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Meant to Be

Julie Halpern (Goodreads Author)

3.19 · Rating details · 316 ratings · 93 reviews

In a world where the names of MTBs—"meant to be" mates—appear on the body at age eighteen, a girl must decide whether to believe the phenomenon or follow her heart in this YA novel.
It started happening a few years ago: the names of MTBs—"meant to be" mates—appeared emblazoned on the skin at age eighteen. Agatha's best friend has embraced the phenomenon and is head over hee ...more

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Hardcover, 320 pages

Published October 24th 2017 by Feiwel & Friends

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· 316 ratings · 93 reviews

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Oct 18, 2017 Jen Ryland rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: beware-of-love-triangle, smells-like-a-triangle, no-feels-for-you

My overall opinion: comic/light dystopian is VERY tough to pull off. Remember Bumped by Megan McCafferty?
Well, if you liked that, you might like this.

Basically this takes a familiar YA dystopian trope about assigned OTPs (the name of yours suddenly appears tattooed on your chest when you turn eighteen -- think Matched by Ally Condie) and combines it with a YA contemporary narrated by a wisecracking character in a sort of love triangle (she gets the name of her match but is falling for her co-wo ...more

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Sep 27, 2017 nick rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, young-adult, arc

I read Julie Halpern’s The F-It List a couple of years ago and adored it. I haven’t picked up anything else by her since, but when I came across Meant To Be, I got curious. Unfortunately, for me, this was one of those books that has an interesting concept that’s just not executed to its full potential.

In Halpern’s world, on your 18th birthday, your soulmate’s name becomes etched onto your skin, a phenomenon that’s gone unexplained. Isn’t that such an interesting story line to explore? Anyways, o
I read Julie Halpern’s The F-It List a couple of years ago and adored it. I haven’t picked up anything else by her since, but when I came across Meant To Be, I got curious. Unfortunately, for me, this was one of those books that has an interesting concept that’s just not executed to its full potential.

In Halpern’s world, on your 18th birthday, your soulmate’s name becomes etched onto your skin, a phenomenon that’s gone unexplained. Isn’t that such an interesting story line to explore? Anyways, our protagonist, Agatha, wants nothing to do with this soulmate. She wants to make her own choice on her own terms. Agatha wasn’t the easiest character for me to get behind. She has a very dry sense of humor, and is also very sarcastic. Typically, I enjoy these sorts of heroines, but I don’t know, Agatha rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe, because I felt like she tried too hard at times? She mentioned her farts, her giant breasts frequently throughout the story, and it was done in an obnoxious way. I also feel like she thought of herself as above everyone else because she didn’t want to give in to the idea of her soulmate. Her relationship with her best friend was a perfect example of that. She constantly judges her friend for going after her soulmate and falling in love with him, and doesn’t particularly make an effort to understand her friend’s point of view.

Even though Agatha was kind of annoying, I pushed through the story because I wanted to know more about her MTB (soulmate). Unfortunately, that never happens. In fact, we don’t find out much about him until the very end. Most of the book involves Agatha’s relationship with one of her co-workers at the amusement she works at. That relationship didn’t work for me. Though Agatha claims to be very much attracted to him, I just couldn’t feel the connection. I really wish the book had focused more on Hendrix, Agatha’s soulmate because from the glimpses we see of him, he sounded like a far more interesting character.

I did finish the book, but by the end I was left with an overwhelming feeling of “what was the point?”. Unfortunately, I’m just not sure I can recommend this one. :/ ...more

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Oct 25, 2017 Christina (A Reader of Fictions) marked it as dnf

Shelves: arc

Chapters read: 1

Oh man is this voice not for me. It's clunky and very focused on gross things and just not funny to me personally.

A couple sample quotes (from the ARC, so they might have changed etcetera etcetera):

The department store salesgirl with one false eyelash dangling over her left eye (she must have thought it was a bug and kept swatting at it thusly) assured me that cup size doesn’t necessarily correspond to how large one’s breasts are.

