at me as if begging me to request this book.

This book was not easy to get in my hands before publication.

I e-mailed so many times, requested on NetGalley, etc. Finally, as if by some power of the Godly readers above, I was granted access to an e-ARC.

THANK YOU!

I’m going to say now. If you think this is some contemporary, lovey-dovey, high school drama novel, think again. READ THE SUMMARY. Just from the cover, that’s what I thought this was going to be.

Uh, no. The summary through me off and I was thinking, “This is fantasy? Otherworldy? Both?”

This summary does not do the book justice…in a good way.

Let’s talk about Zoe. She is a fiery heroine that starts off kind of annoying, but not in the annoying sense that you want her to shut up. I guess that’s not the right word to describe her AT FIRST. You get to know her more and the way she handles herself and you automatically label her as a bad-ass. Like, why weren’t we bad-ass at seventeen?

Then, we have X. Yes, that’s his name. Though, I believe Jeff could give us something more in the second book. Anyway, he is a bounty hunter, basically in Hell. He is summoned to retrieve dirty souls and that’s pretty much it. He doesn’t really get a gold medal. He just gets returned to his cage and the day is done until he is needed again. Kind of crappy. However, we are introduce to this sexy beast…yes, really…IMMEDIATELY as a GLOWING and LITERALLY HOT sexy beast. It’s Instagram worthy, thanks to Zoe. Can we say new book boyfriend?

So, their interaction automatically has them no longer going back to normal lives. Well, THEIR normal lives. They are instantly attracted to each other and, before you go bashing and saying that instant love in books is so stupid, let me say this.

It’s not officially said, but I think X and Zoe’s love is the kind of love you read about in books where the two are supposed to be together, like soul mates. Like, there’s no denying it. They have been waiting for each other for a long time.

I’ll use a bad example: Remember how Edward Cullen told Bella Swan how he has been waiting for her for, like, a century? She doesn’t know how long he has waited for her? Blah blah.

Okay, back to this.

So, the lords down in Lowlands, aka Hell, are not happy that he has fallen in love with Zoe. Oh yeah, and he didn’t capture that soul he was meant to catch. So, they tell him that he is forbidden from seeing her again.

Yeah right, dudes.

This book is NOT CONTEMPORARY! This is a HIGH FANTASY, BAD-ASS, OTHERWORLDY genre entirely of it’s own. It has a hint of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s “Lux” series. But, I wouldn’t call X an alien, you know, since he basically lives in Hell. I wouldn’t call him a demon, either. Let’s just call him the hot bounty hunter that is going to be your new book boyfriend saving your heart while also crushing it like all book boyfriends do.

The Edge of Everything is dark, deadly, and dangerous. Monsters and bounty hunters, souls and blizzards. An intriguing story, yes, but the romance fell flat for me.

Zoe is a sad girl who's just existing after the sudden death of her father. I kept looking for something that set Zoe apart, but I struggled to find it. She seems so bland, a stereotypical teenage girl who sees an inhuman bounty hunter and his bounty on a frozen lake and immediately takes a picture to post to Instagram. Later on she shows her personality, her spirit, but at the beginning I found her rather boring. X is an unknown, a bounty hunter from the Lowlands, sent to hunt down evil human beings in order to claim their souls. He's clueless about the human world, he talks like he's from Victorian era England, and he's very powerful. He was interesting, somehow a stand out among all the others in the Lowlands. There are secrets in his past he doesn't know, secrets he wants to know, but knowing could change things for those who rule the Lowlands.

I'm torn with this book. The idea behind X and his mission, the Lowlands and the beings there, I was intrigued. It was different enough that I wanted to know more. But things felt flat to me. I think it's Zoe and X's relationship, how their romance seemed shallow to me. He's dangerous and mysterious to her, she's gorgeous and empathetic to him. It felt easy and clichéd, and me finding Zoe rather boring didn't help. I also wasn't a big fan of the third person point of view this was told in. It felt like I was being told a story, but not in a way that worked with what I was expecting from this book.

Woah. Okay, that's about all I have. Woah. I went into this book with such low expectations, but woah. I guess I'll have to give you guys something more than woah, right?

Okay, here goes. The world building and the plot for this story were out of this world amazing. The book started with a prologue, kind of in the middle of the story, but then it worked. And man, I was hooked from the first paragraph and this author did not let up for a single second. Nope, not a second.

