I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My decision to read it came from my fascination with the concept of soulmates and seeing other people’s opinions on the topic.

What’s a Soulmate

Lindsey Ouimet

Published 2016

Format: Kindle ebook
Genre: YA, AU, Romance
Rating:  3.5/5 Moose

Synopsis

Imagine a world where everything is in black, white, and grey. Now imagine that one day you suddenly start seeing colors, and the reason is because you’ve found your soulmate.

This is the kind of world Libby Carmichael lives in, one that is magical and wonderful because TADA! You know when you’ve found your soulmate.

But what happens when your soulmate is Andrew McCormack, and he’s been recently arrested and is in juvie? Did fate really pair college bound, smart, perfect high school student with a guy convicted of beating up a cop?

Rants, Raves, and General Thoughts

This book in some ways is a simple plot — girl sees boy, girl falls for boy, girl aviods feelings for boy, girl ends up with boy. But the concept of soulmates in this book is intriguing. Now, the basic premises is clearly taken from a Tumblr post:

And there is nothing wrong with that at all. I have saved many tumblr posts that would make good book ideas, have facebook comments saved to be used in future stories, etc. I LOVE knowing that these can become actual stories.

I also really enjoy the idea of how the author views soulmates. Finding your soulmate doesn’t automatically:

• make you a better person. It doesn’t alter your personality or anything.
• mean that you fall madly in love with said person.
• mean that you are their soulmate.

Not everyone finds their soulmate either. This is great and keeps me from being slightly horrified like I was while watching Timer.

I do take some issues with the world building. There isn’t any discussion of same sex character relationships  or soulmates. There is a small reference to potentially poly relationships (people have been known to have multiple soulmates), but that could be “what’s played on tv for drama.” I also cannot wrap my head around Libby being her dad’s soulmate. I also can’t…explain what about it rubs me the wrong way, but the logic doesn’t mesh for me.

While I love the world building, the characters outside of Libby fall a little flat for me. More of Drew’s background (what was on the security tape?) would have been great. More of the relationship with her mom. More of her not being a terrible friend to Beth. That friendship bothered me quite a bit, but I think it’s more because the book I read before had a terrible best friend relationship between the main character and the best friend. I find Libby’s frantic brain comforting as it is similar to my own, and despite her being a bit ridiculous sometimes (SHUT UP I KNOW I AM TOO) I enjoyed seeing how she handled the change in her life.

Final Verdict

So I read and finished the book in roughly two days. It’s a light read, and I think a satisfying answer to a Tumblr request. I am now following the author on a few social media sites, and I am genuienly curious to see her writing evolve. I am glad that Netgalley allowed me to read the book, and I recommend it to anyone who wants a light YA book that has an interesting view on soulmates.

And then finding out the author is from Georgia? Yeah I double down on supporting GA authors!