Soulmate

Soulmates #1

by Erin M. Leaf

Guy Keaton doesn’t want a hookup or a soulmate or anything in between. When he lost his wife to cancer, he knew he’d be alone for the rest of his life. He has a grown son, and his woodshop, and in a world where those born with powerful gifts are few and far between, that’s all that really matters.


Theo Fraser’s empathic gift is rare and strong. He isn’t looking for love, but when he meets Guy, everything changes, because he knows that when you find your soulmate, you hold on tight and don’t let go. The only problem is that Guy thinks he’s straight, and Theo doesn’t know if he can convince a man already set in his ways to change his mind.


Will Guy be able to give up his grief and accept Theo’s love? And what happens when a terrible betrayal forces them to fight to keep each other alive?

Genres: M M Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Bisexual, Magic

164 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 14, 2018

About the author

Erin M. Leaf is a bestselling romance novelist (the steamier the better) with a specialty in edgy erotic tension.

Her website is: http://erinmleaf.com.

Reviews

[Elise ✘ a.k.a Ryder's Pet ✘ · Rating 2 out of 5]

⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱*Contains Spoilers*⋰⋱⋰⋱⋰⋱

The book centers around widow of three years, Guy Keaton (45), a WoodCrafter and his soulmate Theo Fraser (30) an empathic and a Delegate; a Craft Councilmember - The Council mostly mediated disputes between Crafters and handled public relations with the larger non-gifted population. Guy is still grieving the death of his wife and does not want anything more. Little did he know that a hike would lead to meeting his soulmate. His soulmate that is a man. But Guy is straight, isn't he?

Overall there's a lot of repeating, insta-love, lack of depth. You all know I HATE insta-love, and this was quite insta. As in not even a week has passed. Only on the second meet is 'I love you' said. Yes, that insta. I understand that they were soulmates, but still. The relationship - for me - needs a foundation and depth, and here it was none. I also felt like there was three (Guy, his deceased wife and Theo) people in this relationship, instead of two, and since I wasn't that prepared for that, it kinda ruined things for me. I somewhat made me uncomfortable when they had a sexual moment and they were talking about Guy's wife. Didn't sit right with me.

With the insta-love on top of that... yeah, the book had potential, but it sure didn't live up to it. Then with the action that didn't feel like action put into the story as well, it just didn't work for me. But still, it did have potential! I will not continue reading the series though. I needed more from this book to make me want to dive deeper into the series.

Quick basic facts:
Genre: - (A) Fantasy (M/M).
Series: - Series, Book One.
Love triangle? - No, but the dead wife was constantly mentioned.
Cheating? - No, wife has been dead for three years.
HEA? - Yes.
Favorite character? - Theo Fraser.
Would I read more by this author/or of series? - Unsure.
Would I recommend this book/series? - If you like insta-love, yes.
Will I read this again in the future? - No.
Rating - 2.5/2 Stars.

[Steph ☀️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable

It was a quick read that kept my attention. However, while I did enjoy the book, some of the repetitiveness in it drove me 🤪.

[⚣Michaelle⚣ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 Stars

I thought I was going to like this more than I did given the summary...but somehow the great idea got lost in the execution.

Don't get me wrong, it's still romantic and hot and OMG how much did I love that Guy's wife was never far from his mind, that losing her broke his heart but didn't break HIM. That Theo wasn't jealous of the memories, of the past...that he knew what his role would be in Guy's life if Guy would just accept the bond forming between them.

It's just...that bond felt entirely too rushed. The magic handwave plot device stating that Empaths were the only "crafters" who could instantly recognize their soulmate just didn't translate well when it came to Guy's POV. It's one thing for Theo to know...but for Guy to go from skeptically questioning his sexuality to falling in bed with a guy was just too quick. (I did like his angsting about it afterwards, though; I'd hopefully expect a little bit of that from any widowed previously straight character.)

Also, what exactly ARE "crafters"? That part of the world-building felt incomplete. How many different kinds were there (besides undifferentiated, WoodCrafter, Healer and Empath)? Was this an AU version of Earth as we know it? Was it a parallel world? Was the "crafter" society just one of those things that existed outside of human knowledge or was everything integrated? In some ways we got a little bit of all those explanations and every now and then I got the feeling there was a prequel I missed that detailed everything. (There's not.)

