The official
blurb:
‘Soulmates do exist. But not as you think.
Every so often to people are born who are the perfect match for one another.
Soulmates.
But what if meeting your soulmate is
earth-shattering – literally?
An epic electrifying and extraordinary debut
about falling in love’
My Thoughts:
Sigh.
I hate to say it, but this book, in my opinion, was really not very good at
all. I expected so much. I think that might be the biggest issue I had with
this book. Having had my mind blown by Bourne’s second novel ‘The Manifesto on
How To Be Interesting’ I thought that Bourne’s burst into the literary world,
her grand entrance, would be even better – but sadly I was proved wrong.
‘Soulmates’ is a book that, though the
blurb does not give much away, has a spectacular plot concept! The story is
based around the idea that Soulmates do exist, but when a pair meets, the
chemical reaction between them is so strong that it their hormones can cause
storms, earthquakes and huge life-threatening natural disasters. There is a
secret government facility that works to frantically try to prevent these
soulmate disasters from happening. This plotline, combined with my history with
Bourne is what sold the book to me.
The story is told through a first person
perspective from one half of two Soulmates, 17 year old Poppy Lawson, as well
as an interesting occasional third person extracts of the actions of those
running the government facility.
This is where the goodness ends.
For starters, this fantastic, awesome,
mindblowing idea of a plotline fell absolutely flat on its face. It’s a
firework that never goes off. We spend a long 450 pages listening to Poppy
Lawson whine on and on about how ‘Oooh
Nooo… I’m in love! But I can’t be in loooove, I can’t actually like a boy! I am such a feminist!’
Poppy is one of these irritatingly strong-minded characters who seems to think
that if she shows so much as a wink of affection for a member of the opposite
sex then she has tainted the rights of women everywhere and is no longer a true
feminist. Poppy had lots of likable qualities, her bitter confidence and
sarcasm were amusing and interesting at times, but I feel, at least for me,
this was broadly overshadowed by her sheer close-mindedness.
Within those 480 pages we also explore
Poppy’s blossoming relationship with her soulmate, local bad-boy, Noah. Noah’s
in a band, a very tortured soul - Their eyes meet across a crowded room, one of
his gigs actually, and of course, the attraction is instant.
As a hopeless romantic myself, I
enjoyed Noah and Poppy’s grand gestures and first steps immensely… at first.
However, they’d been going out for one week, 200 pages, when the
‘I-love-you-I-need-you-please-never-leave-me’s started spouting and it all just
got a bit… sickening. We get it. You
like each other, you really don’t have to describe, in detail, every single
time he blinks, coughs or looks at you. I mean, I’m not love-expert, but when
they started speaking about how their children would look everything seemed a
little unbelievable. There were no subplots, just the batting of eyelashes and
a weirdly excessive amount of lust.
I pressed on, wondering if the last 50
pages could save the book for me but… no. I feel like Bourne wrote the majority
of the book in a rose-scented haze and only snapped out if it to write the
ending when her publisher started phoning up, gabbing about deadlines and
delivery dates. It is only in the ending of the book that the idea of the
government facility actually comes properly in to play but with the rest of the
novel styled as a contemporary romance, this seemed more than a little out of
place. It was rushed, random and sadly, I didn’t like it.
However, that’s not to say this book
was entirely unlikable, in fact, I have read many reviews of people who thought
the romance was, sweet, and well-thought-out with the twist at the end exciting
the reader a suitable amount and tying a nice red ribbon around the story as a
whole – but that’s not how it was for
me.
For me ‘Soulmates’ was a two star book
which should have been a five and without any substantial subplot or character
depth other than the two soulmate’s deep
unending love for each other it just didn’t cut it for me.
Three Word Rating: eh, okay, mediocre
