YA Review: What's A Soulmate? by Lindsey Ouimet

What's a Soulmate? by Lindsey Ouimet
Publication Date: October 26, 2016
Publisher: Overnight Teen
Amazon Link: HERE
Received From: NetGalley (in exchange for an honest review)


Summary (from Amazon):
Libby Carmichael has just met her Soulmate. It's just too bad he's behind bars.

When you only see the world in black and white until you meet yours, it's pretty easy to figure out when you've found your Soulmate. What Libby can't figure out is why fate, destiny, or the powers that be have decided that Andrew McCormack is her one, true match. Libby is smart, organized, and alway has a plan for what's coming next. So when she sees Andrew for the first time and her world is instantly filled with color, she's thrown for a loop.

Namely because he's in a dingy grey jumpsuit. And handcuffs. And being booked into a juvenile detention facility.

Surely a boy who's been convicted of a headline-making, violent crime isn't who she's meant to be with. There's no way she belongs with someone like that...right?

Review:
Libby isn't a hopeless romantic. She understands the odds are not in her favor, that only sixty percent of people find their soulmates, and even if you happen to find your soulmate, it doesn't mean you'll live happily ever after. So she's more than surprised when she's at the juvenile detention facility that her father works at and sees her soulmate, the boy that fills her life with color. She's not only surprised by the fact she finds her soulmate, but also by the fact that her soulmate happens to be in handcuffs. Can this really be the person the universe chose for her? But no matter how much Libby wants to ignore the fact that her life has officially changed, she needs answers. So she pretends to be a youth leader to visit Andrew so she can get to know him better. He's quiet and serious and he can also see color, which means she's his soulmate, too. But when Libby finds out what Andrew did and he continues to push her away, she wonders if she should just give up. But some things are complicated, and if Andrew is her soulmate, it must be for a good reason...right?

As soon as I read the summary for What's a Soulmate? on NetGalley, I instantly requested it. The premise is so unique compared to all the other young adult novels I've read since the world that Libby lives in is black and white. No one can see color until they see their soulmate for the first time. And even if you find your soulmate, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll live happily ever after, which is an intriguing concept. Some people can have a soulmate, but their soulmate may have a different soulmate, so there's different complications that can arise from this system, which made the story even more interesting. Libby is a great heroine—she's realistic and doesn't like to jump to conclusions. I liked that she tried to get to know Andrew better before she wrote him off and even after Andrew pushed her away time and time again, she came back to him. Andrew on the other hand was very quiet and it was hard to even get a good read on his character until half way through the story. But the added mystery that surrounded him made the relationship between Andrew and Libby even more interesting and dynamic. The only problem I had with the novel was that Andrew was a little one dimensional and therefore the romance lacked slightly, but other than that I absolutely loved the story.

I would definitely recommend What's a Soulmate? to anyone looking for a young adult romance with a unique premise. Although What's a Soulmate? is a young adult novel without any graphic sexual content, the characters and the story are gritty, so I would recommend it to older readers.

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