REVIEW: The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

Published: 13th December 2012
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Format: Kindle
Series:  The Coincidence, book one.
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There are those who don’t get luck handed to them on a shiny platter, who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.
Luck was not on Callie’s side the day of her twelfth birthday when everything was stolen from her. After it’s all over, she locks up her feelings and vows never to tell anyone what happened. Six years later her painful past consumes her life and most days it’s a struggle just to breathe.
For as long as Kayden can remember, suffering in silence was the only way to survive life. As long as he did what he was told, everything was okay. One night, after making a terrible mistake, it seems like his life might be over. Luck was on his side, though, when Callie coincidentally is in the right place at the right time and saves him.
Now he can’t stop thinking about the girl he saw at school, but never really knew. When he ends up at the same college as Callie, he does everything he can to try to get to know her. But Callie is reserved and closed off. The more he tries to be part of her life, the more he realizes Callie might need to be saved.

My thoughts:
The love I have for this rather new genre, New Adult is growing stronger with every new book I read. I have not wanted to read anything else. And this book is by far my favorite in the genre that I've read thus far.

There was this balance of heart wrenching scenes, young adults trying to start over their lives but not yet able to let go of their pasts. Wanting to be happy and experience love. And all of that resonated with me so deeply that it actually brought me to tears. Especially the wanting love and friendship and to just feel okay.

Callie is the kind of girl who hides behind her look, the dark eye makeup, short hair and baggy clothes until she goes to college, where she thinks it's a way to reinvent herself without having to worry about her past holding her back. She meets and becomes best friends with Seth who is always there to push her just enough to help her let go of her past. But at times, I felt like he may have been pushing her a little too much. Nothing to the point of breaking, but enough where I wanted to push him back and say "stop."

Kayden appeared to be a bad guy, which worried me. I'm over bad guys. But in reality, he was just as troubled and actually cared deeply about Callie for saving his life and soon realizes it's more than that. His best friend was a little weird in my opinion. He seemed a bit troubled himself, but because most of Kayden's parts were thinking about Callie, talking to/about Callie or with Callie...we didn't learn much about him.

There were times where I thought that they each were too troubled, but when you learn what they do to cope, what their past was, etc, etc... It makes a bit more sense.
This really isn't a lovey dovey book, but there is romance and those scenes definitely are sexy. (Sorensen knows how to write 'em!)

The ending was so abrupt that I started reading the next page...which is the "About the Author" page. It was by far the worst cliffhanger I've ever read--not that it was bad, it was just so abrupt I didn't know what to do. Which just makes me more and more excited for the next book in the series, The Redemption of Callie & Kayden. I read a preview on Jessica Sorensen's website and it was enough to satiate me until the release, but I won't stop thinking about that ending until I read the next book.

If you're into contemporary and into New Adult, this one is perfect! I definitely recommend this book. And it's my first 5 star rated book of the year, as well as being featured in my "January Favorites" post.

Memorable quote:

"It's amazing how the things you remember forever are the things you'd rather forget and things you desperately want to grasp onto seem to slip away like sand in the wind."
- Callie