Also, the mystery was overly complex and convoluted. I still feel like there's more out there, like we're still scratching the surface of this conspiracy...and with this being the first of a series maybe that is the case. I'm just not so sure I want to keep reading installments like this one if they're not going to do a better job outlining the way in which "crafters" fit into the world at large, and just who/what they are.

[annob [on hiatus] · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the promise of the blurb; an age-gap romance with some angst. The book mostly delivered and I much enjoyed the paranormal romance element of it. So cool to be able to reshape trees as a supernatural ability! Grumpy widower and enthusiastic younger lover were both characters I enjoyed spending time with. I found the on-page grief to be more sweet than angsty, which was somewhat disappointing to me. I like angst! And I would have preferred to read more about how they meshed their everyday lives together after the insta-bonding, rather than the suspense plot in the second half of the book. But those are my personal preferences, and nothing I fault the book for.

[Joyfully Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Joyfully Jay review.

4 stars

I picked this book because I was intrigued by the idea of an unwilling soulmate. I think Leaf did a great job painting Guy as a good person, devoted to his deceased wife and his grown son, and not ready to “move on” just yet. This gave Guy wonderful depth. It also made his meeting with Theo rather bittersweet and not a little bit angsty from Theo’s point of view. That said, it was also clear from almost the moment they lay eyes on each other (and definitely the moment they shake hands) that there is some major attraction. It was almost comical how aroused these two were in each other’s presence. There was sort of an innocence on Guy’s part because he thinks it’s just rando-raging erections at the most inappropriate time. The meeting scene between Guy and Theo covers a lot of ground, but doesn’t really resolve their relationship status. It takes Guy quite a lot of waffling around and lots of encouragement from his son to even entertain the idea that he can bond with the man who is his soulmate.

Read Camille’s review in its entirety here.

[John-Torleif Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great couple, fun story

This was insta-love done right! I thought that the descriptions of the bond between Guy and Theo were strong and evocative; they made me believe the emotions between the two were real, and believable despite the short internal.

The villain was a bit of a surprise, and I felt that the wrap up of things, while satisfactory, could been more insightful into the various factions that apparently made up the anti-Council group. Also, it would be nice to have a stronger lead in to the next book(s) in the series.

[LOLA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book. Some paranormal and some romance.
Well done. Was a good snack.

[Qin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not care for this book. For one thing, I found the world building to be off-putting, courtesy of the very brisk, perfunctory almost, manner in which the paranormal elements (viz. the supernaturals, their abilities, their customs and way of life) are introduced in the first chapter no matter how strange the conceptions Mrs Leaf decided to embrace in this respect (thus I fail to see how the, supposedly socially prestigious, function of making mating rings out of dead wood falls within the special province of an earth elemental like our alpha hero, Guy, instead of being the lot of someone whose control extends upon metal and precious stones, or how empaths are a very rare breed who does not make good politicians) and no matter how quaint the various ways all such elements get phrased (lackluster as it is and often ridiculously inappropriate, the basic paranormal vocabulary coined by Mrs Leaf comes close to being a literary miscarriage: Crafters designates the gifted individuals, Delegates the council members, WoodCrafter the kind of supernatural our the alpha hero is, and so on). The characters and the situations they bustle their way through did not pass muster better, as we get treated to most, if not all, the tired tropes with little regard for cogency: on the one hand the beta hero had to be an empath whom it is pretty much impossible to hide anything from, feelings-wise, so that the tough nut that the WoodCrafter would otherwise be proves rather easy to crack, yet on the other hand as Guy’s repressed bisexuality is no secret for his Healer of a son (for no better reason that his late mom spilled the beans on her deathbed ! aye sure), what then was the pressing need for Delegate Theo Fraser to have that power and none other ? The whole book is replete with scriptural miscalculations of this kind. The writing is no better than such a plot and barely fleshed out heroes deserve; as a sample of its tendency to redundancy and flabbiness, let me quote a typical fragment of Guy’s internal conflict prior to his having sex with Theo (original emphasis) followed by a bit of dialogue which had me cringing at its utter ridicule:

