I was absolutely entranced by Olivia Atwater’s Half a Soul. I’m becoming more and more picky with romances so discovering a story that filled me up with butterflies is such a treat. It's rare I read a single POV romance without yearning for insights into the co-lead but Atwater here crafted such a compelling lead that effortlessly carried the story. I was utterly charmed by Dora the odd, often overlooked and cruelly treated girl. Atwater has discussed how much of Dora’s characterization is inspired by her own neurodivergence and while I’m not autistic I especially felt a deep empathy with the ways Dora felt removed from the people around her and hurt for the ways she was forced to mold herself into an acceptable woman to be tolerated by her relations.

That deep connection with Dora made her relationship with Elias all the more engaging. These two’s chemistry is so electric on the page. From their initial barbs and banter to the way they come to allow themselves to vulnerable with each other, their matching passions for fighting against injustice and righteous desire to help. Seeing them come together was a treat because Atwater crafted two leads that felt like they fit together perfectly. I loved seeing Dora shed the masks social conventions forced on her around Elias. And I equally adored seeing Elias allow himself to be his most vulnerable and passionate around Dora. Just the perfect couple.

Similarly to The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia I wouldn’t recommend reading this book for is fantastical elements. While they play a role in the story our primary setting is regency England with the magical elements being accents to a romance plot. Even so I was intrigued by Atwater's depictions of the Fae. They're fundamentally inhuman and cruel without passion or malice, in a way that was truly unsettling. Dora's time with them and their indecipherable social customs was fascinating to contrast with the ways regency England's social customs were occasionally equally as arbitrary and cruel.

Unfortunately Half a Soul really let me down with its ending.

Dora's main drive in this novel is attempting to cure her condition of having half a soul and while the initial ending of the novel sees her sacrificing her attempt to restore her soul for the sake of saving others the epilogue states she eventually "fixes" her condition by returning to faerie. That conclusion to me really undermines the themes of the story. Throughout the novel Dora discovers there's nothing fundamentally wrong with her. That it's in fact the world that refuses to see her full personhood that's wrong. So for her happily ever after to be her eventually "fixing" herself feels so wrong. Especially when Olivia Atwater has stated that Dora is an autistic coded character.

Further the story also tackles the systemic injustices faced by the working poor in regency London. Throughout the novel Dora and Elias are overcome by their helplessness in solving these systemic injustices but ultimately resolve themselves to helping the people they can. So for the epilogue to also claim they completely abandoned earth to live joyfully in faerie also betrays what to me was the whole point of the novel. Frankly I'm baffled that Atwater would end the story this way at all given the rest of the story, and for my own sanity I think i just have to treat the last paragraph of the epilogue as not canon.

99.9% of Half a Soul was absolutely delightful. Honestly given how much I adored the vast majority of this book it kind of hurts my spirit that it ended on a sour note. Hopefully with time the lasting memories I have of this book will be of its tender romance charming protagonist rather than its incongruent ending.