The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden (Coincidence, #1)

by Jessica Sorensen

THE NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

I remember everything about that day, like the images have been burned into my brain by a branding iron. But I wish they would blow away in the wind.

Callie has grown up keeping her feelings locked away from the outside world, and as her painful past threatens to consume her life, most days it's a struggle just to breathe.

For as long as Kayden can remember, suffering in silence has been the only way to survive, until one night when Callie and Kayden's worlds collide.

After that moment, Kayden can't stop thinking about Callie and when they end up at the same college, he does everything in his power to convince her that it isn't coincidence, it's fate.

Lose yourself in the New York Times bestselling sensation that is enchanting readers everywhere -- discover an addictive story filled with unforgettable characters, intense passion and heart-stopping romance.

• ISBN10: 1455576506
• ISBN13: 9781455576500
• Publish Date: 6 August 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Time Warner Trade Publishing
• Imprint: FaithWords
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

When I first started reading this book, it reminded of my of Pushing the Limits and every other NA book about romance that I have read. Two people with hectic issues i.e. abuse, find a way to solve these issues via the love that they have for each other.

This book was very predictable! I could guess everything that was going to happen in story and couldn't help but feel that some parts of the story felt forced or felt as though it was a way to move the plot along.

Even although I felt this way, Callie and Kayden were main characters who I believed in. I also enjoyed reading about the secondary characters, who I felt were really developed.

The characters were amazingly developed and the book made me feel enough to care about what happens to them, but it was only towards the end that I was able to shake off the feeling of Deja-Vu that I felt and continued to read the story with a lot more ease (I have no idea why, but I'm attributing this to a sense of uniqueness that the book seemed to gain).

And that really horrible cliff hanger that wasn't really a cliff-hanger at the end! TERRIBLY CRUEL!! (I have to get my hands on book two to see what happens next)

[thebookdisciple]

I really loved this book and read it in one sitting in about 3 hours! However, be warned-you will want to have the second book ready to read because this book just ends. I mean in the middle of a crazy, life changing event. I love the characters. It's one of the few books where I felt like the characters reactions to the things that had happened to them in the past was realistic.

[Angie]

While I loved this author's other New Adult Contemporary series, The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden didn't grab me in the same way. We got off to quite a rocky start. It did pick up, but I was never fully engaged in Callie and Kayden's story. I found much of it to be quite boring and I struggled with Callie's POV a lot. The cliffhanger ending also threw me off, since these type of books typically wrap up nicely even when there's a sequel to follow. I think the story had a lot of potential, since it follows two very damaged people as they work through lifelong issues while also finding love. Unfortunately, most of it didn't work for me for various reasons.

My first problem with The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden was Callie herself. She is very timid and scared of life, which is understandable because she went through something terrible. However, she could have been presented in a way that wasn't frustrating to read about. I identified with her more than I wanted to, but I still never felt a connection to her narrative. She was very closed off to people including the reader, which isn't enjoyable to read. In the beginning she said "I'm sorry" about a million times which drove me crazy. She does grow throughout the book, but by then I had already checked out. I will admit that a lot of my issue with her sections was that it hit a bit too close for my liking, and honestly, I never would have bought this one if I had known what her big secret was.

I also found the story to be slow and boring. I like my New Adult to have a bit of an edge, or at least something that keeps the plot moving faster. I did like that Callie and Kayden hung out, becoming good friends in the process, before any romance comes up, but their earlier scenes were also repetitive because of this. It was always Callie being hesitant to spend time with Kayden, then having her friend Seth convince her to do something fun, followed by her having a good time, then freaking out afterwards, and finally apologizing for it. I would have liked for The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden to have a bit more variety in Callie and Kayden's interactions rather than the same thing in different locations.

One thing that I did really enjoy about The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden was Callie and Seth's list. They had met during the summer semester before their freshman year and instantly bonded. Seth also has a dark past that he was working through, so he and Callie created a list of things that they have to do. Some of the things are fun, such as dancing in the rain. Others are a bit more challenging and scary, like allowing someone new to get close. Each chapter has one to three items from the list as the header, and then Callie completes those tasks. I thought this was a cute addition, and it was nice to see her accomplish them.

