emma's Reviews > Seoulmates

There are a couple of reasons to ask yourself why a book exists.

One is if it is simply purposeless. For example, if it's a previously unannounced surprise sequel to a book that appears to be conceived solely to avoid the backlash of accidentally calling a book without a happily ever after a "romance," flying in the face of the singular requirement for a book to be called that.

I just said book so many times.

Another is if it is simply terrible, bad on every level, with characters who are unbearable to read about and a total lack of plot and a writing style that is grating, so that every moment, every page, every paragraph is a burden and a punishment.

This book, you may have guessed, is impressive because I am asking why it exists for both reasons.

It has been a long time since I read something I actively hated this much!

And there are a lot of reasons for that!

For example: this book was clearly published because at the end of the first book, the couple was not together, and the lack of HEA meant it couldn't be a romance. You can see a bunch of negative reviews of it if you don't believe me.

But when this book starts......they are together???? So I don't understand what we're doing here??

There is a breakup scene at the end of the last book, I promise. I was not hallucinating. It was too vividly bad for me to forget, and believe me, I've been trying.

But here we are. As if nothing ever happened. It feels like the first book happened, then a second book's worth of events happened, but that happened in a three-month window that we skipped entirely and find ourselves here, in nonsense land of no story or events.

In other words, this is basically if you read a romance between, like, a prince and a commoner and the end of the first book they get married, and then the second book is just her like :( and his family like :(

So all the boring stuff. And also you don't get to see the happily ever after part. So even more boring stuff instead of good stuff.

As if that weren't enough to qualify this as the silliest and most frustrating read of all time, THERE'S MORE. It's all goofy and deus ex machina-y: Three characters previously established to be straight are suddenly gay, explanation-less-ly, so they can all date each other.

I don't know why that feels like an insurmountable problem, for even one background character to be single when this miserable duology slogs to its end, but here we are.

AND! In case you were tempted to be rooting for these wayward stepsiblings (although I don't know why you would be - they are annoying apart but even worse together), they f*ck at work! Where their mom (lol) gave them jobs! And are recorded! On security cameras!

And we are expected to sympathize!

With the two most unsympathize-able characters of all time!

I need to lie down.

Bottom line: I would get a lobotomy if it would help me forget this book.

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pre-review

this manages to have no plot and still be filled with drama, toxicity, and unpleasantness at every second.

it's kinda impressive, in that way.

review to come / 1.5 stars

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tbr review

a pun and a pretty cover. what more can a book have

(thanks to netgalley for the e-arc)