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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NA Review: After by Anna Todd

After by Anna Todd
Publication Date: October 21, 2014
Publisher: Gallery Books
Amazon Link: HERE
Received From: Giveaway


Summary (from Amazon):
Book 1 of the After series—newly revised and expanded, Anna Todd's After fan fiction racked up one billion reads online and captivated readers across the globe. 

Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She's got direction, ambition, and a mother who's intent on keeping her that way.

But she's barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she's used to.

But he's also rude—to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does—until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignited within her a passion she's never known before.

He'll call her beautiful, then insist he isn't the one for her and disappear again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.

Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin's prejudice about nice girls like her? Unless...could this be love?

Review:
Tessa's first year at college is not what she was expecting. She misses her boyfriend who's still in high school, and she has a partying roommate who's friends with bad-boy Hardin. The second Tessa sees Hardin, she's attracted to him. And even though he constantly makes fun of her and pushes her away, she can't help but wonder what it would be like to kiss him. And then at a party one night she finds out, which begins their relationship, if you can call it that. They're both attracted to each other but Hardin is so hot and cold that Tessa has no idea where she stands with him. And Tessa's turning into someone she's not to please him and that scares her more than anything.

This novel began as fan fiction, which you can tell by the length (almost 600 pages) and short chapters. The whole story revolves around Tessa's and Hardin's relationship and it's much of the same—fighting and then making up before fighting again. The scenes get repetitive after the first 200 pages and both Tessa and Hardin got on my nerves. First, Tessa is a doormat. She lets Hardin and everyone else walk all over her. She cheats on her boyfriend more than once and is a little pathetic when it comes to Hardin because she will do anything she can to make him like her. Hardin, on the other hand, is downright abusive. Although he never hits her, he constantly puts Tessa down and makes her feel worthless. I would recommend this novel to older audiences because of the graphic sex scenes and college aged characters. And although a lot of the novel bothered me, there was a part of the story that kept me interested. I wanted to find out what happened to Tessa and Hardin. But unfortunately this novel is part of a series with four other books, so you'd have to read all of them to find out where Tessa and Hardin end up. And even though I'm curious I dot think I'm going to bother reading them because many reviewers have said they're more of the same scenes over and over.

Overall, there's many things about After that I dislike including the abusive relationship between Tessa and Hardin, so I wouldn't recommend it.

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