Unfortunately, I didn't like The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden as much as I wanted. I couldn't connect to the characters, which was unfortunate, especially when I could relate to one of them. It also felt like nothing happened until the very end, when there's a very shocking and abrupt cliffhanger. In a way, I did see it coming, but I assumed it would be resolved within this book. I'm glad that I do have The Redemption of Callie and Kayden on hand, so I can find out what happens next. I also hope that the sequel works out better for me.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Rowena]

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 can’t explain how much I enjoyed this book. I don’t even know which words to use to explain how much I enjoyed this book. The realness of the story, the rawness of the characters, it all made for one heck of a roller coaster.

This story follows Callie and Kayden to college. In high school, Callie was the social outcast. She was the freak that didn’t let anyone get too close and she had her reasons for doing that. Nobody knows about these reasons and that was exactly how she preferred it. Once she got to college, she could be the person that she wanted to be. College was her shot at becoming the person she was meant to be all along.

Right before Callie was scheduled to leave for college, she comes across Kayden Owens getting severely beaten by his father and without thinking, she jumps right in and saves Kayden’s life. Nobody knows about Kayden’s home life. Everyone thinks that he’s got it so good, his parents have money and he’s got a football scholarship and a girlfriend that everyone wants to bang. When Callie intervenes, Kayden can’t seem to stop thinking about her. He never got around to thanking her for saving his life that night but when he comes across her, a very new her at school, things get really interesting.

Callie and Kayden are both such broken characters that saved each other. They’re both struggling with just surviving the life hands that they were dealt and seeing them come together was such an emotional roller coaster for me. I was sucked right in with everything that was going on and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to suit me. I wanted to know everything, feel everything and just make sure that they found their ways. Both Callie and Kayden suffer from the lives back in their hometown and seeing their relationship grow into one of the most beautiful things that either of them have ever had…man, it was great.

This book made me a hot mess. I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more right before I cried some more. The ending had me all worried up until I found out that there’s another book to follow. I really, really loved this book. I loved both Callie and Kayden, I loved the friends they had in both Seth and Luke. I loved seeing the friendship between the four of them blossom the way that it did when they all got to college. I loved how they became a family unit and they were all there for each other, exactly the way that friends should be there for you.

I cannot wait for the next book. This book had it all, a storyline that will hurt your heart and keep you cheering the characters on and a steamy romance that will make you raise your brows like, “Say what?” It was all great, just great reading. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was such a good read.

[Leah]

Just a couple of weeks ago I read Jessica Sorensen’s fabulous novel The Secret of Ella and Micha. I LOVED it. So, so much. It was totally amazing and afterwards I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I desperately wanted to read more from Sorensen. So when the email came through from Netgalley saying the publisher had accepted my request to read Jessica’s novel The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden I nearly died. I was so excited. I stopped the book I was reading (I was only a chapter in, to be fair) and immediately started The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden, because I knew that by hook or by crook I’d finish it before I went to sleep. I knew it with a certaintly like no other. And I did. And I nearly died again because oh my God, what an ending to a novel. For the record, that shouldn’t be allowed and there’s a massive part of me that would like to slap Jessica Sorensen for doing that to me, because it’s CRUEL.

But, first, The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden is about (believe it or not) Callie and Kayden. Callie’s life fell apart the day of her twelfth birthday and since then she’s been living a half-life, with everyone around her treating her as if she’s not normal. Kayden has suffered at the hands of someone who really shouldn’t make you suffer that way, and he knows the only way is to keep quiet, for fear of what may happen if he speaks up. Callie and Kayden’s lives collide one night when Callie does the unthinkable and steps in when she sees what’s happening to Kayden and when they end up at the same college, Kayden knows he needs to thank the girl who saved his life. Callie and Kayden both see college as redemption, as a way to forget their past and when they find themselves attracted to each other, it seems as if it’s fate… But can they outrun their demons?

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden is amazing. Utterly amazing. I have never met two such damaged characters, and Callie and Kayden are damaged, so damaged, in the worst way possible, but I really liked how they both let each other in, even though it was ridiculously hard at first, especially for Callie. Despite their pain, despite their issues (which are plentiful and there is sooooooo much left unexplored) I felt hope for them both. Hope that they could (and can) help each other get to a better place, somewhere where the people in their past can’t defeat them. The people who hurt them don’t deserve to win, and I found their attraction and their spark to help sort of beat that, and I loved it. The novel is hard to read at times, as Callie and Kayden separately remember bits of their past that are really, really bad. But the hope was what kept me reading, because I’m a big believer that love can conquer (most) evils in the world.

