Review: Soulmates by Holly Bourne

Title: Soulmates
Author: Holly Bourne
Published: September 2013
Released by: Usborne
Source: Publisher
Rating 2.5 stars

First line: It started just like any other day, with the sun rising.

Last line: And then there are the times when the only appropriate thing to do is stop crying, let it go, with light and love in your heart, and to continue living your life to the best of your ability.

goodreads says:
Every so often, two people are born who are the perfect matches for each other. Soulmates. But while the odds of this happening are about as likely as being struck by lightning, when these people do meet and fall in love…thunderstorms, lightning strikes and lashings of rain are only the beginning of their problems.

Enter Poppy, the 17-year-old cynic with a serious addiction to banana milk, and Noah, the heart-throb guitarist; residents of mediocre Middletown, sometime students, and…soulmates.

After a chance meeting at a local band night, Poppy and Noah find themselves swept up in a whirlwind romance unlike anything they’ve ever experienced before. But with a secret international agency preparing to separate them, a trail of destruction rumbling in their wake, (and a looming psychology coursework deadline), they are left with an impossible choice between the end of the world, or a life without love...

As you can see from my rating I wasn't a massive fan of this book. The story is a massive 500 pager and about halfway through I got fed up and turned to the end and read the last chapter, I then did a lot of skim reading for the second half. I really wanted to love the book as I want to love every book I read. It's hard to give a low rating on someone's work, their pride and joy but we are all different and have different tastes and unfortunately Soulmates wasn't mine.

I liked the characters , Noah is a good enough hottie for the teenagers out there and I didn't mind Poppy to much, she was a typical teenager really. Some of the supporting cast were fun and gave the book a little more depth, but I wanted more!

Knowing that the world could potentially end if two Soulmates come together sounds like an awesome idea but I think Bourne could have given us more on the destruction side of things! We are given little snippets here and there about what happens when Noah & Poppy kiss, lights flicker, we see that when the kissing is hot and emotions raw we get some thunder, maybe some lights blow, some car crashes and so on but I don't think we get enough of this, as readers we needed to see more of what the consequences were and what could have really happened.
The science behind it all and the group that monitor the Soulmate situation was rather interesting, but again I think it could have been more developed. The whole story had so much potential but it just lacked here and there.

*SPOILER ALERT*
The ending was not what I wanted! It was really rushed considering how the rest of the book played out and it felt like it was over with in a mater of moments. And I really wasn't expecting the ending to be honest. I know other reads have loved this book and thought the ending was amazing but I can only come to the conclusion that at some point we are all expected to have our hearts ripped out and we are left with the message 'that it is better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all'. And to be honest I'm not sure everyone really agrees with that!

I think maybe a little more cut-throat with the editing of this story would have really helped and I need to remember it's a debut. I'd happily read the authors next books as I believe she has a lot of potential!