The soulmate trope is one of my favourite tags in fic, and I am always complaining that there isn't enough in published fiction, enter We'd Know by Then.

Set in a world where everyone sees in black and white until they meet their soulmate, Brighton has had "The Glimpse" for as long as she can remember, but doesn't know when exactly it happened or it was that set her off. She, like most, dreamed about the day she finally found her soulmate and lived the perfect life she had always heard about. However, after losing her mother and watching her father go through losing his soulmate, and his ability to see the world in colour, Brighton begins to question whether the soulmate thing is worth the inevitable pain, or maybe being "happy enough"will keep her satisfied for the rest of her life.

I went into this expecting some heart warming romance with some fluffy lines that might make me giddy, and ended up being completely ripped apart. I will avoid spoilers but would warn that this book is likely to cause some visceral emotions, I recognize not everyone is a crier, but I genuinely can't remember the last time I ugly-cried this long and hard to a book. Keep that in mind when deciding when and where to read it.

This book made me grapple a lot with the idea of is "happy enough" enough? Is settling worth it if it means you're avoiding the pain? Would you trade a life of contentment and "happy enough" for a few days of pure bliss? lmfao can't wait to talk about this book with my therapist

Kirsten Bohling wasn't playing around when she said "I write heartfelt, complicated love stories..." in her GR biography. 

My only real gripe (and why it wasn't quite a 5-star for me) is the set-up/progression in the first half of the story. The author uses a lot of time jumps, and big ones, which I have a personal aversion to. Because of this I felt like I missed out on a lot of the earlier development between Brighton and Cain; it is a soulmates book so I don't want to say the relationship felt rushed in the beginning, because that's what I signed up for, but would've liked more of those early beginnings ... or just had the first half happen over a smaller temporal scale. I would say the climax probably works better because of the extended time, but I think I would've reacted the same way even if it was over a smaller period. 

A by-product of this is that I felt I never got a great grasp of Cain's character, aside from the fact that he's pretty fucking great; he's blatantly in love with Brighton but is willing to relinquish his own happiness just to be able to spend time with her. I would have loved to know a little bit more about who Cain was outside of Brighton (and his obsession with LoTR, totally valid btw). I recognize this is also just a flaw of single POV story-telling. 

Despite the ugly crying, I will be re-reading this as soon as my physical copy comes in. So many things I want to tab. This will definitely be one of my books I turn to when I'm in the need for a good cry (hence the new shelf I made, specifically because of this book). 

The ending also has me intrigued, I'm hoping we get to see this continued and this world delved into a bit more... 

All around excellent debut for Bohling and I am looking forward to what she publishes next! 

Side note: this is one of those rare times where I wish I ran a book club so we could have a discussion about this book... I have a burning question that I need everyones opinions on. Kirsten, if you ever need someone to write the "Book Club Discussion Guide" for this book, feel free to hit me up.

p.s. us reylos keep winning.

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April 11, 2022 - immediately after finishing
I spent the last 15% of this book ugly crying in the comfort of my home. I WAS NOT ANTICIPATING THIS. full thoughts to come but god damn that hit good and I need Amazon CA to get their shit together and send me my god damn preordered paperback