“Asshole,” I chide my torso. “Can’t you do somethi

...more

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Jan 27, 2018 Drue rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I absolutely love this book, love the characters, love the whole storyline. It took me a teeny bit to get into the idea of the world that was being built but once I bought into it it was hook line and sinker. I really would crave a sequel because I wanna know what happened to all these characters

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Oct 20, 2017 Jane (It'sJaneLindsey) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-read, 2017-release, first-reads-arcs

3.5 stars

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Nov 05, 2017 i_like_big_books rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2017

k not gna lie, i pretty much technically only read like 70 pages of this lmao. i got to the 130ish or less point but i skimmed. and then i read three sentences of each page for the rest of the book. if i didn’t do that then i’d be done w this in a year cus it drags and is one of the worst books i have everrr read. o m g. i could honestly write like a 10 page essay on this book and how much it sucked but i’ll say five things: predictable, drags, stereotypical, boring, and no character is likeable ...more

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Jan 18, 2018 Barbara rated it liked it

Shelves: community, lgbtq, economics, art, jobs, music, new-addition, animals, health, compassion

In this dystopian-lite book, when anyone reaches the age of eighteen, the name of his/her true love--their Meant to Be (MTB)--appears scrawled on his/her chest. Free-spirited (sort of) Agatha Abrams has never believed in this fated love, and even calls these romantic connections "Empties." I had high hopes for this book because of this original concept and the humor, but my interest flagged about halfway through, and I was more than a little annoyed that such an interesting concept wasn't explor In this dystopian-lite book, when anyone reaches the age of eighteen, the name of his/her true love--their Meant to Be (MTB)--appears scrawled on his/her chest. Free-spirited (sort of) Agatha Abrams has never believed in this fated love, and even calls these romantic connections "Empties." I had high hopes for this book because of this original concept and the humor, but my interest flagged about halfway through, and I was more than a little annoyed that such an interesting concept wasn't explored in depth; nor was there ever an explanation provided for why these names of someone's intended started appearing on humans six years ago or whom was responsible. Aggie begins a brief interlude with Luke Jacobs who works at the same amusement park she does, and while the build-up to sex is heated, the follow-through is disappointing for her,and Luke is far more enamored with her than she expected. Even while Aggie resists the idea of a soul mate determined by fate or some outside source, she grows increasingly curious about Hendrix Cutter, her MTB, and once she realizes where he lives, she questions all her indecision. After all, she has plans of heading to Australia rather than college after graduation. I ended up disappointed in how the plot developed as well as feeling as unsatisfied as Aggie was after being with Luke because there were too many holes dangling and issues unexplored. For instance, who says that anyone, male or female should be defined by the romantic relationship they are in, and how could her friend Lish do such a quick turnaround once her MTB, Travis, arrived on the scene. I suppose those who believe in the concept of love at first sight will ultimately enjoy this book, but for cynical old me, someone who believes that love is built on slowly getting to know someone and that it often waxes and wanes over the ages, this match-making seemed problematic since it was based on nebulous factors. Still, reading it might encourage some interesting conversations about love, sex, mutual attraction, and fate. I don't think I'll ever look at a ride on an amusement park in quite the same way again. ...more

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Jul 03, 2017 Dale rated it really liked it · review of another edition

To be completely up front, I wanted to really like this book - I meet Julie and spoke to her for about an hour in a line at ALA and really enjoyed the time chatting. I'm relieved to say I would have liked this YA romance even if I had never met Julie! It's an interesting premise and filled with terrific dialogue and characters who sound like 18 year-olds actually sound. I feel compelled to add this is a read for mature teens - there's lots of sex (they are 18 year-olds, after all) but there is m ...more

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Oct 13, 2017 JM Cabral rated it really liked it

Full review to come as on-sale date approaches. For now, I'll leave my short blurb:

"Meant To Be is a novel about a young woman defying the rules imposed upon her to prove the importance of choices and freewill. It's a novel that's filled with humor, thanks to a main character who is as funny as she is smart. I might not love it as much as I wanted, but I did like the story as a whole and I would still recommend it for lovers of the contemporary genre, especially for those who like the idea of fa ...more

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Jul 16, 2018 Kaitie rated it liked it · review of another edition

I absolutely LOVE the whole concept of soulmates and their name or mark being on you in some way as a story concept. It's one of my favorite fanfiction prompts LOL. However, I did not feel like this book was well written and the plot wasn't coherent enough for me. I didn't like the character development, but did appreciate how realistic it felt? It was a solid 2 star read that I bumped up to 3 for the end like 10 pages because they were so darn cute

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Jan 28, 2018 Valerie rated it liked it · review of another edition

If I am honest, this book was good but different then I thought it would be. I had different expectations of what I thought it would be. Essentially each person is labeled with their "meant to be' person and this was the story of working through if you would chose that destiny or not. I think the phrase you have to kiss a frog to find a prince rings true for me.

