The setting is Portsea, a coastal town in Australia where Gabe and Pippa Gerard live with their young daughters. While they have a beautiful view of the ocean from their cliffside house, it is right in front of "The Drop," a place that has become infamous for people to stand at who are considering jumping off and ending their lives. Since moving in, Gabe has talked six people out of committing suicide and has become a local hero. But he is unable to stop the death of Amanda Cameron. Pippa calls the police for help but watches in horror as the woman falls off the cliff. But was this a suicide or something more sinister? When Pippa discovers that Gabe knew the woman, everything changes. The story, told by Pippa as well as Amanda before and after her death, is about love and secrets, and keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat for answers.

Author Sally Hepworth writes the type of "can't put down" books I enjoy. The Soulmate is a tense read and through the creative use of dual points-of-view, reveals the many lies that lurked behind the marriages of the Gerards and the Camerons. The subject of mental illness was well-researched and handled with realism. If you're a fan of domestic suspense, I recommend this engaging, fast-paced thriller.

Rated 4.25 stars.

3,5
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for an exchange
This book had a great concept but I feel the execution was lacking. We follow two sets of couples with intriguing dynamics as we try to uncover what happened the night that Amanda (a part of one of the couples) allegedly jumped off a cliff and died. It's a fun mystery but I found the character's reactions to the things going on around them unrealistic and especially the dynamic between the couples wasn't reliable enough. Like both Max and Arthur keep murdering people on and off all the time with no reaction from their spouses and then are hysterical about the alleged suicide. Also, I feel it's one of those books where the author tries so hard to push feminism to the reader that it takes you out of the storyline (I love feminist stories but you don't have to keep telling me "see what I did there? Am I not super feminist?").
Aside from that the story was intriguing enough to keep me reading and wanting to find out what happened. I felt it didn't really pay off but the journey was interesting. I also really enjoyed the ambiance and the place it's set.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for my arc!

I really enjoy Sally Hepworths books. This one was just as good as others I’ve read by her. I will say the final “twist” was a bit underwhelming and I wanted more of Amanda’s POV but overall really enjoyed this one!

There’s a cottage on a cliff. Gabe and Pippa’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Night after night Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge. Until he doesn’t.

When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral...Did the victim jump? Was she pushed?

