Review: The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

Title: The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

Author: Jessica Sorensen

Summary:

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.

Review:

So, I want to start out by saying that Ive read a lot of Jessica Soresens books, but most recently I read the Secret of Ella and Micha, which I was not overly impressed with. I suppose my expectations were just too high bec of how much I liked her other books. So I held off on this one for a while.

Until a wonderful bloggy friend told me that I should SO read this, and MAN am I glad I did!

The story is about 2 people (with 2 other supporting people) Callie is a broken girl. She has been broken since she was only 12, when someone took advantage of her in the worst way imaginable. This is not something I take lightly or read about often, especially when she was so young when it happened. Rape is an inexcusable crime! But since that day in Sixth grade, Callie had been different. She was anti-social, feared any person of the opposite sex, and tried to make herself appear heavier and uglier than she was because she wanted no attention on herself.

This attitude stayed with her even when she finally got out of that town and went to college. Except, she was trying hard to get over it. To heal herself. And to be stronger. In this book, you get to witness a lot of growing on her part.

Then you have Kayden who is also broken. He has been verbally, emotionally and physically abused his whole life. His father is a drunk, but he would best him even when he was sober. And things only got worse for Kayden when his two older brother grew up and moved out, leaving him alone to bear the wrath of his father.

When he went to college, he was basically dead. He didn’t feel anything anymore because it was easier to turn all his feelings off. (His mother was also nonexistent, as she drowned her sorrows in pharmaceuticals and wine-offering him no safety from his father)

Everything changed when Callie saw Kaydens father beat him, and she stepped in to stop him. It was the first time anyone had ever stepped in for him, and showed any amount of concern for him (despite that they were in no way friends)

They meet at college, 4 months after this incident, where they learn more about eachother and grow to be friends and more.

I have to say the characters felt so real to me. I have known many people who have had to deal with these types of situations. And though it was hard to read at times, and made me want to cry my freakin eyes out, it was real.

I also have to mention our 2 supporting characters. First you have Seth, who is also a broken character. He was beaten and hurt because he is gay. His best friend (also a male that he cared deeply for) outed him and watched as he was beaten within an inch of his life.

Together Seth and Callie finally find a friend (or just another person) they can trust.

Luke is the other one. He is Kaydens best friend, and has unspecified issues of his own. But tends to drink way too much.

One thing that needs mentioning is, if you hate insta-love, this is the book for you. There was no insta-lve here. There was slow building trust, then friendship, then love. It was beautiful and perfect to see how Callie and Kayden both were able to grow to care for another person.

The romance was perfect.

Now… All I have to say about the ending is that it sucks. Some reviewers say there is no ending, and they are kinda right. The end of the book has no resolution really. Things start to progress, but it just ends at the climax. Which is hard… because a story needs to have the little ending part after the climax, and this book doesn’t have it, leaving you with a killer cliffhanger that sucks hard core. Just FYI

Finally, I need to mention that there are very serious issues in the book. So if any of the things below bother you, don’t read it.
Memories from rape. Sexual instances. Physical abuse. Self-mutilation. Bulimia. (the last two are used as coping mechanisms… it is not offered in a pretty light, but its still hard to read about. Nevertheless, it is something that teens DO use at times to cope, and these two characters had a LOT to cope with)

Overall, it was a heart wrenching story of two very broken people who finally learn to trust and love.

Rating: 5 Stars