{Review} The Destiny of Violet & Luke by Jessica Sorensen
Labels:
3 Stars,
Book Review,
Contemporary Romance,
Jessica Sorensen,
New Adult
·
Title: The Destiny of Violet & Luke
Series: The Coincidence #3
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Published: 7th Jan 2014
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: eARC provided by via Netgalley for fair & honest review
Rating: 3/5
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...
Great Romance but VERY slow beginning
REVIEW:
The story:
Although this is book #3 in the Coincidence series, it's more of a separate story as we follow the dual POV of Luke (Kayden best friend) and Violet (Callie's roommate). Luke's relationship with his mother is strained at best and we finally get to find out why, she's a drug addict and forced her son to help her shoot up when he was only a kid. As a result he's cold and has little care for anyone else's feelings.
Violet has bounced around foster homes since the age of six, after her parents where murdered. She's afraid to trust or rely on anyone, believing that they will always let her down, just like everyone else has. But after a chance encounter with Violet, they strike up and odd friendship. They tease and bicker back and forth, but there is a light flirtatious vibe between them, and a unique understanding that they are more similar than they first thought.
The characters:
After meeting Luke in The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden, I was excited to read about his story. However I felt his character was very different in this book. Violet labels him as Mr Stoically Aloof, and that is the perfect description of how I originally felt about him. However this time, I actually found him to be a bit of an ass. He uses women and speaks about them like they are disposable. It's not until he starts to have feelings for Violet that we start to see some of that original warmth about his personality - but that warmth only extends to Violet. Also, having a descriptive sex scene with a random girl, where Luke treats her with no respect whatsoever didn't help with me liking his character.
From the first two books in this series we are lead to believe that Violet is a cold, heartless 'slut', and she's more than happy for people to see her that way. However she's actually a scared and lonely girl, who hasn't had anyone to really care about her since she was 6. It took some time to warm up to Violet, but once I did I felt extremely sorry for the horrible things she went through. She's strong and very resilient, but struggles to let people get close - for understandable reasons.
The romance:
I really enjoyed the teasing flirtatious banter between Luke & Violet. At first the insults where a defence mechanism to keep each other at arms length. But as they spent more time together it started to become more fun and seeing them make each other laugh, was beautiful, since it was such a rare thing for either of them. They both had such a great understanding of how they had dealt with their horrible childhoods, that it brought them closer together. Their romance was really well developed.
The writing:
It took me a very long time to get into this story, and I think the main reason for this was the lack of character interaction and dialogue. The first 50% of the story is mostly made up of Luke & Violet's internal monologue, TELLING us about their feelings, when I would of preferred SEEING it. The MCs spend so much time telling us how tragic their lives are and how they struggle to forget their issues, it felt like they where on a constant pity party. With The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden, we got to see them struggling with everyday life, rather than them just telling us about it and I felt a lot more sympathy towards them. Unfortunately it took me till over half way through to start to feel compassion for Luke or Violet.
I'm also coming to see a pattern in Sorensen's books, always having unfinished cliff hanger endings. Dramatic endings are all well and good when it fits the story, but doing it every time, suggests it's a tactic to force readers to come back for the sequel - and I'm not a fan of this.
FINAL WORD:
Despite a very slow beginning and my hatred towards unnecessary cliff hanger ending, I did enjoy the story. The romance was strong and I will be back for the sequel to see where their story leads.
CONTENT:
exuality: medium / sex scenes, some sexual abuse
Violence: mild-medium / several fights
Language: medium / regular use of f word
Drugs & alcohol: strong / drug use/dealing, heavy drinking, smoking
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yay for strong romance, nay for cliffhanger :( was it a big cliffhanger? did you like walk and suddenly fall off? lol I really liked her the last book I read from her so hoping to read this one too!
ReplyDeleteIt was more of an unfinished ending than it was a cliffhanger - it just sort of stopped! If you liked her other books, I'd say you'd still enjoy this one too :)
DeleteI've received a couple of these books for review but I just don't think they're for me and your review has confirmed that. Luke sounds like every other guy in New Adult books these days, complete jerks, and I am so over it.
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed at how he changed from the first two books, I'm just hoping he grows and becomes more likeable in the next book.
DeleteThis is on my TBR, but I'm not so sure I'd enjoy Luke very much either. I hate it when male characters have random sex, then think poorly about the girl they had it with! Double standard, much? I'll still read this book, though, but it's nice to be forewarned.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading :)
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
Exactly! At one point he's saying how he thinks this girl is a slut because she tells him she's a stripper and in the next scene he's sleeping with a girl and doesn't even know her name - um hypercrite! It was still enjoyable, but I wanted more from Luke
DeleteTelling VS Showing, this is something I'm working on in my own writing which makes it all the more noticeable in other people's work... I do like the idea of a companion novel though. I haven't read any JS before but she always seems to write really long, heavy series, so I haven't had time to try one of her books before now. And cliff-hangers drive me crazy... lol. Awesome review honey!
ReplyDeleteAww thanks :) Her books are very emotionally intense, and overall I really like her books!
DeleteI am behind on this series and maybe that is a good thing with the cliffy..LOL I am not eager to read this one at this point but do enjoy this author's writing style. Wonderful review!
ReplyDeleteYeah it's the waiting that killing me!! It might be better to wait until they're all out so you read them together!
DeleteGlad that it ended up being good even though it started kind of slow. Books with slow starts can be a hit or miss for me though I'm not the most patient, and 50% sounds like a lot until you get into it >,< I do like the sounds of this romance and flirtatious banter is always fun and builds great chemistry, too! I have heard tons of wonderful things about this author so I def. want to give her books a try!
ReplyDeleteI'm not normally that paitient either, but since I've loved all her other books I've read, I reeeealy wanted it to get better - and I'm so glad that it did!
DeleteVery thoughtful Review Amy! I agree this story did have a slow start. I really enjoyed the romance and banter between Luke and Violet as well. I love Jessica Sorensen's writing, but have noticed that each of her beginning books in a series do end in dramatic cliffhangers.
ReplyDeleteLindy@ A Bookish Escape
Yes, I loved the banter so much! It made the romance more fun and flirty, which was a nice contrast to their intense lives.
Delete