Mariana
This is one of those books that deserves an animated-gif-laden review, though I can't be bothered to build one. The characters were under developed, the romance barely there, and nonsensical besides, and the twist ending existed merely to enable the book to be categorized as 'twisty'.The 'witch', the brother, and the bartending friend existed only as a way to provide a match for the earlier incarnations of characters, though their soul pairings seemed incidental and emotionally unfulfilling. I would expect a witch to provide much more than a pat on the head and a maternal "buck up, girlie" morale booster. Shouldn't witches provide magic, or advice, or at least some insight? Her strongest advise was to (oooh, spooky) "complete the circle", (complete with ghostly finger wiggling and a classical music interlude).
And if the brother turned out to be a soul-pairing, then who the heck was Geoff's prior incarnation? And how does Julia's love so suddenly turn off for him and immediately light upon Iain, merely because she understood his reincarnation? If they were true soul-mates, wouldn't she have fell in love with him at first sight? And if Iain knew he was Julia's soul mate all along, couldn't he have done more to woo her than to uncharacteristically not criticize her gardening skills? And whatever happened to the evil Jabez (or whatever his name was)?
Well, at least it was an easy read: I finished it in a day. I did enjoy the potential of the book, but the author should've spent less time gratuitously twisting and more time on character building and emotion-injecting.
Conclusion: read this book if you are traveling and are in danger of having to lighten your load by tossing something in the bin.