First, there is Zoe. Zoe and her brother Jonah are still grieving the death of her father from months earlier. She is your typical teenager that loves her brother, but still gets annoyed by him and calls him a brat. I actually think Jonah was one of my favorite characters. God, he was so cute and he loved his big sister so much. In the beginning of the book, he is sleeping in the same bed with her and he actually tied his skateboard to himself and to Zoe so that she couldn't leave him without knowing about it. And then they talked about a poem he had written after his dad died . . . when it talked about him not knowing what to do with his heart . . . I lost it. So sad. Zoe was kind of a meh character. Even though she was one of the main characters, I didn't ever really feel connected to her or drawn to her. Maybe it was because more of the book was dedicated to X's POV than hers. I did like that she was adventurous and a caver. More attention could have been focused on that just because it is so rare to see a caver in YA (or any fiction at all, for that matter). But I was satisfied with the caving scenes they did have. And I thought that Zoe was a pretty great sister to Jonah. She had her moments where she was annoyed at him, but you could tell that she really loved him.

X was hot and amazing and so sweet and he brought her food! I don't normally buy into the whole insta-love thing, but he did save her dogs and he brought her a mound of French toast and bacon and onion rings and chocolate cake. Plus, he had the whole tortured soul from hell kind of thing going on. So yeah, I would love him too. I loved his backstory and I am glad that there was such a huge amount of the book devoted to him. Jeff Giles did a freaking amazing job on the world building for Lowlands (Hell) and I loved his fellow bounty hunters (prisoners), especially Ripper. Ripper was a woman who was in the Lowlands because she killed a servant in the 1800's and she was so wonderful. She was very protective of X and acted a bit loony, but she had his back when it counted.

This book was almost nonstop action and that ending KILLED me! I saw part of it coming, but there were still some twists along the way. And it looks like this may turn out to be a series. I am sure the publisher is waiting to see how this one does first. So all I can say is: READ THIS BOOK NOW!! I want as many people to read it as possible because I NEED A SEQUEL!!

THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING, with it’s beautiful cover and thrilling synopsis, was a book I knew I just had to read. Bounty hunters, caving, and a load of paranormal activity made this book all the more enjoyable.

Before I picked up THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING, I thought it would be a contemporary romance with a hint of mystery. Of course, I was incredibly wrong because that’s not at all how it went.

THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING is told from two POVs: Zoe’s and our bounty hunter from hell, X. While Zoe does have some interesting friends and a thrilling story, I ended up liking X’s chapters more because of how weird his friends and life was, especially when he was back in the Lowlands (aka, hell).

I loved Zoe and her relationship with her little brother and mom. She was strong and adventurous (she used to go caving) and all around feisty.

THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING reminded me a lot of THE 5TH WAVE and instead of a sci-fi/dystopian theme, it had a paranormal twist, which I found amazingly well-done.

THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING does have it’s faults though, the biggest for me was the insta-love. Especially since the romance was one of the bigger parts of the book, the moment they started making googly-eyes at each other I got annoyed.

The ending was my favorite part because HUMONGOUS things were revealed and I didn’t even see them coming. I love, love, love when a book hits you with something that may have been mentioned previously and you paid little to no attention to it and then BAM, it hits you later.

THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING was a book I really enjoyed from start to finish and I really can’t wait to read the sequel after that intense ending.

Review to be posted Friday, 1/27.

Zoe lives in an isolated cabin in Montana where the winters can be brutally cold. During a blizzard, she finds her little brother almost frozen and they take shelter in an abandoned cabin where an elderly couple was murdered. The murderer returns and it looking bad for them when a mysterious boy appears with the powers to drag the murderer to the Lowlands/Hell. True love interferes and the boy ends up at Zoe's cabin where her mother is rather anxious. Zoe names him X, because he has no name. He is a bounty hunter from the Lowlands for all eternity. X violates rules so the masters of the Lowlands come for him and threaten those he now cares about.

