Book Review: Soulmatch by Rebecca Danzenbaker
Published: July 29, 2025
Genres: Young Adult // Dystopian, Romance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating: .5 (Kisses & Fade to Black Scene)
Quick Thoughts: After years of waiting for someone to recapture the magic of YA dystopians, Soulmatch finally delivers with its unique premise where past lives determine your future career, inheritance, and soulmate. The worldbuilding is expertly done without overwhelming readers, and the sweet romance between Sivon and her bodyguard Donovan hits in all the right places. Despite a slightly rushed ending, this standalone successfully revives dystopian magic while feeling completely fresh.
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Note: Some of these warnings are spoilers. These are also listed on the author’s website here.
Assassination attempts
Child abuse (mentioned, not experienced)
Death of a friend
Gaslighting
Near-death experience
Panic attacks
Suicide discussions
Suicide of a side character
Threats/intimidation
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Hate to Love
Bodyguard Romance Dynamic
Forbidden Romance
Soulmates
Love Triangle
Dystopian Setting
Protective MMC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In a world where past lives determine your future, a sharp-witted girl confronts a major twist of destiny, embroiling her in a high-stakes game of danger, corruption, and heartbreak in this young adult speculative romance perfect for fans of Scythe and Matched.
Two-hundred years after World War III, the world is at peace, all thanks to the soul-identification system. Every 18-year-old must report to the government to learn about their past lives, a terrifying process known as kirling. Good souls leave the institute with their inheritance, a career path, and if they’re lucky, a soulmate. Bad souls leave in handcuffs.
It's a nerve-wracking ordeal for Sivon, who, given her uncanny ability to win every chess match, already suspects her soul isn’t normal. Turns out, she was right to worry. Sivon’s results stun not only her, but the entire world, making her the object of public scrutiny and anonymous threats.
Saddled with an infuriating and off-limits bodyguard, Sivon is thrust into a high-stakes game where souls are pawns and rules don’t exist. As deaths mount, Sivon must decipher friend from foe while protecting her heart against impossible odds. One wrong move could destroy the future lives of everyone Sivon loves, and she can’t let that happen, even if they’ll never love her back.
INITIAL REACTION
After years of waiting for someone to recapture the magic of YA dystopians of the 2010s, Soulmatch finally gets close. I know I'm not in the target audience for this book, but it captured everything I love about Young Adult books: adventure, close friendships, and an unbelievable plot where teenage characters save the world.
MY REVIEW
Set 200 years after World War III, Soulmatch is a standalone novel that takes the concept of reincarnation to the next level. Your past lives determine your future—your career, your inheritance, and even whether you have a soulmate or not.
At 18, everyone undergoes a "kirling" to learn about their past lives and discover if they are a "good soul" or a "bad soul." For the characters in this world, their skills and natural abilities as children are often tied to who they'll become after kirling. Our FMC Sivon doesn't believe she has skills, but she does have an uncanny ability to win chess. Her results shock everyone and thrust her into the center of a dangerous political game during election season. She quickly has to learn who to trust and how to save the people she loves.
The ending is full of twists and turns that I never saw coming. I'll admit that the ending was slightly rushed and mind-bending with so many revelations dropping at once.
Still, the book neatly ties up all threads in a satisfying way that makes this the perfect book if you don't want to start a new series.
World-building & Setting
You'd think explaining a complex soul system and a world with reincarnation would be complicated, but the author does a really impressive job making it understandable and not overwhelming. Most of the world-building is done through brief flashbacks or conversations between characters, so there really wasn't a lot of infodumping.
Each chapter opens with a definition of term that would be key in that specific chapter. It was like having a built-in dictionary that reveals relevant pieces of the world as you go. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has spoiled a book by reading the glossary or read a book in confusion only to find the glossary at the end, so having the chapters start off with a key definition was brilliant.
The political subplot and uncovering corruption added real stakes beyond the romance. Sivon gets kirled at the height of election season and gets thrown into the fray. My only complaint is that I wish we heard more about the opposing party because the upcoming election played a big role in what Sivon did throughout the book. The difference between the political parties seemed to center around kirling and what to do with the results once you find out whose soul belongs to you, which is similar to what Sivon and her friends were grappling with the entire book.
"When fortune and power are at stake, bad souls will do whatever it takes to seize it."
The different opinions on the government's role in reincarnation and uncovering everyone's souls raised thought-provoking questions about justice, identity, individual choice, and who gets to be the judge of good and bad.
Characters
Sivon reminded me so much of Pip in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. She's smart, strategic, but is also believably flawed for an 18-year-old. Her chess acumen means she approaches everything like a slow game of strategy, and it was amazing to see the inner workings of her brain. She grew from an uncertain teenager to a strategist throughout the book, and it was a satisfying character arc.
I loved all the side characters too and felt like they added a lot to the story. Corah and Vivi led the charge as Sivon's best friends, and their love for Sivon gave found family vibes. The political figures were also believable as both allies and enemies, which added to the mystery throughout the book.
My biggest complaint is that the soul name system gets really confusing because characters have birth names they go by until they find out their soul names at kirling. That means that many characters go by two names throughout the book. It gets difficult to keep track of who is who, especially towards the end. I had to re-read the last couple of chapters a few times to understand what was happening.
Romance
A lot of the dystopians released recently have too much romance, and the larger social and political themes get lost. That was not the case here. The balance between romance and plot is where this book really gets it right.
The romance between Sivon and her bodyguard Donovan was perfection. Donovan...the man that you are...😍. Something about Donovan trying to hate Sivon but then cooking her dinner AND protecting her life really did it for me.
I wouldn't say it was slow-burn, but it was as slow of a burn as you can get in a standalone. Their relationship hit all my favorite tropes—forced proximity, hate to love, and a grumpy but protective love interest.
There was a love triangle, and I've got to say, I did not foresee how it was going to resolve itself. It played perfectly into the story and resolved without dragging on forever.
Final Thoughts
Soulmatch revives the magic of dystopian classics while still feeling fresh. Part of me is sad that this is a standalone and that this story is over.
If you've been craving 2010s dystopian vibes, this book might be worth reading!
Check out this review on Goodreads or Storygraph.
Happy reading!
Kim
SOULMATCH FAQs
Some of the answers may be spoilers if you haven’t read it already. Proceed with caution!
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No, as of the writing of this post, Soulmatch is a standalone.
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No, Soulmatch is not spicy. There are some kissing scenes and a fade-to-black scene, but no detail is discussed.