Wednesday 8 January 2014

Review: The Destiny of Violet and Luke(The Coincidence #3) by Jessica Sorensen

The Destiny of Violet and Luke by Jessica Sorensen

Publication Date:
E-book on January 7th, 2014. Paperback on July 1st, 2014
Publisher: Forever
Pages: 336
Series: The Coincidence
Source: Netgalley/Publisher
Rating: 4/5
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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...

And here comes another Sorensen book review. Are you that surprised really? She's on my auto request, buy and read lists. I can't get enough!
I requested this one for review not realizing(again) that it's part of a series. But like with The Temptation of Lila and Ethan, it's about background characters from the first two books. So you definitely do not have to read the first two books in the series(I haven't yet) as this is about Violet and Luke with only brief appearances by Callie and Kayden.

As you can see by my rating, I did thoroughly enjoy this one. Although I did enjoy Lila and Ethan more as characters and that book overall. Just because with Lila and Ethan they both had/have rough lives, but Ethan has gotten his shit together and is a hell of a lot more grounded at that point in his life. So he's pretty much helping Lila to get it together. Where with Violet and Luke, they're equally as messed up. They eventually are finding some safety with each other. But in the end they both need some major help and I don't think either one can provide the other one with it until they've gotten the help themselves.

Violet was in and out of foster homes throughout her childhood. When she was six her parents were murdered well she was in the house and she was the one to find their bodies. So understandably that has given her nightmares and just ruined her life. She constantly sees their bodies lying there covered in blood. Foster families either found it hard to deal with her as she was so unresponsive or they thought they would be the ones to fix her. And when they weren't able to do that within a few weeks they would just give her back up to the system. It's sad that no one ever wanted to take this poor child in. To just give her the love, care and time needed to heal. But eventually she did end up with a couple not more than ten years her senior. There she found a permanent home. It's definitely not a stable home but it was a roof. Where we come in Violet is just finishing her first year of college, the one thing she is focused on to finish and finish with top grades. The thing is that she's in debt to her foster father, Preston, for fronting the tuition. And she's been paying him back by being his dealer. She gets into a lot of tough situations well on the job for him. He's also trying to take advantage of her. Ever since she turned eighteen and his wife left him he's been pretty much sexually harassing her. Violet doesn't want it, but she feels like what can she do? She owes him. She may lead a sketchy life, but there are a few things she doesn't do; boys, alcohol and drugs.
Violet's exterior is very tough and emotionless. She's a liar and a loner. She doesn't have any one to go to. She counts on herself and herself alone. This becomes especially prominent when school is let out and she has no where to live. She was supposed to go back to Preston's, but things went to shit there and with not much money to her name she's homeless. Luckily Luke is kind of in the picture and she finally lets someone help her out.

 Just like Violet, Luke's childhood was one of nightmares. His dad left him, his sister and mom when he was young which lead his mom on a downward spiral. She's into it all; drugs, alcohol and the sketchy situations. The worst part is she brought Luke into. "She needed him." As an eight year old he would literally shot her up because she was afraid of needles. So not only is Luke witness to all her activities. He's helping her indulge in them. Of course he was scared, and hated her for it. But what could he do? As a child when your mother asks for your help, you help. And than as a teenager his older sister killed herself by jumping out a window.
So now as a college student some of outside activities, like being on the football team and actually doing well in college would make it seem like his life is somewhat together. But no, his excessive drinking(which keeps him in a numb state) and how he only uses women for sex would say otherwise. He's also a gambler. He doesn't have a job, so that helps keep him with money. He shows it through his rough exterior of dark t-shirt, ripped jeans, leather band on his wrist and constant smoking. He's also like Violet in that he's all for himself. He doesn't care about other people. He takes care of himself, only cares about himself.

Things start to change for both of them when Violet falls(literally) into Luke's life. They start to help each other out, share serious conversations, feelings start to be expressed. They both just start to feel this little bit of a safety net when together. But of course their lives outside of each other are still shit. Especially for Violet when she gets a call from the police saying they are opening up her parents unsolved murder case again. So media starts hounding her again and something heartbreaking finds it way forward.

I was reading this on my Kindle as it's a review copy off of Netgalley and I still had about 12% left after that bomb is dropped on Violet. So I thought there was still time to figure everything out. Nope. Cliff hanger. I didn't know there was going to be another book(bad research on my part). So now I've got to wait until the summer to find out how Violet's and Luke's stories play out. Ahhhh...I hate waiting! But that's what I will be doing.

Happy reading!

Brittany



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