This plot moves along briskly with plenty of action to spike the scenes. We feel for Zoe's family - dealing with the loss of their father who is presumed dead in a caving accident. Banger and Ripper are two Lowland Bounty Hunters sent to the Lowlands for their own evil, but it seems they have turned a leaf. Can they ever earn their way out of the Lowlands? Probably not. The premise of the story is a bit disconcerting since X is bound to the Lowlands when he has not done anything evil to deserve an eternity there. There is a power above the Lowland masters that must be just as cruel to keep X in the Lowlands to be continually tortured and tested. Still, this is a good read and teens will likely devour.

I didn't know this was going to be a series when I picked it up, but I'm so glad it is! This is my current favorite read so far of 2017. It wraps up this story nicely while setting up for the next book SO WELL.

The characters are all great, complex, and hilarious. The dual POV works really well, each character having a distinct voice. The concept is great, and it was very well executed, and the pacing of the plot is phenomenal. I loved the mystery, and the side characters, and the subplots.

The romance felt a little instal-love for my taste, but its built on so well and its so cute I found I didn't mind. Zoe wasn't whiney or all "I'm just a normal girl, why me" which was great because I hate that.

I really don't want to say too much lest I give something away. But Definitely check it out, its part fantasy, part contemporary and all amazing!

And I'm super excited to see what future books hold for Zoe and X (and for X's past, I'm dying to know!).

Unfortunately, the story did not hold my interest; DNF.

After all the buzz this title was getting, I decided to pick it up for myself, and was not disappointed! Interesting storyline, new version of hell that I look forward to hearing more about.. The caving descriptions were really amazing, and added a level of depth to the story itself. I am looking forward to the next installment,

This will go live on my blog on Jan. 27. Kellyvision.wordpress.com


Zoe lives with her mom and little brother Jonah. It's a good life but a hard one (her dad died and the family is still healing). But they're trying to keep it together. Until she and Jonah encounter X. He's...well, I guess you could call him a sort of bounty hunter from the Lowlands (best described as hell). He's sent to kill deserving people and bring their souls back with him. He's not supposed to let people see but Zoe does.

And since it's YA, they also fall for each other. (Yes, it's snarky, what I said. But it's also a sweet romance. And also really hard because that's a lot of obstacles to overcome.)

I read a lot but I haven't found a book like this one. I loved it and I liked it. Recommended.

The Edge of Everything was not what I expected, in a good way of course. I thought by the description it was a YA romance but was pleasantly surprised to find it to be a superb fantasy book too. The Lowlands, the world created by the author, was creepy and wonderful. To me it felt like a combination between purgatory and hell. The plot was unique and suspenseful which kept me turning the pages. The characters were all fabulously fleshed out and I loved every one of them, even the bad guys. The author asked me which one was my favorite but since they are all so well written I had a hard time choosing. I chose the main character’s mom. She is the one I related to the most. This book was dark and light, love and hate, and made me laugh and scared all at the same time.

WOW WOW WOW! I am not sure where to start. This book was fantastic in so many different ways. I was very excited to read this as there has been a bunch of buzz going on for it lately. I am a tiny bit conflicted so I apologize if my review is scattered. I am going to start with everything I loved.

The characters are off the charts wonderful. Our male lead X is our brooding supernatural character, however cliché it sounds he has his uniqueness. I love the way he speaks, he was raised by one of our other side characters Ripper who was alive in the 1800s so you can imagine how lovely he sounds. Zoe is our badass female lead. She is sarcastic, fierce, and real. She has her issues that she is working through but does her best to look strong. Val is Zoe best friend. She is a diverse fun character that I am DYING to see more of! Between the two of them the dialogue feels so authentic. They talk about tumblr, instagram, and social media in general. It is really great to see that in a book because teens and adults are using these things on a regular bases in real life. It makes the characters seem very real. This is something to makes a fantasy world for possible.
Her mother and little brother give me life! The relationship with her mom is well done. She is struggling to hold the balance of being close to her mom especially since the death of her father but also the anger she finds herself stuck with as she learns more and more throughout the series that her mother was holding back secrets. Sweet Jonah our little bug! I just loved the relationships everyone built with him. He is like the glue to everything. Okay okay I could go on forever about all of them Dallas, Ripper, Banger, Brian, EVERYONE!
The story line was great it is split perspectives so for the better part of the book it was almost like having two stories in one. I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going on. I could not put the book down because I was so invested in the plot and how things were unraveling.
NOW there is some SUPER insta love going on. I do not hate or like insta love. Sometimes the romance is so heady and great that I do not care if it makes since. With this story it seems like it comes out of absolutely no where. Yes he saved Zoe and Jonah but that is not enough in my opinion. I needed more development. We had such little time with them that I feel like I didn't see them develop the chemistry I was looking for.
All that being said I still loved the book and cannot wait for the next one. PLEASE LET THERE BE A NEXT ONE! This book would have been five stars if it had just a little more relationship development. Four stars!

