Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Summary

This is book five in the Significance series by Shelly Crane. It follows Ava, the daughter of the main characters in the first four books. In this series, a certain group of people called Virtuosos (who are mostly human, but with some extra powers), find their soulmate by “imprinting” when they touch. Once they have their soulmate, their Significant, they go through a period of time before they Ascend and gain their power. Ava has grown up in the Jacobsen clan – a close-knit family that has good morals and stands up for its beliefs. Her significant, Seth, grew up with the Watsons – the antagonists from the first four books. The books very much follows the idea of star-crossed lovers.

What I Liked

• I don’t know why I’m obsessed with this series. I love the idea of soulmates. (So if you know any great books with a soulmate AU, let me know! I want to read them!) And although there are a ton of things I don’t like with these stories (see below) I just keep reading them…
• Seth is a firefighter, which brought some unique challenges we didn’t get to see with the original characters (Ava’s parents).
• The star-crossed lovers thing was also a very intriguing idea. This also lent itself to some interesting plot points that we haven’t seen yet from this society.

What I Didn’t Like

• The grammar and the writing. Oh. my. gosh. For a while I though these books were just self-published eBooks, for which it would be understandable if they weren’t well edited. But apparently she does have an editor?! If you are her editor and you’re reading this – please go read a book by Jeff Gerke. I’d suggest 50 First Pages or How to Write Christian Fiction. Then problems such as the following could be avoided:
  • Telling and not showing
  • Treating the reader like they’re stupid. (Stating “I knew this was such a significant moment in my life” is unnecessary. If the scene was written correctly, we the reader already know that!)
  • Restating the same things over and over and over again. Unless of course it’s an important detail, in which case it’s only mentioned once and never again.
• Ava is supposedly attending university. But the way it is described sounds a lot more like high school… Are there universities out there with bell schedules? And a lunch time that everyone has?
• While I understand that he first four books are romances following her parents, it is still incredibly weird the way in which Ava describes her parent’s romantic life. “Hanky panky would have been had” is something I would never imagine a teenager saying or even imagining about her parents.
• Twenty years or so have passed since the last book ended. However, nothing much seems to have changed. Either in the human world or in the Virtuoso world. And that was weird too.

In Conclusion

If you can get past the sloppy writing and poor grammar and you’re weirdly obsessed with the soulmate AU idea like I am, then read this book. Otherwise, it’s not for you.

Find it on: Goodreads | Amazon (affiliate link)

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