Let’s talk about the ending now. Which I won’t spoil, but I will say, if you’re thinking of reading The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden I suggest you wait until its sequel The Redemption of Callie and Kayden is released (in August). You’ll thank me, because if I’d have known the book ended the way it ended (leaving me open-mouthed in shock that I had indeed got to 100% on my Kindle and it wasn’t malfunctioning) I’d have waited to read the book. I hate endings like that, so much because they absolutely suck if the next book in the series isn’t out. Consider yourself warned. I’m hoping that in The Redemption of Callie and Kayden, we’ll see Callie and Kayden open up more, take their relationship further, perhaps even tell each other about their lives and what happened to them. I’d also really love to see more of Seth and Luke. Me thinks there’s more to BOTH of those characters than meets the eye, and although it’s inferred to as to why Seth was treated the way he was I think more is needed, I want to know that something happened to the people that did that to him because it made me feel sick. I also think there’s more to Luke than meets the eye, for sure. I was actually convinced of something else about Luke, but that didn’t occur. There’s a lot more to Callie and Kayden’s story, and a lot more to the characters around them, too and I can’t wait for August to continue reading about them. This was an amazing novel, and one you should definitely read (but, like I said, wait for the sequel first).

[Cocktails and Books]

My first thought when finishing the book was "Holy Shite!" It was one of those books that grabbed you by the collar, shook you around and refused to let go. It was gritty, heartbreaking, refreshing and infuriating (but only at the very, very end). Jessica Sorensen created a story with a storyline that was completely sad but at the same time had hope sprinkled in with two characters you fall in love with and need to find a happy place...especially with each other.

Callie has spent years hiding herself in baggy clothes, black make-up and hair purposefully made to look horrible. She was hiding from the secret she's kept since her twelfth birthday and it made her an outcast her small town. Not only with her classmates, but with the residents in general. The only thing she could do was countdown to the time when she went away from college and could leave everything behind. But a chance encounter with her high school's star quarterback proves to her that despite appearances things aren't always perfect for everyone.

From the moment I met Callie on the first page of the book, I felt a connection with her. I felt her terror when her mother forced her out of the car to get her brother. She surprised me when she intervened in a situation that terrified her. And I was happy for her when she started to spread her wings. She was a girl who, for whatever reason, had no one that she could confide in or that was willing to stand up for her. Her parents, who seemingly wanted her to get over whatever had caused her drastic change, never seemed to actual question just what happened to her. She went from a happy-go-lucky eleven year old to a twelve year that withdrew into herself and hide from everyone. Sure, they took her to counselors to try and get to the bottom of things, but I have to think at some point something would stand out to make one of them realize something really bad happened and they needed to figure out what. It was heartbreaking to think that this poor girl spent six years living the life of virtually the walking dead because no one took the time to actually stop and look at what was going on with her.

Kayden was in a similar situation. On the outside he appeared the perfect golden boy from the perfect family. But no one bothered to look at what was really happening and question things. His best friend, Luke, having an idea of what was happening at Kayden's home, wasn't enough to raise the warning flags that things weren't really all they seemed to be. Where Callie withdrew into herself and tried to hide, Kayden took a different direction in dealing with the pain he was suffering. He manifested his in a more physical manner, which was the only way he could deal with everything that was happening to him, but no one stopped to ask him why his body looked the way it did. He always had an excuse, but at some point all these convenient excuses become just that, excuses, to which someone should have dug a little deeper.

For Callie and Kayden, their saving graces were leaving their small hometown and finding each other at college. They learned to trust not only in other people, but in themselves. It was a valuable lesson both of them needed to learn. But that also lead to them realizing they were worth something to someone else. They knew, without fail, that they would be there for each other. And nothing proved that more than the last 40 pages of the book. These also happen to be the most gut-wrenching, soul shredding pages that had me literally wanting to lay in a ball until the next book comes out. They are that good!

Of course, the last few pages of the book also make for the most irritating portion of the story...the cliffhanger ending. It's hellish and another reason I wanted to roll into that ball I just wrote about. I wanted to throw my iPad across the room, pick it back up only to kick it back to it's landing spot. I'm desperate to find out what happens next to Callie and Kayden, but I'll have to wait somewhat patiently (along with everyone else) for the conclusion to their story (which should come in August).