See review at my blog

Zoe has had a tough year. Her father died in a caving accident, and her elderly neighbors who were like grandparents to her were murdered in their home by an unknown assailant. Difficult as this has all been for Zoe, it's been even more so for her younger brother, Jonah. So when Jonah disappears during a blizzard, Zoe panics. She's able to rescue out of the snow and get him to the safety of shelter. But safety is a fleeting concept. Soon, she and Jonah find themselves face to face with the madman who murdered their beloved neighbors, and there's no telling what he'll do to them next.

Zoe and Jonah are saved by a mysterious young man who can turn a frozen lake into fire. X is from the Lowlands, or what humans might call hell. He is a bounty hunter who is tasked with capturing souls who escape human justice. X is not supposed to allow people to see him do his dirty work, but there's something about Zoe that makes him break all the rules, including showing mercy to the damned. The punishment for failing to capture his target might keep X from Zoe forever. If it doesn't get them killed first.

The insta-love in this book is too much for me, and I'm not usually bothered by it. Zoe just isn't anything special, and it's never explained why X would be willing to throw away everything he knows upon first glance of her. They are madly in love after spending five minutes together but had no genuine chemistry. As a character, Zoe oscillated between boring and annoying. She acted reckless and selfish more times than I could forgive. There were some pacing problems early in the book, and the big plot twist is obvious. I did enjoy several of the side characters, from the chainsaw sculpture artist to Zoe's ex-brofriend who lives for his job at an imitation Benihanas, but it wasn't enough to save this book for me. At times, the story really just dragged, and the second half felt like a chore to read. I was most interested in X's story, but that was left unresolved and half-explored. I would have to assume this book will be expanded into a series. I'll pass.

When I saw this book on Netgalley, it caught my eye because of the cover...because I am 100% a shameless cover judger. I read the synopsis and it sounded pretty interesting and I added it to my wishlist - not knowing when or if I would be approved to read it. Then I was. I randomly chose it from my queue because the title made me think it was a contemporary romance. So I was a little surprised when the fantasy/supernatural aspect started.

This story follows 17 year old Zoe who is "watching" her little brother when he disappears from her sight. She eventually finds him in the woods with their two dogs, but he is very cold and she is too, so she decides to go to their neighbors' house because it is closer than theirs. Their neighbors were an elderly couple that went missing in a very suspicious manner, so there is no one home. A hostile man shows up and tries to attack the dogs, Zoe, and her little brother before a mystery younger man shows up. He is a bounty hunter and is going to take the man's soul to the Lowlands (pretty much Hell) until Zoe asks him to spare his life. The nameless younger man, dubbed X by Zoe, has broken many Lowlands' laws by revealing himself and speaking of the Lowlands.

The rest of the novel basically follows the aftermath of X's decision to not bring back his bounty and him falling in love with Zoe. It was a very good read. I really enjoyed all of the story from X's perspective. Zoe was harder to read from because she was making a lot of really poor and selfish decisions - out of grief from losing her father and the various issues in her family that loss has caused for each person. I really really loved Banger and Ripper, X's two nearby cellmates in the Lowlands. They were both very rich characters. I am finding that when I read stories with characters around 8 or 9 that they are being written in a younger voice, in my opinion, and should be closer to 5 or 6. My two oldest kids are currently 8 and 9. Just a little BEC :)

This was a wonderful story that can be appreciated by both girls and boys of any age. Giles’ tale is full of love, action, terror, and thought. His characters are well developed and interact with one another in a manner that feels like the reader is right there beside them. Giles’ themes are deep and will create thoughtful discussions in, or out, of the classroom. The imagery was well done. The lowlands are brutally terrifying while the winter Montana landscapes are breathtaking. I was quickly caught up in this book and look forward to a hopeful follow up in the future. This will definitely be a hot pick for my teens at the library.