The Redemption of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

Title: The Redemption of Callie & Kayden (The Coincidence #2)

Author: Jessica Sorensen

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: February 11, 2014 (Paperback)

Source: Purchased eBook

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden comes an emotional new story about two troubled souls sharing one all-encompassing love…

The dark secret Kayden has kept hidden for years is finally out. Worse, he's facing charges for battery. The only way to clear his name is for Callie to speak up--something he'll never ask her to do. Instead, he'll do whatever he must to protect her…even if it means letting go of the only girl he's ever loved.

Callie knows Kayden is going back to his dark place and desperately wants to save him. But that means facing her greatest fear and admitting her own painful secrets aloud. The thought of breaking her silence terrifies her--but not as much as the thought of losing Kayden forever.

Deep in her heart, Callie knows the time has come for her and Kayden to forget the pain of the past. With the help of her friends Seth and Luke she makes a plan to show Kayden the life they could have. But can she convince him they can make a fresh start together--or is she already too late?

It looks like I am continuing on with my newfound, mild obsession with New Adult, and so far I'm loving everything I've been reading. Jessica Sorensen's The Redemption of Callie & Kayden was what I hoped it would be, and I loved continuing on with the characters I'd gotten to know in the previous book.

His whole life, Kayden Owens has worked to keep his secret hidden. To everyone else, Kayden was the popular football player, but at home things weren't the same. But now people know what his father has been doing all these years. Except not everyone has the right story. Now the only way for Kayden to make things right is with Callie's help. But the last thing he wants is to ask Callie to do the one thing he was never able to do, speak up. Callie knows she has to help Kayden, but she doesn't know how. THe last thing she wants is to lose Kayden, but it seems like everything she does only ends up pushing him away. With Luke and Seth's help, Callie sets out to show Kayden the life he could have, but will he be willing to do what it takes to live that life?

The first book in this series, The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden, ended on a cliffhanger that left me pretty desperate to know what would happen next. Unfortunately for me, I was on a plan at the time and had no way of getting The Redemption of Callie & Kayden. As soon as I got off the plane, though, I dug my Kindle out of my bad and got myself the next book. Where the first book was more focused on what happened to Callie, this one focused more on Kayden. My heart broke multiple times while reading. There were many times where it hurt to see Kayden struggle with his father's absue and his own self-harm as a result of that abuse. For me, that struggle kept off the page, and once again, the way Jessica Sorensen presented these subjects felt disturbingly real. But more than the pain and struggle present throughout the story, there's also hope and love. In The Redemption of Callie & Kayden, the two titular characters' romance shone through everything else. It was their story and no one else's. Callie and Kayden just needed to realize that their best chance of survival was together, not apart.

Because of the way Jessica Sorensen wrote their story, Callie and Kayden have felt like real people from the start. Once again, my heart broke while reading Callie's story, not just because of what had happened to her but also because of everything that was happening with her and Kayden. This time though, I grew a little frustrated with Kayden at times. I understood where he was coming from, but I just wanted him to stop pushing Callie away and get the help he needed and deserved. But beyond that, seeing Callie and Kayden together warmed my heart and gave me hope. These were two people who had suffered so much and but managed to find each other and start to build something new that would be good for them. And I was happy to see their story get as happy an ending as possible given their circumstances. I'll also say that I was happy to see more of Seth and Luke, but I'm still waiting for them to get their own stories.

Jessica Sorensen's The Redemption of Callie and Kayden was a nice conclusion to Callie and Kayden's story. If you aren't sure if New Adult is for you, Callie and Kayden's story is a good place to start. With these books, you'll get a story filled with pain and struggled, but that also has shining moments of hope throughout it all.