Jessica Sorensen

Cuando comencé a leer este libro pensé que sería una versión paralela de Pushing the Limits, y bueno en cierta forma lo es, pero eso no es lo que lo identifica.

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden es una historia arrolladora, real, con personajes brillantemente desarrollados. Incluso los secundarios (de quienes espero se escriba su propia historia, porque definitivamente quiero saber mas de Luke y Seth). Nada de protagonistas perfectamente atractivos y de los cuales todos se enamoran a show more penas los ven. Callie y Kayden son descritos como dos seres humanos reales, y eso es lo que hace a la historia atractiva.

Profunda, conmovedora, divertida (especialmente la parte cuando juegan "yo nunca", me reí muchísimo con eso).

El final fue lo unico que me dejó un mal sabor, ya que queda abierto de una manera, digamos que de una manera que deja mucho que pensar, asi que sino te gusta el suspenso espera a que salga el segundo libro de la serie antes de leer este, de otra forma te recomiendo que lo leas ya. show less

Cuando comencé a leer este libro pensé que sería una versión paralela de Pushing the Limits, y bueno en cierta forma lo es, pero eso no es lo que lo identifica.

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden es una historia arrolladora, real, con personajes brillantemente desarrollados. Incluso los secundarios (de quienes espero se escriba su propia historia, porque definitivamente quiero saber mas de Luke y Seth). Nada de protagonistas perfectamente atractivos y de los cuales todos se enamoran a show more penas los ven. Callie y Kayden son descritos como dos seres humanos reales, y eso es lo que hace a la historia atractiva.

Profunda, conmovedora, divertida (especialmente la parte cuando juegan "yo nunca", me reí muchísimo con eso).

El final fue lo unico que me dejó un mal sabor, ya que queda abierto de una manera, digamos que de una manera que deja mucho que pensar, asi que sino te gusta el suspenso espera a que salga el segundo libro de la serie antes de leer este, de otra forma te recomiendo que lo leas ya. show less

In the existence of our lives, there is a single coincidence that brings us together and for a moment, our hearts beat as one."

wow and wow. We are all broken, just in different ways. We all struggled, we've all had to pick up the pieces of who we once were and try to put them back together.

But every now and again, two people are so broken and their pieces so scattered, that when their two paths cross - they are more whole then they were before. This is Callie and Kayden

I'm so glad that show more Kayden doesn't have anger issues and doesn't try to beat up every person Callie talks to. I love that he's not possessive. He's real. He's broken and he's struggling. And he's sweet beyond belief.

And Callie is so real in her need to hide, disappear and run. This topic is very real, very dear to me. And Jessica Sorensen does such a wonderful job or respecting the pain, the struggle to understand the loss of something not tangible - and the wonder at the healing process.

and together they aren't suddenly two halves made whole - they are finding themselves. It's a tough juggle to not make them co-dependent, and Jessica Sorensen does it flawlessly.

I just can't say it enough. I loved this book. show less

I am not sure why I keep reading books like this one. I mean, I'm a total angst whore, but these type of books are almost never written well, and this book is not an exception to that rule. So, in the end, all that happens is that the book makes me insanely angry, which is what happened with this one, as well.

I think the basic "bones" of the story had some potential. Nova (because girls in these books always have to have a unique name) hasn't been the same since her boyfriend and best show more friend, Landon, committed suicide and she found him. Since then, her life has been spiraling out of control. She can't move on; she can't examine the past; she can't open up in therapy. She's just existing. Then she meets Quinton, who has just as much baggage as Nova has, if not more. He was driving a car and two people ended up dead. He wasn't drunk or high, but he still feels like the accident is his fault (even though his girlfriend, Lexi, was climbing out of the window, and if that isn't a distraction, I don't know what is).

But the story never gelled for me, and I made it about halfway through before I decided to say fuck this shit and just skim over the rest of the book - and I was glad that I did, because the story didn't get any better.

Nova got on my last nerve. I understand depression (more of that later), and she wants to help Quinton, which is fine. But she was so fucking focused on Quinton that she didn't even pay attention to what was happening to Delilah, her best friend, right in front of her nose. She wants to save a stranger because he reminds her of Landon, but she idly wonders a few chapters later if she would do anything if Delilah's on-again-off-again boyfriend hit her in front of Nova, because she didn't like getting involved with other people's business (except Quinton's, apparently). WTF. Way to look out for your friend there, especially since Dylan drags Delilah off to have sex (presumably) and Nova doesn't say anything about that either, even though she does think to herself that she can tell that Delilah doesn't want to go. But, whatever, who gives a fuck about your best friend being in an abusive relationship when there's the dreamy mysterious loner stranger Quinton to think about, amirite?

There are also some discrepancies in the backstory and the details of the main characters' lives. The one that mostly stuck out to me, for example, was if Quinton's mother was alive or not. Because in one chapter, he talks about how it's just him and his dad and it has always been that way since his mother died in childbirth. Then, a few chapters later, Quinton talks about how responsible and good he was before the accident, and how his mom would brag about him to her friends. To her dead ghost friends? I mean...that doesn't make any sense. There was never any mention of a step-mother, either, and if Quinton was close enough to call her "mom" in his memories, I imagine that there would be, especially since he mentioned his father several times in the book.

