The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

First in The Coincidence series

4 stars

On Callie’s twelfth birthday something was stolen from. It changed her life. She changed her hair, clothes, and outlook. She’s never told anyone about what happened to her and it eats at her constantly making life hard to cope with. Kayden has always hidden from his father. His brothers have gotten away and he can’t wait for the day he can too. One night, Kayden makes a mistake and his life almost ends. Callie stopped his father before he died. Now Kayden can’t stop thinking about her after he sees her again at college. As Callie and Kayden become friends he realizes that Callie saved his life and now she might need him to save hers. I surprisingly enjoyed The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden. Why is it a surprise? Well because I had started The Edge of Never before reading this. (Btw, I’m still reading The Edge of Never. I swear that book is never ending.) This book is so much better and I wish I would’ve started it first. This book isn’t perfect and in fact it’s kind of bad if you look at it in a literary perspective (which I didn’t do). This book is dark, but I consider it to be fluffy. This definitely has all the tropes of a NA novel. I’ve never read NA before, but like YA it already has clichés. There’s the mysterious bad boy (with anger problems) and a girl with problems and a past that haunts her. One of the things that I really liked about this book was how each chapter started off with a new task on Callie and her friend’s list that they created to overcome their fears and be new people in college. I really liked this and while I don’t think college was really portrayed very well I liked the atmosphere.


The main female character is Callie. Callie as I mentioned above has a dark past that haunts her. I think the author was trying to make Callie’s past a secret and if so I have to say she did a terrible job. When I received this for e-galley I pretty much forgot the synopsis and just dived into reading. The summary gives it away pretty and then the writing is a huge red flag. The writer made it seem like she was keeping some big secret, but I knew right away what this big secret was that was haunting Callie’s past. Callie is actually pretty bland of a character, but guess what I actually liked her. Why did I like her? I have absolutely no clue whatsoever and I’m just going to guess that it’s because I didn’t put much thought into reading this book. Callie has a past and that pretty much took over her entire personality making it seem like she didn’t have a personality before her life was stolen from her. While what happened to Callie is terribly sad, I find that Sorenson did a terrible job at executing the tragedy that Callie was forced to endure as a child. In my opinion, Callie’s tragedy was thrown in to be “an obstacle”. I hate saying this but I think that it’s the only reason that Sorensen wrote that in. It didn’t feel very authentic and even though I sympathize with Callie, I couldn’t bring myself to have a hate for her (it is a mild spoiler) attacker  like I felt I should have. As the story progressed it became easier to like Callie as a person because she was finally becoming a person. I do think that this way of coping that Callie does is also just another “obstacle” for Callie. What I want to know is if anyone finds out about it in the sequel.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7

The main male character is Kayden. I honestly don’t like Kayden very much. He’s not a person I would want to be with unless it was a one-nighter. Kayden has very bad anger issues which actually wind up coming to bite him in the butt. Can I just say thank you to Sorensen for actually giving a male a punishment. I’m tired of people getting away with something they wouldn’t have in the real world. Kayden is a bit of a douche bag to be honest, but I also, like Callie, can’t help but like him. Don’t get me wrong there are times when I wanted to punch him in the face, but he is actually a pretty entertaining character sometimes. Kayden is also not the brightest bulb in the box, but I’m not expecting him to be. Unlike Callie’s trauma, for me Kayden’s felt real. Maybe it was because it occurred in the book’s time frame, but it was a lot realer and it felt authentic when the scenes would come up. I don’t swoon for Kayden, but I definitely would give him a hug after that ending (which I will get to).

 
Swoon Worthy Scale: 7

The Villain- Seriously don’t read them unless you’ve read the book the spoil everything. Callie’s brother’s friend was the one who molested her and can I just say that I already knew that before it was even revealed. I mean who else would’ve done it with all of the “clues” that were subtly dropped around. I actually didn’t like him very much when he was thrown in to the story and I feel no sympathy for the ass-whooping he received. Kayden’s dad is the absolute epitome of jerk. I swear he oozes it. It’s disgusting; every time he’s around my skin would crawl. I think his dad was portrayed perfectly and props to Sorenson for making me want to punch him in the face. Although I didn’t have to do it because Kayden did it for me. You looked didn’t you? I told you there were big spoilers.


Villain Scale: 8

Seth was hands down my favorite character in the whole book. He brought Callie out of her shell and when he was around Callie was a person and he was funny. He made the book so much better. I want to know more about his past. Those little glimpses are not enough for me. How awesome would it be if he got his own POV in the sequel? Even if it is for a chapter or two. I’ll take anything. Luke is Kayden’s best friend and I really like him. He’s another character I want to know more about especially about his sister and what happened to her. I want to know more about these two because I really liked them and I want more.


Character Scale: 9

That ending!





Jessica Sorensen is absolutely evil. How can you leave a book with such an open ending and not expect me to want to punch my kindle. That was torture. You can’t do that. I need the sequel now. I suggest reading this right before the sequel comes out that way you don’t have to wait because trust me even if you don’t like the book I’m sure you’ll want to know what happened. The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden is far from amazing but I went into this book without any expectations and just an opened mind and enjoyed it. Definitely good mindless reading.


Cover Thoughts: The cover actually fits. You probably thought when first seeing it “Great another couple on a cover.” Guess what there is a kissing scene in the rain and I totally loved it and all its cheesy glory.

  Thank you, Netgalley and Hachette for giving me this galley in exchange for an honest review!