My Thoughts:
Recently I've been in a weird reading mood. All I've wanted to read was romance, which is slightly unusual for me. I really like the genre, but over the past couple of years I've been reading epic fantasy instead. I have a lot of Magan Vernon's books on my tbr, and have heard great things about them. I decided to start with Edge of Glory, and I'm so glad I did. I greatly enjoyed the book.

From the first chapter, I loved the main character, Lia. I found her to be very relatable. Personally, I had a strict parent growing up so I was easily able to place myself in her shoes. When she was heartbroken, I was able to sympathize with her a lot. She was very awkward and kind of nerdy, which I could also relate to. I loved her sense of her humor, and her storyline. It was great to finally read a book where the awkward, nerdy girl gets the guy. I loved that.

There were a couple of issues that I did have with the book. At times, it seemed like the author was trying to force funny scenes, and it just came out awkward and unauthentic. It pulled me out of the story. Also, other than Jay and Lia, I didn't connect with any of the side characters. They seemed like they were there just to be there. They didn't add anything to the plot. Lastly, what Jay does in the car near the end of the book, while original, was a complete jerk move. That automatically took it down a star rating for me. It wasn't cute, or romantic. If I was Lia, I'd be mad that he put my sister-in-law in that position. If I was Dana, I would have strangled him then and there.

Even though I had a couple of problems with Edge of Glory, I really did enjoy this book. I ended up finishing it in less than a day because I couldn't put it down. It's rare to find a book with a main character that is relatable on so many different levels. I didn't connect with any of the side characters, so I doubt I will continue this series. However, I definitely plan on reading more of Magan Vernon's books in the future. I enjoy her writing style, and the way she tells a story.

I give Edge of Glory: 3.5/5.

Imagine if you actually got to meet your idol. The person you have posters on your wall of. The person that you follow religiously on social media and can recite their favorite color, every award they’ve ever won, and maybe even the size of their shoe when they were thirteen, if you’re a super stalker—I mean fan, that is. Well that’s exactly what happens in Edge of Glory. We follow twenty-year-old Lia Conti, the only daughter in a very protective Italian family. And like a lot of young adults, Lia has a fandom: she’s obsessed with the Olympic team of men swimmers, and one swimmer in particular Jay Morningstar. With Morningstar recently getting into a lot of trouble that has affected his career, his coach brings him and his teammates to a tiny Texan town to refocus them; a neighboring town to Lia’s own. When Lia actually comes face to face with her idol in her father’s Italian restaurant, she feels like she has died and gone to heaven, especially when Jay actually shows interest in her. As Jay’s and Lia’s relationship develops, Lia is faced with much more than she anticipated in dating her idol including being thrown into reality TV, dealing with his famous ex-girlfriend, and feeling out-of-place in his rich, polished family compared to her crazy, over-protective one. With all the drama that comes with dating the gorgeous, talented swimmer, Lia has to decide if her heart can keep up or if she will have to go her own way.

Surprisingly I really liked this. Don’t get me wrong, this is full of cheese. But I anticipate a certain level of cheesiness with every new adult romance novel. I normally need to be in a certain mindset to enjoy them and I certainly was when reading this book.

I think I enjoyed this so much because of Lia. She was so incredibly relatable to me, regardless of the fact that I am not Italian in any way. I really enjoy reading about large families, like the ones you get to see in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the like. Perhaps it’s because they are so vastly different from my own but I really, really loved Lia’s family dynamic and felt it brought a lot of fun and character to the book. Lia herself has so many aspects that I feel a lot of readers will be able to relate to. She’s wanting to go to college out of state but her parents want her to stay home; she’s constantly using humor as a defense mechanism; she often doesn’t see her own worth or beauty and puts herself down more often than not. Some of these things may be annoying for some if they are more mature than the average new adult reader, but for someone like me, I found a lot of common ground with Lia. Jay was okay as a love interest. He’s definitely not going down in any book boyfriend list of mine but he was at least real and not one of those ridiculously perfect love interests. I did find the characterization of his Olympic swimmer friends a little cringey to be honest. They’re both so clearly a girl’s attempt at writing typical guy behavior that I got secondhand embarrassment from it.

The plot was okay. Most of what happened was fairly predictable and a little overdramatic. I do wish that we would’ve gotten to see Jay in a competition sooner than we did and with more detail than what was given since his being a swimmer was such a giant part of the book. It was fast-paced enough to keep my interest however and it was a quick read for me. This is definitely more of a character-driven book than plot-driven if that is something that you like in books.

Overall this was just a fun, easy new adult read for me. I did find it a bit cringey knowing that this basically glorified fan fiction, but I did appreciate the author’s note in the beginning and it was nice to know where the story originated from. I probably will not pick up the other companion novels in this series but I’m glad I finally got around to reading this.

This was my least favorite book of Magan's. The insta-love was hard for me to enjoy as she has always been infatuated with Jay and they just so instantly fell for each other. I need a build up of some sort to enjoy a story.