This was my first YA verse novel, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the format. The writing style is clean and engaging, and the story moves quickly while still hitting the emotional beats it needs to. The book kept me invested throughout, but the ending didn’t land as strongly for me. The final chapters feel rushed and could have used more space to fully flesh out the resolution. Still, the premise is compelling, and the overall reading experience was a good one.

A page-turner that would be highly appealing to young women and fans of pop dystopians of the 2000's and 2010's, like Hunger Games or Divergent. The writing style is purposefully structured to reach reluctant reading audiences, by use of shorter sentences and simpler vocabulary (as mentioned in the book description, referencing "hi-lo").

A quick and interesting read! I will always be up for reading a new take on the concept of different systems being used to assign soulmates. This read almost like a YA verse version of The One by John Marrs, and I really enjoyed exploring this concept through a different lens! Also, as a queer person, I like that it's very queer-normative - there was no "this matches each girl with a boy blah blah blah" it had nuance and being queer was just another option a person could tick without there being drama surrounding it specifically! I would absolutely read more from this author :)

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. I loved the characters and how their thoughts and feelings were shown in an empathetic and logical way. I loved the message behind this story.
I personally found the layout distracting, but I understand that it is helpful and necessary for those that need it. I think this would make a GREAT graphic novel!

Overall, this was an easy, quick read with an interesting and enjoyable plot.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rosen Publishing Group, West 44 Books, and Anna Lindwasser for the opportunity to read The Soulmate Project in exchange for an honest review.

The Soulmate Project is a HiLo novel-in-verse with a poetic style that tells the story in a less-is-more type of way. I enjoyed the craft, and the dialogue was one of the key factors developing characterization in this work.

Imagine a world where you are required to fill out a match profile so that an artificial intelligence can pair you with your soul mate. This is the person you must spend the rest of your life with, even if you had a significant other prior to the soul mate ceremony. If one does not comply or gets caught fornicating with someone who is not their registered pair, they are sent to jail.

This is the world eighteen-year-old Delphine lives in. From her first-person perspective, the reader is offered a story in a near-future setting (or even slightly dystopian, based on the control element). Del and her boyfriend do their best to fill out their profiles in a way that will bring them to be each other's perfect matches, so the soul mate algorithm will pair them together. But alas, they are not meant to be. As they each try to maintain their relationship, they are required to get to know their soulmate's at a camp, at risk of jail time.

As one might expect, this could easily turn into a rebellion. How can a computer have any notion of what two human beings should be together. There is so much about individuality and taking away from one's choice of love that make this novel a frightening possibility that may be encountered in the future. Can you imagine it? Not having free choice to love? Love is one of the driving forces of what it means to be human!

An enjoyable and too-spooky novel in it's technology and near-future elements. I highly recommend for teen readers or even an older audience who still wonders if their soul mate is out there somewhere...

The concept of AI determining your true soulmate instead of choosing a partner yourself is what drew me to this story. I had no clue it wouldn’t be a classic type of story, but a story fully told in verse-style. It’s unique, that’s for sure. For me personally, it made it a little less engaging because it didn’t go fully in depth of the concept BUT that didn’t take away from the story. It was refreshing and just something different!
(3.5 stars for me)