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Jan 05, 2018 Lara rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

Interesting and fun take on the soulmate concept and how (allegedly) having one would affect society. Aggy is a great narrator, and for anyone who's been waiting for a YA female protagonist who gets unapologetically horny and owns her sexuality, she's your woman.

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Jan 04, 2018 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 27, 2017 Autumn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: advanced-reader-s-copies, 2017, ya-lit

Received an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a fair review from MacMillian Children’s Publishing Group via NetGalley.

Along of the lines of the Matched series.
I like Julie Halpern's writing style a lot.
I enjoyed the book, I had quite a few questions in regards to this process of your Meant To Be's name appearing on your chest...so, so many questions. BUT. All-in-all, I enjoyed the book. Honest rating is a solid 3.5 stars.

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Aug 29, 2017 Michelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Received an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a fair review from MacMillian Children’s Publishing Group via NetGalley.

The premise of this book is very intriguing about discovering your soulmate or “meant to be”. At 18, a name appears and that person is the person you are supposed to be with forever. This is thought provoking, because 18 is very young to know the person you are supposed to be with for the rest of your life. Part of the fun of being 18 is dating, discovering what you like in yo ...more

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Aug 21, 2017 Trudi rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, ya

On your 18th birthday, the name of your soul mate appears as a tattoo over your heart and is know as your MTB (Meant To Be).

Agatha is not sure what to think about this and she believes in free will and doesn't want her mate decided for her. After her tattoo appears, she ends up having a summer fling with a co-worker as a way to defy the tattoo, but everything comes back to the tattoo and should she search for her soul mate.

This had the potential to be an awesome story, but 90% of it is her fling ...more

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Jul 19, 2017 Heather rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

I read an advanced reader copy of this book.

Boobs. The main character's breasts were mentioned so often, they deserve their own line in the credits.

On to the main theme... it seems like it was mostly skimmed over. Which I guess is okay, because you can't really go very far with the premise of random signatures appearing on people's bodies out of nowhere. I'd say it is a nice quick summer read for when you don't want to think too hard.

For those interested, there's a good bit of casual sex.

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Dec 21, 2017 Kristen rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, love-triangles, self-discovery, new-adult, contemporary, magical-realism

This is etched into my skin. This is real. This is forever.
This is a stranger's name.

Six years ago, Names started showing up on people eighteen and older. Most believe that their Name belongs to the person who is their soulmate, or, as they now call them, Meant-to-bes (MTBs.) People spend exorbitant amounts of money to find their MTB. Movies and books have incorporated the Names into their plots. But not all find the MTBs to be romantic or necessary. Like Agatha Abrams, who is convinced that t ...more

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Nov 22, 2017 Helen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: other-ya

This is one of those books that are a little difficult to classify. I guess I would call it a contemporary (possibly slightly futuristic) YA romance with a magical/supernatural twist (just the Meant-to-Be name appearing on people at age 18 with no explanation). Our protagonists use technology that seems the same as what we have in 2017, make pop culture and slang references that mimic our current choices, and aside from this mysterious Name thing, appear to be living in our times.

I was very clos ...more

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Feb 21, 2018 Morgan rated it liked it · review of another edition

*Read at work for review for ROYAL*

Julie Halpern’s Meant to Be presents the all important topic of choice and free will, specifically in relation to our love lives and who we are meant to be with.

Main character Agatha is living in a quasi dystopian world where on your eighteenth birthday, the name of your soulmate, or in the case “meant to be” appears on your chest, over your heart in their handwriting. Agatha is pretty opposed to the idea of MTBs, or as she refers to them “Empties” and would ra *Read at work for review for ROYAL*

Julie Halpern’s Meant to Be presents the all important topic of choice and free will, specifically in relation to our love lives and who we are meant to be with.