As I continue on my New Adult reading kick, I'm going to go on a limb and say this is my absolute favorite. Callie and Kayden are sweet, hot and heartbreaking and I can't wait for August to come around. Congratulations, Ms. Sorenson...I'm hooked.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

This book has wrecked my heart in all of the best possible ways. It's beautiful, dark, and full of tremendous amounts of intense emotion. Seriously, I could not turn my feels off during this one, and it left me aching in so many ways waiting breathlessly for more. [a:Jessica Sorensen|4601855|Jessica Sorensen|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1388093087p2/4601855.jpg], has a knack for writing these gorgeous and compelling novels, that just have the ability to take your breath away and turn you inside out flinging your emotions all over the map. From the second I picked up this novel and started reading, I knew that I didn't want to put it down until I had discovered all of its little hidden secrets and gems that it had to offer. When I was finished with it, I still could not stop thinking about it. I was mystified by everything that it held within the pages, from the story of love, abuse, being afraid to feel anything, being afraid to be loved by someone else, and so many other things it held within the confines of its pages.

Somehow, I instinctively knew, that this would be the start of a tumultuous love affair with a new book series, that I would be embarking on and it's a journey that I knew I wouldn't want to miss out on for the world.

The characters in this story and their lives, are so messed up and complicated, dark and abusive, and terrifying in so many ways that it's unreal at times. From the moment it starts, it just never really stops and then it will leave you hanging in such a way, that you'll want to chuck the book completely across the room until you've realized there's another one to be read after it. These characters, are at best, both likable and unlikable at the same time and that I think is part of their beauty and the charm in this story. It's what makes them more real, in a sense, where it feels like you're experiencing their own personal journey and tragedies as you what them break and fall apart and finally together.

Even if this is Callie and Kayden's story, it isn't always just about them. One thing Jessica Sorensen does, that I have found myself really enjoying, is the way that she incorporates the side characters and develops them in brilliant ways that help them shine on their own, without having to take a backseat to the main characters the novel is focusing on. It is never just about "a story" when it comes to her wonderful and imaginative writing, but it's "multiple stories" all rolled into one and she has this uncanny way of making it all come together and work perfectly. So, when you're reading Callie and Kayden's story, you're also getting small significant glimpses of Luke, and Seth's stories as well. Each of them has their own personal demons that they have to stare down and each of them has their own way of dealing with the shit they've had to endure in their own lives. Yet, all of them rely on one another to each help get the other one through.

Callie and Kayden have broken my heart and stitched the jagged pieces of it back together with twine. Both of them scarred in different ways, yet both of them finding solace and comfort in the other. They fit so well together, that it's absolutely terrifying because it could end up being either good or bad. Everything about their lives and the pain they've had to endure, their battle scars, and the mental anguish they can't seem to let go of defines them in so many ways. It also links them together, gives them a perfect understanding of the other one, knowing that there's someone else out there who's as damaged as them and gets it without having to spell it out.

If you are looking for a book that will offer second chances, a book that is full of emotional turmoil and struggle, something that will eat away at all of your emotions and leave you reeling all over the place then [b:The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden|16113791|The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden (The Coincidence, #1)|Jessica Sorensen|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353550763s/16113791.jpg|21930423] is the book that you'll want to pick up. The sheer ugliness of what's tackled within these pages and the hope that sparks that very second chance that I mentioned a moment ago, is enough to make this one of the best New Adult contemporary books that I've read in a while. I would personally recommend this series to you, as well as [a:Jessica Sorensen|4601855|Jessica Sorensen|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1388093087p2/4601855.jpg]'s other series. She is a brilliant author with an amazing ability to tell a story in such a realistic way that you feel as if you are inside of the pages yourself experiencing every bit of hell these characters are being put through. If you're looking for a story to stick with you, long after you've turned the pages, this is that story and you won't regret it.

[Romance Schmomance]

Review to come!

[blackbibliophile]

This one pulled at my heart strings a bit. Great story.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Last month I shared my review of the Secrets of Ella and Micha and told you how much I loved this author's writing style and her ability to capture the emotions of her characters. This novel confirms it..I am in love with this author! Sorensen breathes such life into her characters. I became completely swept up in Callie and Kayden's individual stories and their bittersweet romance. I laughed, I cried, I drained the batteries on my smart phone and the cliffhanger ending is killing me. Sorensen touches on some really painful subjects, and the harsh reality of it was raw, beautiful and thought provoking. If ever two people deserve to find happiness its these too. The Redemption of Callie and Kayden book two will publish on February 28th and I cannot wait!
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer