Review: The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

Summary (from Goodreads):
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. 


I liked it.

I liked it and Haymitch obviously liked it.. ;) 

The characters on a whole are awesome and they all go through a helluva lot, Sorensen does a good job of creating these characters with all their problems and dark memories. In contemporary New Adult books like this one I tend to remember the male character more than the female character simply because I get all fangirl-y but in this book? I liked Callie from the very beginning and if there's a character I'll most likely remember, it's Callie. She changes a great deal from the beginning of the novel compared to the end, it was really quite inspiring (and it made me strangely happy!) reading about her slowly growing and breaking down the walls she had built around her.

The chemistry between Callie and Kayden is very believable and I enjoyed reading how their relationship developed. The book being written from both Kayden and Callie's point of view made it easy to see how both of the characters felt for the other and it was also interesting to read about how they felt about their separate pasts.

However, the plot and also, the "surprise" of Callie's past was a little predictable for my liking. I kind of always knew what Callie was hiding and keeping to herself which made me want to skip some angst filled parts of the novel. I would say the whole book is pretty predictable.. until the very end.

I wasn't expecting the ending at all, I thought The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden, like many other novels similar to it, was a stand alone. I thought, very ignorantly, that this book would end with all the questions answered and all the problems solved. I could not have been more wrong.

I'm usually okay with cliffhangers, it makes me super excited for the sequel but with this book I feel like there shouldn't have been a need for an ending like that or a sequel at all. Obviously now, a sequel is needed, a book can't end the way this does and not have one. I just don't know if I'm actually read the next one..  the way The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden was going, it could have ended without the plot twist and need for another book.

In three very simple sentences, this review summed up: I loved the characters. I liked the plot. I disliked the ending.

Music choice: Most people seem to be completely entranced by the love story but for me, the best thing about The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden is Callie's growth as a character and her need to finally be free.
'To act and damn the consequence
How I wish it could be that easy
But fear surrounds me like a fence
I wanna break free'
This is Wild Horses by Natasha Bedingfield...

itunes link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/wild-horses-single/id519804224