"“Guy didn’t know where Theo got his confidence, because he didn’t have a clue what the hell he was doing here. His cock throbbed, and Theo’s flushed face and puffy lips made him want to just sink in and let go, but he couldn’t forget that he’d been married to a woman. Okay, sure, he’d had dreams about men, but those hadn’t been real. They’d just been random images from the depths of his subconscious. Now he had a grown man standing in front of him, real enough to touch. What the hell am I doing? Guy hitched up his pants, but he didn’t zip them. He didn’t think he could zip them at this point. His cock had never been so fucking hard in his life, and it felt almost as if he was betraying Pamela. He’d loved making love to her, but he had never felt so out of control. If he wasn’t careful, he’d grab Theo and damn the consequences."

"“What are you doing to me?” Guy managed to ask. He gritted his teeth. He was so close to the edge, one firm stroke would take him over.

“I’m making love to you. I’m showing you that everything you did in your past, the woman you loved and made a child with, wasn’t a waste. It’s all a part of you,” Theo said. He’d let go of Guy’s erection."

All of the above makes for a morose reader and a rather unsympathetic reviewer. 2 stars and a half rounded down.

[Jessie Pinkham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so emotional that I had to stop and swipe away tears multiple times. The premise, dealing as it does with a still-mourning widower, would not have worked if handled improperly. As written, it has a major emotional punch as Guy deals with his conflicting feelings about finding his soulmate after his beloved wife's death. Heartfelt and beautiful.

[Sandra Bunino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erin M. Leaf does it again! SOULMATE is a great start to her new series. I love how she takes her characters through the realization of love as the story builds.

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. I look forward to reading the next book! 🖤

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowzer!

It didn’t grab me at first. It starts off well and that’s a good sign. The wonderful thing is that it picked up speed and had me hooked. Hooked so bad that I stayed up until I finished it.
Great premise! Amazing way to weave a story of prejudice not only against sexuality but magic. Amazing way of describing the coming to terms of who you fall in love with as well as how others see it.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no inkling from the description how very interesting the worldbuilding was going to be in this first book of a new series. I shouldn’t have been surprised as I’ve read this author before and she has a wonderful talent. In ‘Soulmate’ only about one percent of the population has any Craft power and within that percentage very few of them can do more than sense the energy of their particular affinity, they lack any active talent. Soulmates are people who each have a Craft, who are bonded together which extends their lifespan and increases their Craft power, but finding a soulmate within that one percent is very rare.

Guy is a WoodCrafter with a very strong Craft in wood – feeling it, working with it, manipulating it – although he likes to do most of his work by hand and without using his power. He lost his beloved wife a few years ago to cancer and even though she was not of the Craft, and they were not soulmates, he loved her very deeply and grieves still. He doesn’t want a soulmate and he certainly doesn’t want to remember his bisexual feelings long ago before he met his wife.

Theo is very powerful with an Empathy Craft and at the age of thirty he is already a council delegate. The council mostly mediates disputes between Crafters and handles public relations with the much larger nongifted population. Theo is fairly new to the council but he has already begun to sense underlying issues going on that he’s struggling to decipher. When Theo meets Guy his empathy tells him immediately that they are soulmates but it also tells him Guy is very sad and he has no clue that his soulmate could be a man.

Please find my full review at Rainbow Book Reviews

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was going good and then it stopped. I'd give the first half of the book a 3 star and the second probably closer to 1.5 so I'm settling on 2 stars.

Anyway my biggest problem is that Theo passes out and then nothing. The whole climax is solved without the involvement of either MC. There was trouble and then there wasn't. The whole resolution was way too easy and the "romance" was way too easy.

What I did like about it was the fact that Guy was being considerate about his wife's memory. Theo on the other hand I felt like used that against Guy way too many times. Even though he was going on about how Guy doesn't need to forget her memory and they jerk off thinking about her? It was the oddest thing. Sometimes I felt it was a little on the disrespectful side.

Either way, I'm in the minority again so please give this a try if you like bonding stories that aren't about werewolves!

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok

This was a quick read. It was fairly interesting with a little bit of a twist. I liked the concept of some folks having a craft.

[BB · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a nice mix of paranormal (something I apparently completely missed in the blurb because I'm an idiot) and romance. It was a new premise and I really enjoyed the soulmates aspect of it.

