Author: Jessica Sorensen
Date of publication: 7 Jan 2014
Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Author's links:
Website / Facebook / Goodreads
My rating: 3 stars
Goodreads Blurb
Luke Price's life has always been about order, control, and acting tough on the outside. For Luke, meaningless relationships are a distraction-a way to tune out the twisted memories of his childhood. He desperately wishes he could forget his past, but it haunts him no matter what he does.
Violet Hayes has had a rough life. When she was young, she was left with no family and the memory of her parents' unsolved murders. She grew up in foster homes, living with irresponsible parents, drugs, and neglect, and trying to fight the painful memories of the night her parents were taken from her. But it's hard to forget when she never got closure-and she can't stop dreaming about what happened that tragic night. To make it through life, she keeps her distance from everyone and never allows herself to feel anything.
Then Violet meets Luke. The two clash instantly, yet they can't seem to stay away from each other. Although they fight it, they both start to open up and feel things they've never felt before. They discover just how similar they are. But they also discover something else: The past always catches up with you...
My review
This is the third book in the Coincidence series but the first one about Luke and Violet who were introduced as secondary characters in the previous books. It can be read as a standalone, since Callie and Kayden are not really present here, though books 1 and 2 give some background to the story. Seth and Greyson from the previous books also have a strong and important presence here.
The story of Violet and Luke follows very much the same structure as The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden. We meet two young people broken by their part trying to cope with the pain in their lives - she is an adrenaline junkie, he reverts to alcohol to numb all sensation. Both of them have had rough and painful childhoods and now at college they are plague by nightmares and are desperately trying to make it on their own. In their story the author explore yet another form of self-destructive behaviour, just as was the case with Callie and Kayden in the previous books.
The similarities come as too much and things in this series just start to repeat themselves. I was blown away by the suffering of Callie and Kayden and their self-destructive reaction to it. We see pretty much the same picture here and it is already old, familiar, lacking the intensity of the unexpected.
The major difference between the two stories is that this time Violet and Luke's past and present are more than closely connected. This just made their relationship all the more difficult to sustain.
I was really disappointed with the ending of this book. It's a cliffhanger of the worst kind. History repeats itself since the book 1 ended in the same way - abruptly, in the middle of the story. I am getting tired of reading half stories and it really takes away a lot of my overall enjoyment of the book. To make matters worse, there is no release date yet for the next book. I still want to read it because I am curious to see if and how Violet and Luke will be able to ultimately overcome their past and save each other.