Main character Agatha is living in a quasi dystopian world where on your eighteenth birthday, the name of your soulmate, or in the case “meant to be” appears on your chest, over your heart in their handwriting. Agatha is pretty opposed to the idea of MTBs, or as she refers to them “Empties” and would rather have complete choice in the matter of who she ends up with. The concept is fairly new, having basically come out of nowhere six years prior, without any explanation. She’s seen the MTB tear families apart, specifically her own, and is skeptical about their validity.

Instead of immediately contacting her MTB, Hendrix Cutter, she instead decides to have a summer fling with her amusement park coworker Luke, while figuring out how to tell her mom that she doesn’t want to go to college in the fall, but instead wants to move to Australia and live and work and travel.

This was an interesting read for me. I LOVE the soulmate trope, and the different ways it’s enacted is always enticing. Agatha is likable enough, and is often cracking jokes at her own expense. She’s also sarcastic and confident, but a little immature. Her comments about her body, specifically the size of her breasts and the passing of gas were funny at first, but quickly became annoying with the amount of time she spent lamenting about each of the topics whenever she got the chance. I really liked certain aspects about her and found her funny for the most part, but there were still some moments where I wanted her to just stop.

Luke is the boy Agatha decides to spend her summer fooling around with. The concept of having a choice, or seeing what else is out there before contacting her MTB was great, I just wish Luke hadn’t been such a dud. He wasn’t charming or really all that likable, and he was mainly only interested in getting himself off. I was pretty happy when they decided to go their separate ways.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the story was getting to see the parallels between Agatha and her summer of fun and her best friend Lish, who found her MTB and almost immediately settled down with him. It was cool to get to see both ends of the spectrum in how people deal with going about meeting and interacting with their soulmate.

One of my biggest issues with the book is the ending, and mostly because that’s the portion I liked the most. Agatha begins to feels things for her MTB Hendrix and finally decides to contact him, with a little help from Lish. Getting to read the few messages of their correspondence was really sweet and funny, and it was clear that just a few emails between them had more chemistry than the whole book Agatha spent with Luke. I really really wish there was more to the two of them meeting; the little bit we got was so nice, but it just wasn’t enough.

While this wasn’t my favorite book, I really enjoyed it and the ending left me wanting more, so if a sequel were ever to be written, I would definitely love to read it because I want more of Agatha and Hendrix and exploring the potential they have to be something great.
...more

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Oct 12, 2018 Ashley at Oh Hey! Books. rated it liked it · review of another edition

How amazing would it be if our soul mate's name magically appeared on our chest when we turned 18? Would we immediately be so stoked and head out to find our meant to be or would we be more like the main character, Agatha, and fight the fate that has already been decided for us?

In this "YA" novel, Meant to Be, Agatha fights against the destiny that she believes has been decided for her. She wants to travel the world and fall in love on her own, not with the person whoms name just magically name How amazing would it be if our soul mate's name magically appeared on our chest when we turned 18? Would we immediately be so stoked and head out to find our meant to be or would we be more like the main character, Agatha, and fight the fate that has already been decided for us?

In this "YA" novel, Meant to Be, Agatha fights against the destiny that she believes has been decided for her. She wants to travel the world and fall in love on her own, not with the person whoms name just magically name that just magically appeared right above her breast on her 18th birthday. As she struggles through the trials of dating her Not-Meant to Be, life after high school and the future can she truly be satisfy in the choices that she makes?

I truly struggled at the beginning of this story and here is why...

#1 - First of all I am not much for a contemporary novel, but something about the magical name appearing on the chest made me excited for the story. In the beginning we meet Aggie, our main character, who seems very fast to jump to conclusions, judge others and use profanity as she pleases. Throughout the story she becomes more of a whiny teenager and short tempered. Not a big fan of her.

Lish, Agatha's best friend is on board with finding, marrying and having babies with her MTB. While she is more mature and wiser in her decisions, I cannot help but think maybe she is just settling into "the norm" at age 18 instead of being her own person.

Luke Jacobs is a pretty cool, typical guy who gets a bit overboard, mushy and clingy at times.
Hendrix Cutter seems okay, but we only see him toward the end.
Agatha's mom and uncle are cool too.

#2 - There is a lot of sex. Pretty much detailed and I personally wouldn't want to know that my 14-18 year old child read a story that had numerous profanties including using God's name in vain and detailed sexual descriptions. I truly feel like this may not fall into the YA genre, but perhaps the New Adult? Like it wasn't over the top, but definitely mature scenes.

