Soulmate is the sixth entry in LJ Smith's ambitious Night World series, which consists of nine books with an overarching story. Only at the end of this volume do the major themes of the series really begin to get underway. Unfortunately, the necessary development of these detracts from what, already, is only a mildly successful paranormal romance.

Sixteen-year-old Hannah Snow has been missing time. After these gaps in her memory, she finds notes--from herself, to herself--warning her that she's destined to be dead by seventeen. She visits a psychologist to explore these events further; when he puts her under hypnosis, she flashes back to an earlier, pre-historic life. Meanwhile, a coterie of vampires she's met before seem to be chasing her--including Thierry, Lord of the Night World, who claims to be her soulmate.

All of this, particularly the flashbacks, are mildly entertaining; unfortunately, the character development in Soulmate is terrifically lacking. Hannah's counselor Paul stands out as being completely unconvincing as a character and a mental health professional, but even Hannah and Thierry themselves aren't major improvements. Both are flat characters, completely bland were it not for their situation. Villain Maya fares a little better than the rest, as her sinister intentions mean that she actually seems to have both motivations and desires, something lacking in the rest of the cast.

What's more, the novel's climax and denouement is muddled as Smith tries to explain Circle Daybreak, the coming apocalypse, and "the soulmate principle." Throughout the series, I've found the requisite discussions of this principle to be didactic--they almost always are composed of stiff, affectless dialogue that feels oddly juxtaposed to the supposedly passionate subject matter. It's too bad that Smith chose to sink a good handful of chapters in this volume into exploring this further. Hopefully, in the next three volumes, there will be a little less (dry, stiff, and humorless) talk, and a little more action.