Review on 'Soulmates' by Holly Bourne ⚡

Amazon Link: https://amzn.eu/d/09M1TSva

Author: Holly Bourne

Format Read: Paperback Pages: 527 Publication Date: 1st September 2013

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollybourneya/?hl=en Author Website: https://hollybourne.co.uk/

Content Warnings:

Book contains talk of depression, panic attacks, fainting, drugging, kidnapping, natural disasters and talk of sex (but never in explicit detail)

Review:

This book is not a love story! Well, I mean it is, but then it kind of isn’t?

Hold one. Let me explain:

Two characters meet and fall and love but can never be together. It isn’t a forbidden love with a happy ending. It is a forbidden love ending with them never being able to see each other again. It felt like crap when I finished the book…because I hate to admit it but I’m probably a romantic…but only with books. I’m a pessimist about real life.

Anyway, the book is from the perspective of the FMC, Poppy, who starts off by going to a local band night with here three best friends, Ruth, Amanda and Lizzie. But apparently, there is a fit guitarist in the new band ‘growing pains’ called Noah who is, as they say multiple times throughout the first third of the book, a ‘man-whore’. No idea where they got this information from but there we go. Let’s not judge by reputations, shall we? Noah, as you guessed it, is her soulmate. However things don’t get off to a good start as in chapter 2 of the novel she just passes out. Due to her “panic-attacks” that randomly came on two years ago, being in close proximity to him made her faint. Can you see where I’m going with this? 😉 Oh! And to top it off he was diagnosed with depression two years ago. These 17-YEAR-OLD kids are not having a good time up in here.

Side rant: I did NOT like Ruth, I think she was a bit of a bad friend and a mean person, but everyone is allowed their own opinions.

Noah and Poppy are getting more friendly with each other, though it’s a little difficult when she passes out again and believes she is ‘allergic’ to him. Hey, her words not mine! When she finally gets over his little ‘allergy’, (her panic attacks) she and Noah are finally able to date. About 1 week in they are in love each other and want to live together forever. Now, in general I’m thinking that is way to quick to be saying the ‘I love you’ but in this book they can get away with it as they are meant to be soulmates…even though they have no clue what that means, and they are just kind of drawn to each other.

Whilst this all goes down in England, on the other side of the world (America) Dr Beaumont and Rain are having a jolly old time looking at some green data on a screen watching it peak every time Poppy and Noah are even standing next to each other. Though never mentioned by name when the scientist get a chapter in the book, you kinda just know that it’s them they are talking about. Even though I was desperately hoping for a plot twist for it not to be related…no such look😔 .

I’m not going to lie, the scientists in America just made me think of all those movies when scientists are studying on humans and then wonder why nobody likes them. Maze Runner. Resident Evil. Those type of scientist labs are the vibe we have in Soulmates.

Though I do like that we have the perspective of the scientists it builds the tension a little bit more and shows the other side of all the craziness that is happening in England. And due to the rest of the book being in 1st person the scientist bits are easy to pick out as they are in 3rd person and italics. Nice little touched there, Holly Bourne. 🙏

Things are getting worse in England, not to their knowledge though, everyone is just blaming global warming for the freak storms, blizzards and hot weather. There is also the blackout and the small earthquake as well. Apparently, it is the couples fault as their connection is too strong. I mean come on, how are they supposed to know that it is their fault?

Basically what we are getting from this book is that it is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, but without the parents telling them they can’t be in love with each other, and the fact that they don’t have a misunderstanding at the end that results in them being dead. I mean they mention Romeo and Juliet a lot in the book, so that’s where I got the analogy from.

Though I hate that they don’t end up together due the whole story behind soulmates and the Scientists getting involved, I did like how it was talking about love being easy and still trying to keep yourself when your in a relationship. I mean she started out as a cynical person whenever it came to idea of love and she was still somewhat inclined to believe that later on but she realised there was more to it.

I think because of the impending doom all the little moments they had together were so much more important. They might not of thought anything of it, but as the reader with the scientists encroaching in on their love bubble, you learn to appreciate the small moments they held together.

It was a beautiful story about finding your person and the quote it makes me think of is ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson. I think that’s a nice way to sum it up because it was their first love, and we all know not everyone stays with their first love.

Until the next chapter,

#BellesBookBabble