So to summarize, because I feel like I am all over the place, the synopsis of Meant to Be is a fun concept and a fun, fast read, but the main character was whiny and the story just sort of ended. I don't know if it was meant to have a sequel follow up or if it was just a purposeful, let-you-imagine-your-own-ending. If you are a contemporary romance lover then this is the book for you.

Even though this story was a bit difficult to continue I did stick it out and actually ended up enjoying and laughing toward the end, until the abrupt ending, but either way I feel this title deserves a 3-star rating. ...more

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Jan 18, 2019 Jess rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: not-worth-the-read

This book was missing something. Exactly what, I couldn't say.

The premise that on your 18th birthday your soulmate's name appears etched onto your skin is a good one. There's so many directions one could run with here. These directions should be filled with drama and emotion. Sincerity. None of which I really felt while reading this total miss of a novel. The main protagonist, Agatha, wants absolutely nothing to do with her soulmate. Why do you ask? I wish I could tell you. It's not like she is ...more

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Oct 06, 2017 Chrissie Morrison rated it really liked it

The concept of a "soul mate" has been around for practically forever, but something strange started happening a few years ago. No one knows why, but people started getting names on their chests. Not like a tattoo, per se, since they didn't choose the name and/or do it themselves. Names just started appearing. Signatures, actually. Though no one knows why or how this started happening, many people honestly believe that the signature belongs to the person they are Meant To Be with (their MTB) ...more

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Oct 23, 2017 Maryalice rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, arc

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When it comes to love, Agatha Abrams is disenchanted. Her parents' relationship didn't survive the MTBs (meant to be), and she firmly believes in free will and choices. Instead of jumping for joy and spending a lot of money to locate her meant to be (or even conducting an online search for him), Aggy rebels against the system. She is determined to fall in love on her own terms - when, where, and wit ...more

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Oct 27, 2017 J.D. Knutson rated it liked it · review of another edition

There are many ways I could approach a review for this book, so I’m not sure where to start. I liked the premise of the book, which is why I decided to read it. I was soon surprised at how much language, vulgarity, and sexual content it contained. However, there is a certain momentum this book creates, so I persevered. Even so, I didn’t respect the narrator, and disliked a lot of what she said.

Why did I keep reading? Because this book is well written. The author placed herself in the mind of a t ...more

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Oct 11, 2017 Katie Scarlett rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I read an ARC I got through a goodreads giveaway.

This book was exactly what I needed right now. I needed this light, funny, rebellious soulmate AU.
I am confused timeline wise when this book takes place, if it's present-day but alternate universe or if it's slightly in the future. Anyway, about 6 years before this book is set, names started appearing on people's chests, usually above the heart, of everyone over the age of 18. It was determined that these name's were your soulmate or your meant-to ...more

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Oct 28, 2017 John Clark rated it it was amazing

How would you feel if someone's name in signature form appeared on your chest when your eighteenth birthday came? The phenomenon started six years ago and nobody's quite sure why. Was it a god thing, or did some company come up with a way to convince almost everyone that these signatures are a shortcut to everlasting true love so they could capitalize on the marketing possibilities?
Opinions are mixed and Agatha's more than unhappy when Hendrix Cutter appears in fine script on her boob. While he ...more

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Nov 16, 2017 Nina rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: magical-realism, ya

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 13, 2018 Tess (Book_Voyage) rated it liked it · review of another edition

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Mar 28, 2019 Greer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A weird phenomenon has happened that the name of your true love " Meant to be” will appear on your chest like a tattoo at the age of 18. MTB’s are the bane of many especially when they appear on adults who have children and now have some strangers name on their breast. Awkward. So I thought that this was going to be a dystopian story and explain the odd happenings that have started but I was wrong it’s a story of growing up and out growing friends and family. This book was out right hilarious i ...more

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About Julie Halpern

Julie Halpern

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JULIE HALPERN is the author of five young adult novels and one picture book for young readers. Maternity Leave is her first novel for adults. Prior to her life as full-time mom and author, Julie was a school librarian. In her imaginary spare time, she enjoys traveling, watching television for grown-ups, and eating baked goods. Julie lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, author and illustr ...more