Over the holidays, I went a little overboard. I read about 6 books... in 7 days and they were all New Adult and romance books I got on my Kindle. I think I just needed some mindless reading to relax and those six romances really did the trick. The first book I bought was The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden. Whew, what a title! What first drew me to this New Adult book was the cover. I mean come on. How could this romance enthusiast resist that cover?
The Coincidence tells the story of shy and troubled Callie. Callie strives to be invisible her entire high school career because of an incident of abuse that happened when she was 12. Enter Kayden. He's attractive, popular and has the queen bee as a girlfriend, but all of his confidence is a show to cover the fact that he fights for his life on a daily basis. With Callie's past and Kayden's alcoholic father, college is the perfect escape for these two from different worlds. When their paths cross on campus, no one would every believe that Kayden and Callie would fall for each other as they come together to battle their demons.
Both Callie and Kayden come from backgrounds of abuse and they find it in themselves to over come their problems. While one might think that they absolutely should not belong together because of their emotion issues, they are exactly what the other needs. They each understand what it's like to not feel whole.
I really liked both Callie and Kayden's characters. They both grew so much through out the course of the story as most teenagers will do their first year of college. Many people begin to realize that the friends they associated with in high school are not those that they want to be friends with in college. People mature and it was fun seeing both Callie and Kayden come into their own.
The plot of the story was pretty original. I found myself swooning at the lovey-dovey scenes and tearing up at the more gut wrenching ones. A really interesting part of the story is how you learn of Callie's abuse. We learn about Kayden's family problems in the first ten pages, but with Callie's issues, we only get snippets. You have to make your own guesses until at the end, all that's left for you to figure out is who is the person responsible for her trauma. This made for a really unique background story for Callie and I really liked this aspect fo The Coincidence.
While I did like the book as a whole, I did have a few problems with the story's ending. I tend to read books with a happy ending. While the story itself may be dark and tormented, the ending always brings a smile to my face and makes the hard parts worthwhile. This story ended on a very depressing note and while I'm sure book two will make sense of the ending, I wasn't a fan of being left hanging... devastated It's not your typical frustrating cliffhanger where you just want to know what happens next. No, this ending will have you wondering why Sorensen had to put the most depressing point of the story at the end. I think this aspect made me feel unsettled when I finished the book and that is really why I have mixed feelings.
This book fits perfectly into the mold of "New Adult" and so if you're venturing into the genre as a new reader, this may be a good book for you.
6 out of 10
Happy Reading :)
I like that you're reading more New Adult books. I feel like you're helping me open up to the possibilities of this new declared genre. I don't tend to try out any without prior multiple reassurance. The story as a whole sounds great especially the budding romance between Callie and Kayden. However, the uber-depressing ending kind of turns me off. I mean, I don't need puppy-rainbow-chocolate endings but I do prefer them at least bittersweet, getting the bad with a side of good. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one. I look forward to your review of book two.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't know if I'll read book two... that should be an indication of the degree of depression I felt at the end of the book. After thinking about it more, I think what upset me about the ending was that it was unnecessary and I think the author just wanted an excuse to be more dramatic. The story was headed to a good place and then the floor fell through. I'm glad your thinking of diving into the NA genre. I like what I've read so far!
ReplyDeleteThis book was raw, sweet, and terribly sad all at once. There were so many times I held my breath, waiting for a situation to end. I wanted to yell into the book at the characters to make some changes, take a chance. The supporting characters are as amazing as the main characters and you wish you were a good big sibling to one of these sweet characters.
ReplyDeleteCath Brookes
Time to check Brick Flooring