The story between Guy and Theo was GFY-ish. There was a danger element here as well that didn't overpower the story, leaving the romance and bonding between the two men the focal point, but it was in the background a little. I really like the idea of fated soulmates and it wasn't long into the story that came about, the entire book spanning over only a week or two. I don't mind that so much. I like slow-burn but sometimes I like getting into the meat of it rather quickly.

The sex was very nice. Very nice. Especially through Theo's POV with his emphatic powers, I thoroughly enjoyed that. I loved the way they honored Guy's ex-wife (it was incredibly hot that one time, to be honest) And we had phone sex people. Phone sex!

[llv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars
A friend lent me her copy of this book and while I thought it was okay, it didn’t inspire me to buy my own copy. I thought the book was fine, it just wasn’t anything special. Theo was my favorite of the two MCs. I liked both of them, but Guy’s angst at the beginning got old fast. I was glad when he finally got over his whole “I’m straight” thing and embraced the relationship.

I think the biggest fault of this book was the conflict with the Craft Council. It was the weakest part of the story.

Ultimately, the story was just okay. It wasn't anything special.

[James Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book is romantic, has action, paranormal, and mystery. Guy is a widower who is still grieving the death of his wife. He is content to live out the rest of his days alone with just his son for an occasional social outlet. One day he is out hiking and he meets Theo p, an out and proud delegate for the crafter council. Theo figures out he is attracted to Guy but is not sure how to proceed. The tragedy strikes and Theo’s life is threatened. This will require some soul deep changes for both of them. I really enjoyed this book.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story. We meet Guy as he's still grieving for the wife he adored and his son is trying to convince him to start dating. He's not even close to ready until he stumbles across Theo while out on a hike. Oh boy, do the sparks fly. Even meeting your Soulmate doesn't mean you stop grieving lost love though and these two handle that love in a unique and slightly dirty way. I had to alternate between tissues and laughs for this story and there's a bit of suspense too.

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insta love with a bit of token resistance from one of the couple, some loving support from friends and family, some minor character bigots and a flare up of dramatic danger that is quickly quashed.

Eh, it was ok, but nothing really happened that you couldn't predict from reading the blurb, the characters were a little flat and the idea of Crafters, which was a bit different and had potential, didn't really convince me in the end. Pleasant enough. The soul rings were the best bit.

[Kelley Vandiver · Rating 2 out of 5]

The political aspect of the book (that sort of mimics the current political atmosphere in the US) was an interesting idea that didn't really go anywhere. It felt like it was resolved too quickly in fact, everything happened too quickly. The two main characters meet and are pretty much married right away. What about the soulmate rings? Were they a huge success? Why didn't the epil0g mention that?

It was an okay book but overall, pretty forgettable.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a great start to a new series. Theo, an empath needs a strong partner and woodcrafter, Guy, fits the bill. I loved the idea of soulbound rings and the fact that Guy has the talent to make them was wonderful. I thought there were many good scenes in this book--when Guy made the rings for the girls was one of them. Already ordered the next book.

[Jeanine Beaulieu St Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second chance

I loved this book ,,to feel the sparks the way this author writes it’s Like you can feel the strength of the bond between these soulmates very well written can’t wait to read the next book

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, this didn’t work for me. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the almost love triangle or threesome whatever weirdness between Guy, Théo, and Guy’s dead wife that turned me off. It was the political drama.

Dubcon because Theo was quite pushy the first time they have sex.

[Sam Vaeoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely story of coming out and love!

Love will conquer all when or if you feel in your heart! No matter what it’s at stake! It’s beautiful and it’s the strongest force in this universe bar none!

[NJ Sgritc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good read. The main character was widower not looking for love but he finds it unexpectedly. I love a good love story and that's what this is.

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Brice Dohnt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soulmate : By Erin M. Leaf

This is a great story to read I enjoyed it, and the characters in it. It really kept me hooked.

[Lisa Brick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just eh for me...

I really don’t have much to say about the book. I wish there was more angst and drama, but it went super quick and ended just as quickly.

[Qwurty · Rating 1 out of 5]

i don’t think that’s how the word bisexual works