This story wasn't at all what I expected it to be. I felt as topsy turvy as the main character, who was who? What could be trusted? Who was good and who was doing evil? I loved it! ( )

This was pretty bad. The whole book is spent telling background story, and then the wrap-up is too quick. ( )

The sixth entry in L.J. Smith's Night World series, in which a hidden society of vampires, witches and shape-shifters exists alongside the human world, Soulmate follows the story of Hannah Snow, who begins to receive threatening notes - written in her own hand - as her seventeenth birthday approaches. As Hannah struggles with the incredible discovery that she is an "Old Soul," someone who was been reincarnated many times, she finds herself drawn into a deadly love triangle with Maya, the mother of all vampires, and Thierry, the first "made" vampire. It's a story that has played itself out countless times, down the generations - and it always ends with Hannah's death. Will this time be any different?

This story of eternal love, reincarnation, and the quest for redemption, is probably the most romantic book in the Night World series. It expands upon the "soulmate principle" that informs all of the other books, and fleshes out the foundation mythology that Smith began unfolding in Spellbinder. Here the reader will learn more about witch-twins Maya and Hellewise, the creation of the first vampire, and the birth of the Night World. Here too, the reader will discover a little more about Circle Daybreak, in a highly enjoyable scene that reunites many of the major characters from the first five books. The pre-historic narrative strained my suspension of disbelief a little, but Smith wisely keeps that aspect of her story rather vague.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, this series is something of a guilty pleasure. While perfectly aware of the abundant teen cliches, I nevertheless find myself sucked into Smith's world. Her heroines are usually intelligent, strong-willed girls, and her ideas about tolerance and the need for respect are most welcome. ( )

I love this book and all of its Night World counterparts! Cute love story with a touch of horror. Recommend strongly to those who love the vampire genre. ( )

Soulmate is the sixth entry in LJ Smith's ambitious Night World series, which consists of nine books with an overarching story. Only at the end of this volume do the major themes of the series really begin to get underway. Unfortunately, the necessary development of these detracts from what, already, is only a mildly successful paranormal romance.Sixteen-year-old Hannah Snow has been missing time. After these gaps in her memory, she finds notes--from herself, to herself--warning her that she's destined to be dead by seventeen. She visits a psychologist to explore these events further; when he puts her under hypnosis, she flashes back to an earlier, pre-historic life. Meanwhile, a coterie of vampires she's met before seem to be chasing her--including Thierry, Lord of the Night World, who claims to be her soulmate.All of this, particularly the flashbacks, are mildly entertaining; unfortunately, the character development in Soulmate is terrifically lacking. Hannah's counselor Paul stands out as being completely unconvincing as a character and a mental health professional, but even Hannah and Thierry themselves aren't major improvements. Both are flat characters, completely bland were it not for their situation. Villain Maya fares a little better than the rest, as her sinister intentions mean that she actually seems to have both motivations and desires, something lacking in the rest of the cast.What's more, the novel's climax and denouement is muddled as Smith tries to explain Circle Daybreak, the coming apocalypse, and "the soulmate principle." Throughout the series, I've found the requisite discussions of this principle to be didactic--they almost always are composed of stiff, affectless dialogue that feels oddly juxtaposed to the supposedly passionate subject matter. It's too bad that Smith chose to sink a good handful of chapters in this volume into exploring this further. Hopefully, in the next three volumes, there will be a little less (dry, stiff, and humorless) talk, and a little more action. ( )