Monday, March 10, 2014

Review: The Destiny of Violet and Luke by Jessica Sorensen

Title: The Destiny of Violet and Luke (The Coincidence #3)
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Published: January 7th 2014
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
*An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review*

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...

Jessica Sorensen is an author plenty of people talked about last year. She has tousands upon thousands of ratings and reviews on Goodreads and Amazon and she is one of the leading ladies of New Adult fiction. Since I truly enjoyed reading about Lila and Ethan (my review can be found here; I wanted to link it to prove that I did, in fact, enjoy it thoroughly), I decided to give Violet and Luke a try as well.

“It's all about her. Every movement, every breath, the way my heart beats firecely inside my chest, is all because of her. Violet owns me.”

Me and this book did not start our journey on the right foot, I’ll be honest with you. I was really frustrated because in Ethan and Lila’s story, we get those flashback scenes to their younger years to see what all went wrong in their youth and whatnot. We don’t get the full picture, of course, but it (usually) doesn’t make me all that excited when I read a book with a structure similar to a book I have already read by the same author. Plus, all these kids who cry for their mommies and daddies and see murders, house fires and such just make me want to vomit. I have a soft spot for kids, what can I say, but at the same time can we not?

In addition to that, the first 40% of the book read like every other NA book out there. I was ready to put this baby to bed and DNF it, but for some reason I decided to read for another 15 minutes and what do you say?! Soon I found myself giggling and smiling and swooning and everything. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? *shakes head* I’m as clueless as you guys. While I didn’t appreciate the dark pasts, unhealed wounds, constant trips down the memory line and messing one’s future up as they walk their way to the future, the sweeter scenes, the bantering and the chemistry really got to me—no point in denying that. Too bad it lasted for only a few chapters and that wasn't enough to redeem the rest of the book.

While the middle part really started to pick my interest, the ending lost it completely. Why? Because after having read 20% of the book, I already knew where the story would go, how it would end in a cliff hanger, because, apparently, that’s what Ms. Sorensen is good at—cliff hangers. While I don’t mind a good cliff hanger (Everbound by Brodi Ashton, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin forgodssake—still not over that ending), I do mind when it’s obvious that the story will end there and, honestly, it loses its shock value big time. 

[It's like reading an Abbi Glines book where you know they'll break up at the end of the book, because the relationship is over thanks to some "dramatic" plot twist *eyeroll* and then you have to buy the next book for an enormous amount of money to get a happy ending you were so eagerly anticipating for. Yeah, I'm not down with that. When I requested this book I had the idea that Violet and Luke would be a standalone, but later when I checked on Goodreads it turned out that it's a three book series. Ehhhh.. Not that excited.]

I do feel like the characters were very stereotypical and didn’t differ a lot from other NA characters. I especially disliked Seth who was quick to judge and basically bullied Violet. However, his boyfriend Grayson was a great character and I appreciated a gay couple being written in the story. Also, I did appreciate that Luke an Violet weren’t in a relationship or anything casual either until the final third of the book. It was a slow-burn with insta-attraction more than anything else.

All in all, it isn’t the most horrible piece of work I have read, but I enjoyed Lila and Ethan way more and  the plot was just so darn predictable that it sucked the joy out of reading, though the middle part more than made up for it, especially the card playing scene. Overall I want to say that I enjoyed it, but other than a few parts here and there, this book did nothing for me. My opinion doesn't matter the least though, because this book and author have tons of fans and the average rating on Goodreads (4.17) shows how much people adore Violet and Luke's story. Unfortunately, this wasn't for me.

Overall rating: 1.8 out of 5.0
Stars: ★
Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for a review copy.

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17 comments:

  1. Thanks for your honest review Siiri, sounds like this one was kind of predictable. Dammit, we can totally see what you authors are doing with the HEA in the sequel! I actually haven't read any Jessica Sorenson, I'm SUPER picky with my NA.

    Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

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  2. Jessica is so hit and miss for me, I have to say. I enjoyed The Secret of Ella and Micha, but didn't like the second book at all. I also didn't like Callie & Kayden's book (haven't read the second one) and just don't see myself checking out any of her others.
    I feel like her plots focus too much on creating sexual tension and not enough on making us care about the characters and the story, you know? It's a shame, because I do think her books have the potential to be great little romance stories, but they just fall flat against an abundance of sex scenes and angsty drama.

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  3. Ah so this was the book you were taking about in that review of yours!
    I've broken my ties with Jessica Sorensen because of her annoying and pointless cliffhangers. I'm sorry this wasn't a hit for you, Siiri. The characters do sound very stereotypical and the dark pasts would frustrate me I think.
    The thing that bothers me too much about Sorensen's books is that she can tell the story in one book, but instead she drags them on and on to milk cash from her readers.
    Great honest review, Siiri! Hope your next book is beyond awesome! (If it is Grave Mercy, it will be!)