The misogyny in this book annoyed me to no end, as well. Landon and Quinton (as well as Tristan), although all of them are deeply troubled, feel like they have the right to tell Nova what to do or not to do. They tell her that she's too "good" to mess with pot (oh I'm going to rant about THAT in just a minute, trust me) and that she shouldn't touch it - and they all smoke it in front of her. And there are also two types of girls, according to Quinton - those who are "good" and interest him, and those who want to fuck around and therefore aren't "good" and would never interest him besides for sex. Oh, the lovely "madonna-whore" dichotomy, where you can either enjoy sex and be a slut or be a "good girl" and not enjoy casual(ish) sex. Give me a break.

And then there's the pot. This is going to be a rant, as previously hinted in the above paragraph, and probably a pretty hefty one at that, so I'm going to put it beneath a spoiler cut. Before I start on my spiel here, I will disclose that I live in a state where recreational cannabis use is legal (Colorado), I am above the legal age for using recreational marijuana (over 21...by many years), and I use it almost daily to keep my crippling social anxiety and overwhelming depression at bay (and it mostly works - and DEFINITELY works better than the multiple pills I have been prescribed over the years).

Any drug, especially when abused, can be a bad time. Teenagers shouldn't be abusing marijuana, much as they shouldn't be abusing alcohol, nicotine, or any other substances, because research has shown that their brains are not yet done developing and heavy drug abuse can affect their brains for the rest of their lives.

However, pot being portrayed as absolutely evil is just...what the hell.

I really get irritated when it becomes obvious that the author who wants to paint cannabis in such a poor light has either never used it OR has only been smoking some Mississippi ditchweed. Because the author clearly has never tasted a dank sativa that expands your mind beyond all boundaries. Or how about a nice indica that gives you a happy little couch-lock buzz and keeps you from causing harm to yourself? I'd love for her to come to Colorado and share a joint with me, because I would definitely be able to push back all of this "reefer madness" propaganda that she seems determined to (falsely) spread through this book.

First off, telling anyone that they are "too good" to use cannabis puts anyone who DOES use it (particularly someone who uses it regularly) as "not good." I don't buy into the bullshit that someone is either a "good" person or a "bad" person - every human being has the capacity to do both good and bad things; it isn't an "either-or" situation - but to try to paint those who use cannabis as "bad" is stupid. A lot of people use cannabis - millions in the United States alone - and we aren't "bad." I, for example, have a good job where I help people on a regular basis. I work hard, pay my taxes, and am saving up for a down payment on a house. I also have severe depression, and if I don't manage it, I can't work hard, I can't help people (including myself), I can't pay my taxes, and I can't pay my rent. Am I "bad" for using the only drug that has helped me? Well, if I am, let me continue to be "bad!" :P

The characters who use pot in this book on the daily are "bad." They are the epitome of lazy stoners who can't do anything except get high and deal drugs. Well, yeah, there are those kinds of people out there. But we're not all like that. Is the person who uses medicinal cannabis for relief of physical pain out there dealing drugs at music festivals? Probably not. And I know that I have never sold any type of drugs to anyone ever. Just because someone uses marijuana regularly does not make them lazy. I'm so tired of that stereotype.

Hilariously, when Nova got high for the first time, she forgot her favorite food, favorite song, etc. LOL Dude, I have been tripping out of my gourd before (I also use cannabis for fun), and I can safely say that I have NEVER forgotten my favorite food or favorite song. I mean, I'm high right now since I have been having a pretty bad week mentally speaking, and I feel that this review is relatively coherent. And, for the record, my favorite food is Ben & Jerry's non-dairy Cherry Garcia, and my favorite song is "When You Sleep" by Mary Lambert. Just FYI. ;)

Also, when they're talking about Nova "coming down" after using marijuana for the first time and how rough it is going to be - LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL FOREVER. What the fuck!?! I've smoked a lot of cannabis since moving to Colorado, and yes I have had what I call a "stoner hangover" once in a while, which is when I feel a little sleepy and sluggish. But I have NEVER had a bad experience "coming down." In fact, it's so gradual, like riding an escalator, that I usually don't know that I'm not high anymore until I'm, well, completely not high anymore. It isn't like alcohol, when you wake up with a killer headache. Even if you green out, you usually just pass out and wake up fine in a few hours.

I'm pretty sick of the anti-cannabis bent that I am reading in books, especially when alcohol is portrayed as "normal" or even "cool." Alcohol kills around 2,500,000 people a year around the world (from cirrhosis to hepatic cancer to suicide to drunk driving, etc, etc). There aren't any hard facts about how many deaths are related to cannabis use, but there are some. However, the news feels the need to report EVERY time someone who has cannabis in their bloodstream does something bad or dies - and doesn't feel this need when it comes to alcohol, because alcohol use (and downright abuse) is socially acceptable. Let's put it this way - when's the last time you heard someone getting high and beating their kids? Now when's the last time you heard someone getting drunk and beating their kids? I really wish that my biological father had been a stoner instead of a raging alcoholic; I may have felt something for him that way, other than a vague sense of disgust.

tl;dr: Choo choo, let's all get on the "pot is evil and anyone who uses it is a bad person" train!

This book isn't something that I would recommend to anyone. show less