THE COINCIDENCE OF CALLIE AND KAYDEN is the first book in Jessica Sorensen’s new series. It tells the story of Callie Lawrence and Kayden Owens seemingly two very different teens from the same town who end up at the same college. However, neither Callie’s nor Kayden’s life is quite what it seems from the outside.

I really enjoyed Sorensen’s THE SECRET OF ELLA AND MICHA (my review), so when I heard that she was writing another series I had to give it a try. In a lot of ways THE COINCIDENCE OF CALLIE AND KAYDEN is a very similar story to THE SECRET OF ELLA AND MICHA, but it is also very different. In a lot of ways the issues Sorensen covers in this book are a lot darker. We find out within the first chapter what is going on in Kayden’s world, and while we do get hints about what happened to Callie it isn’t spelt out until over half-way through the book. I guessed pretty early on though what had happened to Callie, and on the whole I thought Sorensen handled the issue pretty well but I did have a couple of issues with it.

I really liked Callie and Kayden as characters, and I thought that Sorensen did a good job at splitting the narration of the book between them. They seemed really believable as characters, and I enjoyed watching them grow and change on the page. Sorensen also did a great job writing their best friends Seth and Luke, who although they were secondary characters seemed very real and believable and I liked their friendships.

This book was pretty close to getting four stars from me, however as I mentioned earlier I had a couple of issues in regard to how some of the things were handled. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and I almost felt like half the book was missing. Sorensen does a good job at wrapping up the romantic aspect of the plot, but the actual drama felt unfinished so I am really looking forward to reading the second book in the series THE REDEMPTION OF CALLIE AND KAYDEN. If you liked THE SECRET OF ELLA AND MICHA then you should definitely give this book and series a try, if you’re looking for a New Adult title to try then you should consider this one if you don’t mind some of the topics covered being a little dark.

Originally posted on The Flutterby Room.