The Redemption of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen

This review contains spoilers for The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden.

Narrated by Leslie Bellair

My heart dropped when I reached the end of The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden. How could the author have let it end that way? I needed to know what would become of Kayden, and how Callie was going to survive without him. Luckily, I didn’t have long to wait. The sequel, The Redemption of Callie and Kayden, was soon available. It was one of those books I had to listen to as soon as I got it, even though I had several others that really should have been listened to first. The pull was strong, and so, I found myself pulled back into the lives of Sorenson’s unforgettable characters.

The Redemption of Callie and Kayden picks up a few days after The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden ends. Kayden is in the hospital, cut off from everyone but his family. He wants desperately to see Callie, but his mother isn’t taking any chances that Kayden will tell the truth about the circumstances that landed him in the hospital. She takes advantage of the fact that Kayden has been a cutter for years, and tells everyone he injured himself and is allowed no visitors.

Meanwhile, Callie haunts the halls of the hospital. Seth is by her side, but they can’t get in to see Kayden. Callie knows she’ll have to head back to school soon, but she hates the idea of leaving without saying goodbye to the boy she loves.

When Kayden is finally released from the hospital, Callie, Luke, and Seth pick him up and head for a beach house in California – a house owned by Luke’s absentee father. Callie hopes it will be the perfect place to heal the broken places within Kayden and within herself.

Leslie Bellair was a wonderful choice of narrator for this book. At first, I was surprised a male narrator wasn’t reading the part of Kayden, but Bellair does a good job with both parts, and I found myself not really missing the more masculine sound we hear in dual narrations of this type.

Both Callie and Kayden are broken and vulnerable. Bellair helps the listener to feel their emotions. We can sense how desperately Callie needs Kayden in her life, and how sincere Kayden is when he tells her that he doesn’t feel good enough. Bellair brings their gentle and healing love to life as she reads the scenes of tender intimacy shared by these two lost souls, who can only be whole when they’re together.

It was sometimes difficult to tell characters of the same gender apart. Kayden and Luke, for example, sound a lot alike. Since Callie doesn’t have any female friends, it’s very obvious when she speaks, as Bellair’s pitch rises a bit, and her voice softens. Luckily, dialogue tags are used quite often, and this kept me from being frustrated or confused by the male characters.

The Redemption of Callie and Kayden isn’t the typical New Adult book. It’s not full of unnecessary melodrama. We don’t hear about people going to wild parties, breaking up for no reason, or becoming jealous of their best friends for silly reasons. Instead, this is the story of two people who, in spite of their youth, love each other deeply. They will stand together and take back the freedoms they’ve lost. They are, in this listener’s opinion, one of the most believable and likable couples in today’s fiction.

Shannon

Narration:  A-

Book Content:  A

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Domestic (a lot of physical abuse, and some flashbacks of rape)

Genre:  New Adult

Publisher:  Hachette Audio

The Redemption of Callie and Kayden was provided to AudioGals for review by Hachette Audio.