Crashing Souls by Cynthia A. Rodriguez
New Adult
October 27, 2015
Anterior Books
Reviewed by Helyce
Given a second chance to find the love of his life, whose soul was placed inside someone else after a tragic accident, a young man finds himself taking over the life of a teenager named Dexter. But there are rules: She will not remember him and he will only have fragmented memories, not knowing anything about the life he has been placed in and barely anything about the life he once lived. He embarks on a journey to right Dex’s wrongs and find the woman whose soul belongs with his, no matter what it takes. Finding her is one thing, loving her and her self-destructive ways is another.
I am stumped. I’m not quite sure where or how to begin. The things I want to mention, both good and bad, would most certainly be deemed spoilers, so I need to tread lightly which will be difficult for me.
The goodreads blurb (above) drew me in. I had read another book with a similar premise earlier this year and was intrigued by the soul mates aspect as well as the soul coming back in a different body, real time-not in another lifetime. The opening sets the scene where a young man who has died is begging the Angel of Death to send him back. That he needs to go back to be with the only woman he’ll ever love. They strike a deal, with many limitations, and the soul is sent back to the body of an 18 year old senior named Dexter Andrews.
Dexter awakens and has amnesia, but can remember his deal with the Angel of Death. He doesn’t know the woman who is sitting by his bedside, though he’s told that she is his Aunt Tracey who he lives with because his parents are dead. His friend Ralph comes to visit and he responds positively to him, knowing that he “knows” him but not sure why. Clearly they are friends and Ralph becomes an important link as Dexter navigates his new reality. Dexter is a senior in high school; he is some sort of computer whiz destined to attend MIT in the fall. He is handsome and has all the girls swooning. A young girl, Becca, also shows up to the hospital. She is Dexter’s girlfriend-but since this isn’t really “Dexter” and he has no memory of her he breaks up with her almost immediately. He is on a quest to find his soul mate and he’s not wasting time with a girl he knows is not the one.
The story moves along with Dexter returning to high school Amazingly he has retained the computer talents of the boy whose body he now resides in; but personality wise, he is nothing like the original Dexter. Prior to the accident, we are led to believe that he was kind of a jerk. He was unkind to his Aunt Tracey who got custody of him when his parents died in a car accident. Tracey is only in her late 20s so she’d given up a lot to step in and “mother” a young man who wasn’t dealing with grief well. While it is clear to the reader the Dexter is different, it’s really played down in the context of the story. He’s a completely different person in the body of someone else. Those differences should have stood out more.
When Dexter bumps into Noa Cruz at school one day and realizes that she is the one, he begins a courtship with determination to make her his. Noa is delightfully unique. Her hair is dyed blue; she’s a talented artist and she and Dexter hit it off but take it slow. I didn’t get the sense that Noa recognized Dexter in the same way he did her, but he does quickly become someone who Noa wants to depend on. So much so that she feels the need back off, worried that he might become too important to her and worried that he’ll leave when he sees the real her, because Noa has some major baggage.
Dexter and Noa begin a relationship wrought with many obstacles, most brought on by Noa and her insecurities. She has secrets, and she doesn’t share them right away and then when Dexter finds out, it is catastrophic. This becomes a theme with Noa-secrets and lies–through the course of the book. Dexter is not blameless here, he too makes some poor choices, but I often found that in each incident there were outside factors and that he was not entirely in the wrong. Noa’s deceit and withholding of information, time and again, caused more damage in my opinion.
I feel the need to touch upon a few things that I struggled with. In the beginning, when Dexter first awakens, it is clear that they are keeping something from him. Dexter doesn’t really notice, but to me, it was like this big flashing sign and it was frustrating to me. It didn’t build tension in a good way for me; it was like having one puzzle piece left in a 10,000 piece puzzle and it not fitting into the final hole. It is finally revealed a bit past the halfway mark. It was a little anticlimactic–but in all honestly, very fitting to the story.
I also had trouble with the time jump of 7 years. There is an almost tragedy that causes our MCs to part and the story then picks up 7 years later. Dexter and Noa are not together. We see that Noa has done well for herself, her success as an artist allowing her to be independent. I was not surprised when she and Dexter bump into each other at a favorite restaurant of Noa’s one evening. They are soul mates after all. We learn that Dexter did go to MIT and he works in a town in the same state that Noa has been living in. This was the next thing to not sit right with me. Dexter is a computer genius. Noa is a successful artist with a website which uses her real name, not a pseudonym. How is it possible that he did not find her in the 7 years they’ve been parted? A simple search of her name would have revealed her whereabouts and her successes. Are we to assume that he had tried?
Dexter and Noa do reconnect but there are many conflicts and misunderstandings. There is also another big secret that Noa has kept from Dexter which, when revealed, causes them to part ways yet again. Do you sense a pattern? And then it happens again–the exact same thing and it being repeated was almost my undoing. Then, at the moment when you think, finally-it’ll happen now, they’ll fix it and this will be the thing that brings them together rather than tearing them apart; it ends.
There is an epilogue which infers an HEA, but that didn’t work for me. After all the misunderstandings and lies and secrets, I needed Dexter and Noa to come clean and reveal all. They are supposed to be soul mates; they are given a second chance and in spite of everything that happens to them, I expected to be a part of their happy ever after. I needed it and felt short-changed that it was only inferred and I didn’t get to experience it. It was an “are you kidding me?” moment and I was angry.
Upon reflection, I have to wonder if perhaps this was the reaction the author had expected. Ms. Rodriguez’s writing style at times is poetic and lyrical. I loved the flow of her words as she led us through what Noa and Dexter were feeling. There are some beautiful moments where the love between them is crystal clear, until it isn’t.
If I’m understanding the tease at the end of the ARC, she has more planned for Noa and Dexter in a followup book called Souls Collide. While there were moments that I really did enjoy the journey these characters were on, there were equal parts that left me wanting. I’m not sure that I want to do it again.
Rating: C-
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