My Rating ~ Two and a half stars

2half-gold-stars copy 3

DUE FOR RELEASE: 12 June 2018

Publisher: Sky Pony Press

Format: E-Arc

Blurb

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Ferguson is trying to get struck by lightning. Hopefully it will lead to finding her soul mate, like it did for her mother. And then maybe her mom will be as devoted to her as she is to her lightning strike survivors group.

When Rachel discovers a journal written by her mother’s soul mate – the man she thought was her father – she begins to question everything she’s always believed, including soul mates, fate, and even her mother. No longer sure of its power, she decides to quit chasing lightning.

Rachel feels abandoned and alone. Her best friend has ditched her, her boyfriend has dumped her, and a confrontation with her mom only made things worse. At least she still has her friend Jay. In fact, their growing attraction to each other seems to be the only good thing happening.

But when her relationship with Jay starts to unravel, too, the impulse to get struck by lightning resurfaces.

And there’s a thunderstorm coming.

Set in a small Cape Cod beach town in the off-season, Soulstruck is about the search for love and the risk of losing it while waiting for destiny to happen

Review

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Sky Pony Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rachael is hoping to be struck by lightning. Her mother was struck many years ago and seems more devoted to her lightning strike survivor group than her own daughter. Her mother also claims the lightning strike enabled her to see who her, and others, soul mates would be. As she refuses to tell Rachael who her soul mate is, Rachael hopes that being struck will not only make her feel more accepted by her mother, but give her a glimpse of her future too.

She thought she had found ‘the one’ in another strike survivor – Reed, a boy who turned up out of the blue to her mother’s survivor group. But after a short romance, he left her heartbroken and injured from an accident. Between fighting with her best friend, navigating high school crushes, her changing feelings for her friend Jay and trying to uncover the mysteries surrounding her father (who died before she was born), Rachael has her hands full.

Unfortunately, although I found the premise of this book really interesting, the way the characters were written were just too juvenile for me. I read a lot of YA books, but the characters in this one just felt childish. The teenage angst and immaturity that radiated from Rachael surrounding all the relationships in her life just let the book fall irritatingly flat.

For example, Rachael spent a fair amount of time in the beginning of the book panicking that Reed would ‘notice she was two years younger than him’. Two whole years. Phew, that’s practically, forever, right? and quotes such as:

“He could be a serial killer on the run or something” she said after I’d spent nearly every minute with him for two weeks. “Oh, come on”

and

We kissed, and even though it had been a few weeks, I still couldn’t believe I was with him. I was definitely falling in love with him. It was the real deal.

Had me sighing and wanting to put the book down due to the silly insta-love theme. I mean, obviously two weeks is SUCH a long time and clearly you know everything about the person.

The character I did enjoy was Jay, Rachael’s friend who has Asperger’s. He was a fantastic character and I really enjoyed his wit and ‘realness’. Rachael was pushy and selfish with him. She struck me as a very ‘all about me’ character and took everything as rejection if she didn’t get what she was looking for right away. I wanted more for Jay.

I wish I had enjoyed this book more because I think it had the potential to be a much better book. If the writing had felt less rushed and clunky and the characters, other than Jay, had been less whiny and more likeable.

Soul struck