Insta-Love Is Getting Boring | Soulmates Review

Well, my instincts were right, Soulmates pales in comparison to The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting. Three dates is all it takes for Poppy and Noah to fall in love at the ripe old age of seventeen. I don't mean to be a cynic, but is real, true love possible at such a young age? I was thinking all of this while reading, and then an italicised chapter appears, and there's talk of matches. Soulmates isn't all lovey-dovey teen romance, there's an underlying scientific investigation and freak weather. All of a sudden the book got a little bit more interesting. Because, honestly, I was really starting to lose patience with Poppy and Noah, the instant love between the two was just too unbelievable.

Poppy begins the novel a negative British teen, unbelieving in true love, stating '"Soulmates" wasn't something I had ever believed in' and honestly, this pretty much sums up my thoughts about the novel. But then she meets Noah at a gig, he's the lead guitarist and devastatingly handsome, as musicians always seem to be. They don't hit it off at first, she thinks she's allergic to him, so that tells you a lot. Despite all this, within the space of one chapter they're getting on brilliantly, share a first kiss, and oh-so coincidentally there's a huge town power cut. This annoyed me, how can they go from one minute hating each other, to not being able to take their hands off each other the next?

Noah and Poppy do not simply experience a whirlwind romance, oh no. They fall in love after only three dates, and it's all so sickeningly sweet. Poppy constantly questions her relationship and Noah's choice to be with her. What is it about Young Adult heroines that requires them to be so pathetically attached at the hip to their boyfriends, vampire or otherwise. 

After reading both Soulmates and The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting it was very clear that Soulmates was Holly Bourne's first novel, by The Manifesto On How To Be Interesting Bourne has found her stride, and the characters on a whole were a lot more likeable in her second work.

I didn't totally detest Soulmates, I simply found it very annoying. One line, delivered by Poppy to Noah, actually made me laugh out loud, "They say you go through women like incontinent people get through loo roll." Perhaps not the most mature or heartfelt and moving, but it made me chuckle.

After I'd waded through a lot God, I'm lucky to have you's, the secretive research chapters became more frequent and got more interesting. Bourne's use of scientific matches that, if they were to psychically come together, could destroy the world, was really interesting, and definitely saved the book from becoming yet another teen romance. And just when the book is coming to a close, and I've finally found peace with my dislike, Poppy and Noah risk the lives of hundreds for their own selfishness. Not cool.

I know lots of people adore this book but it really wasn't for me. The science parts definitely saved the book, in my opinion. If you've read this book let me know what you think of it.

'Soulmates' by Holly Bourne

3 Stars