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  4. I'm actually glad I came across your review. I've heard nothing but great things about Jessica Sorensen's books and I always enjoy a different take. It's sad when you feel like DNF-ing a book because once that thought comes to mind and you still read the book, you basically just sit through it and tolerate it. Well, at least some parts of the book seemed like they were nice enough. I hope you love your current/ next read. Awesome review!

    Sarika @ The Readdicts

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  5. I'm thinking this is not an author for me Siiri! I do NOT handle cliffhangers well, and I don't like my couples ripped apart dramatically in the end while I'm forced to wait 6 months or a year to find out what happened to them. My poor little heart just can't take it. I love dark books, I do, but I don't love dark books that rip my heart out, stomp on it and then postpone by months or years the life-saving measures I feel I deserve for purchasing the book in the first place. Does that sound awful? Maybe it does and I'm just way too picky a reader! *hangs head in shame*

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    1. well Jessica writes pretty fast so that wouldn't be an issue I think, but the fact that these cliffhangers, while predictable, may be extremely brutal to a reader and knowing you do not indeed handle them well then I wouldn't recommend them to you until they're all out *shrugs*

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  6. Sorry this wasn't such a completely pleasant experience, Siiri! Predictable-ness can go rot in its grave. It feels like The Fifth Wave all over again when I can just already see the ending a thousand light years away. It really takes the joy out of reading, especially when you have moments where you go "Ugh, I can plot better than this!" lol. Stereotypical characters are so annoying, too. Can't we have complex and three dimensional charactrers for a change instead of the cardboard cutouts we usually get? :/

    Great review still, Siiri!

    Faye @ The Social Potato

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  7. I have to say that I'm a little surprised by this as I've only read one of her books and although the cliffhangers was horrendous to experience, I actually really enjoy the premise of her books. My favourite is The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden that didn't have so much of a cliffhanger. But The Secret of Ella and Micha was horrible to read the ending to... I have this one on my kindle so I'll be a little hesitant when reading this one. Brilliant review Siiri! :)

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  8. I haven't explored the NA genre, but I've heard a lot about this author. Sorry this book really didn't cut it for you Siiri! Great review :)

    Janina @ Synchronized Reading

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  9. See? This is exactly what my issue is with this author! Can you please give us a finished story for once and not drag it out into 3 books with companions that have each spawed their own 3 books? And please with the unfinished endings and all the broken characters! I won't be reading another book by her unless I am guaranteed a standalone AND characters that aren't completely broken...

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  10. Ouch I'm going to avoid this one. I can only imagine how it felt for you to finally start enjoying the book and then it all disappeared at the end. Huh, cliffhangers - I mean I usually hate them but there are some authors that pull them off all the time and I never once did hate them. I have no idea how that happens. I mean the problem is that NA books don't need cliffs, or generally I hate cliffs in contemporary stories. Gosh, someone will think that I'm obsessed with cliffs, but the bottom line is DON'T PUT CLIFFS IN CONTEMPORARY READS. Great review, Siiri :)

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  11. I'm just going to second most of the comments, particularly Nick's and Nereyda's. I got burned by two of her books back-to-back, and was real quick to see the pattern.
    Thanks for entertaining me, Siiri!

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  12. I refused to read after I heard of the cliff. What is the deal with spreading out a romance that should be done in one book into 3?! That just translates into angst and drama I have no patience for. I don't mind a NA read as long as it doesn't follow the same cookie cutter recipe a lot seem to be adhering to. *sigh* This is why I like Erin McCarthy's series so much. She doesn't follow the normal pattern and each romance/story is wrapped up. JS has a love of cliffs and until she gets over that, I'm done! Great honest review, Siiri! :)

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  13. It never ceases to amaze me how you can say everything that I feel. It's like you're in my head. I haven't read this book yet; it's on my tbr, but I just...there are so many other books out there that I'm really dying to read and I don't want to end on a massive cliffhanger only to wait ages for the next book. Blech. I think I'll just wait until all the books in this series are released.

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  14. Aw, so sorry to hear that it was predictable for you and you didnt even get started on the right foot. I know that a lot of people are getting so burnt out on NA.

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  15. Oh, boy... You should have ask me is this a book for you before you started reading it. Answer would be: "No!"
    I know that you're not big fan of NA, and this author is queen of new adult cliches, just like Abbi Glines. I still like her novels, because I do like Na no matter the all of the issues you've pointed out in your review ( and I agree with every single thing you wrote).
    Great review, Siiri.

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  16. I don't think I know who these two characters are yet, since I only read and enjoyed book 1. Sorry that this one did not live up to her previous work, thank you for the honest review.

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