Title: The Edge of the World
Author: Garrett Leigh
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 212 Pages
Category: Contemporary Romance
At a Glance: Overall, another lovely read, and I know people are going to fall in love with Ollie and Shay. Even though this one had a slightly slower start for me, I had no doubt Leigh was going to deliver. And, I’m so glad she was finally able to get this book out into the world!
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: Shay Maloney is living his dream—on tour with his pirate/folk-rock band. But you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’re from, and that’s where moody filmmaker and researcher Ollie Pietruska comes in.
The band’s management persuades Shay to let a television company film a documentary about his roots beyond his adoptive Irish family, and Ollie comes into his life knowing more about Shay than Shay’s ever known about himself.
But while Ollie holds the key to Shay’s past, he’s also hiding deep scars. Even as the hardships of the tour bring them closer, Ollie’s demons threaten the blossoming romance. They might both reach the breaking point before Ollie realises he’s been standing on the edge of the world for too long, and it’s Shay who holds the key to his future.
Review: Most of my reviews for Garrett Leigh books—maybe even all of them—start out with or contain something along the lines of “She had me from page one…,” and then the gushing continues from there. Remarkably, that wasn’t the case with this one. Leigh’s latest release, The Edge of the World, actually had to grow on me a little. At first, I felt sort of thrown into the story; I wanted more build-up. I didn’t immediately buy into the romance, or even initially to Ollie’s project. BUT, don’t you worry yourselves, friends… Leigh has the ability to make me end up massively caring about something, even if I was ambivalent about it to begin with. And I was allll in by the end of the book.
Leigh is brilliant at bringing her readers something different with each new release. Every character is unique, and each storyline is fresh and intriguing. In The Edge of the World, we have a vibrant musician living (and often struggling) with diabetes, and a documentarian who is filming a genealogy documentary about said musician, and is living with some demons of his own. Shay and Ollie are both wonderful characters, and I ended up absolutely adoring them together. The book description calls this a friends-to-lovers story, but I would actually classify it as love at first sight. Both characters are instantly smitten, especially Ollie towards Shay, well before any type of friendship even forms. This is the description, from Ollie’s POV, from when Shay first lays eyes on Ollie, before they’ve even spoken:
Shay shifted his gaze, scoping out the crowd until he seemed to be staring right at Ollie. They locked eyes. The world shifted, and Ollie sucked in a breath. His hands were clenched at his sides, but as Shay Maloney held him hostage, the ever-present tension in his body gave way to a feeling he didn’t recognize.
And, this, from Shay’s perspective, at less than ten percent in:
Many faces had come and gone, but none had turned his head like Ollie. In fact, Shay couldn’t remember ever being so immediately and entirely entranced by someone…
So, yeah, definitely some love-at-first-sight vibes there. 😉 And, as I said, at first I was feeling that absence of any type of foundation for the relationship. However, as the story progressed, and they started caring about, and caring for each other—I loved how Ollie jumped in to help Shay whenever he was having an episode relating to his diabetes—I became more invested. The romance moved at a nice pace once they acknowledged what was going on between them.
The other focus of the book—aside from the band’s tour—is the genealogy storyline that’s woven throughout. I like the idea of Shy finding out his roots; it was definitely compelling. But I have to admit I would have loved to have a little more background or discussion about how Ollie came up with the information to piece together Shay’s family history. I found the way it played out to be a tiny bit contrived in places, and a little discussion would have helped alleviate that. Some of the things Ollie found out were so cool, though, and it was fun seeing Shay’s reactions to it all.
Aside from those couple of angles that gave me pause in the beginning, I enjoyed this one a ton. There was hordes of emotion, and so many Garrett Leigh signature touches that brought me around and made it fantastic. I loved how different and eclectic the band was. I was mesmerized by all the descriptions of their live gigs: the music, and all the different instruments they played. I loved the friendship within the band, especially Shay’s friendship with Jumbo. And, I always love how Leigh connects all her stories together. A couple of snippets and mentions in this book made me badly want to go back and reread Lucky Man.
Overall, another lovely read, and I know people are going to fall in love with Ollie and Shay. Even though this one had a slightly slower start for me, I had no doubt Leigh was going to deliver. And, I’m so glad she was finally able to get this book out into the world! Go grab it up, guys. ❤️
You can buy The Edge of the World here:
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