And would Gabe, the love of Pippa’s life, her soulmate...lie? As the perfect facade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel.

~~~

I definitely think this is my favorite Sally Hepworth I have read so far! Her books are always fast paced, entertaining reads and this one was no different!

The extremely short chapters and constant twists had me flying through the pages and I think you could easily finish this book in one sitting!

If you like a fast paced domestic thriller that isn't scary pick this one up! Trigger warnings for suicide in this one FYI.

The Soulmate is Sally Hepworth at her best. Pippa and Gabe live in a cottage near a cliff in Australia with their two young children. The cliff is known as a spot where people come to die by suicide, but Gabe has become known as someone who saves their lives. Until one day when a woman appears to jump while Gabe is trying to save her. Pippa is watching and she thinks Gabe may have pushed her. The situation becomes worse when Pippa realizes the dead woman is the wife of Gabe's former boss. Gabe left that job on bad terms. Hepworth deftly switches voices between characters, present day and flashbacks. The Soulmate is thrilling and addictive. Hooray for Hepworth!

This book was IMMACULATE. I loved every crazy wild second of it. There’s no way I could predict the outcome, and every time I thought I had it figured out, I was wrong!

I'm a Sally Hepworth fan, so my review maybe a little slanted but if you've read her books, you'd agree with me!

From the outside, a couple may have a perfect marriage, soulmates joined together by fate. From inside, two people trying their best to be happy and working hard to insure any problems are quickly addressed. Love conquers all, right?
As Pippa and Gabe live their perfect life in their new perfect home, reality intrudes when they discover their yard is considered a path to a popular suicide spot. Gabe has become known for his successful efforts in talking these despondent people "off the ledge". Until the one time he fails and Pippa learns Gabe knew this woman. We hear the story in two voices, Pippa's and Amanda's......after she jumps.
The characters and their stories are well defined and original. The story twists seem to come when you'd least expect them. Read THE SOULMATE and you too will become a Sally Hepworth fan.

Gabe and Pippa buy their dream home in a lovely coastal town. The home sits on a cliff, known as "The Drop" to the locals. It seems this is a favorite spot for those wanting to kill themselves.

Gabe becomes a local hero when he is able to dissuade seven people from taking their lives. Amanda Cameron is the eighth person to come to the cliff. Unfortunately, something goes wrong, did she fall, was she pushed? It is revealed that Amanda was the wife of Gabe's former boss who had fired him. Gabe does not tell the police this information. Her husband, Max, insists that she would not have taken her life.

The novel unfolds from the POVs of Pippa and Amanda, both before and after. It seems that things are not as they seem as secrets are revealed. The author is very good at giving us the twists and turns that keep us engaged. The characters are well written, chapters are short. I missed the humor in this novel that Sally Hepworth incorporates into her stories. This is a fast read and will hold your attention.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC. The review is my own.

Over the past few years, Sally Hepworth has become a go-to author for me. In her newest book, The Soulmate, she weaves another dark domestic tale with death and complicated relationships. Told from the point of view of two women, this novel follows two different marriages and the secrets the spouses keep from each other.

On the surface, the story has promise but in execution, it falls flat. The narrators jump back and forth in time, which can be extremely disorienting to the reader. Secret after secret is revealed until the reader is sure that there are no more– and yet, the secrets continue, each one even crazier than the last. None of the characters are particularly likable, either.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really loved this thriller! The POVs between the two main women characters really shows the full story and how each woman‘s marriage is not all they thought it would be. I read this so quickly and couldn’t put it down. The characters were well written and their situations were well explained and detailed. I was kept guessing until the end. I appreciated the complexity of each person’s plight and how each person played a critical part in the story. The POVs were helpful in showing more of the characters and how they were reacting to what happens. I would definitely recommend this thriller to read!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the electronic advanced copy of this book. The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth will be a good summer beach read. Short chapters. Family drama/suspsense/mystery. It's got a great setting in Australia on a seaside town. Dual perspectives (each with two time periods). It's not super scary or murdery (not to say there isn't murder) but I think this will be good for those who don't want to be kept up at night with bad dreams but still want to be entertained.

Sally Hepworth knows how to write domestic suspense!

Gabe and Pippa, along with their two four-year-old daughters, have moved to a cliffside home in Portsea, Australia. They’re hoping for a fresh start after Gabe’s unstable work history and increasingly erratic behavior have led to yet another move. Unfortunately, the cliff on their property is a well-known spot called “The Drop” for those who want to end their lives. Fortunately, Gabe seems to have a gift for talking people away from the edge … at least he did until this most recent woman shows up. Now she’s dead, and Pippa’s left to make sense of what she saw from the window.

Did this woman commit suicide, as Gabe claims? Is she really a stranger?

Things get a LOT more complicated for Gabe and Pippa when the woman’s identity is revealed!

I’m not going to say any more about the plot since so many reviews have summarized it by this point, but I will jump into what I liked and what I struggled with.

Likes:

* Short, snappy chapters and lots of dialogue kept the pace moving nicely

* It’s a very clever dual narrative mostly from Pippa’s past and present POV, but also from the victim Amanda’s
past and present POV, AFTER her death. It was extra fun to see things from her now omniscient perspective!

* Hallelujah … the men weren’t perfect by any means, but they also weren’t written as complete cretins for once!
Gabe and Max - Amanda’s husband - both had their issues, but there was at least some depth to them and a
rationale behind their behavior.

* The mental health issues felt realistically researched and portrayed.

* Overall, an intriguing and entertaining story that kept me turning the pages to the end!

A few issues … aka a minor mini-rant:

* Please someone tell me the planet that exists where parents of two young, curious children buy a cliffside home
with a bonus window view of occasional suicide attempts? WHAT? WHY? My brain can’t process this level of
stupid.

* Pippa is asked whether she’s heard of ADHD and she says “only in passing”. Is there really anyone who’s still clueless about what ADHD is? I found that hard to believe.

* Pippa and Gabe’s devotion (i.e. co-dependency) was more annoying than admirable.
Prude alert: So many books these days have a scene where a woman is being … there’s no nice way to put this …
orally pleasured by her guy. Good for you, ladies! Just please keep that door shut … I don’t need to see that. 🫣

* I don’t love how things ended. It made me sad. I can’t say more without spoiling.

Issues aside, I mostly enjoyed this, and will continue to devour anything Sally Hepworth writes!

★★★ ½ (rounded up to 4)

Wow, wow, wow! Sally Hepworth's latest: The Soulmate is a page-turner! Its a thriller with a bit of romance and I assure you, you will not want to put it down!

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤!!! I was HOOKED from page 1, and I DEVOURED it in just over 24 hours! Y’all know that never happens with my hectic, busy life 😂

I LOVED the setup. Two different couples, two different POVs, two different timelines. You get the POV of the wives in the past and present. Amanda’s present POV was so unique and different and I ate 👏 it 👏 up 👏.

Each short chapter ended with a perfect one-liner cliffhanger that made you keep reading. I wouldn’t say the “main mystery” was a shock when it was revealed, but the clues, secrets, my need for information, and the little twists along the way were executed perfectly to satisfy me. There were still at least two pretty big reveals that caught me off guard 😱.

And the ending…I thought it was perfect. The kind that had me gasping 🫢 and rereading to make sure it actually happened.

I loved every bit of it. It was the perfect bingeable book!

I have read every book by Sally Hepworth. She is an automatic read for me every time. This one was no exception! I flew through this one as the plot kept my attention. I enjoyed the characters development and the ending took me by surprise. It was definitely not an ending that I saw coming, but did make sense.

Sally Sally Sally!!!!!

Sally had my attention from beginning to end. This reminds me of why I started reading Sally's books in the first place. There are a lot of life lessons tied into this book, especially around marriage and love. I didn’t like major of the characters but because of the way, Sally writes I still enjoyed the book nonetheless. Also people who I thought were the villains turned out the be the hero or good people the whole time.

This back and forth tale, told through the perspectives of two women is a whirlwind! It unfolds a bit at a time, the secrets getting deeper and darker. This is fast paced and could be read in one or two sittings. Sally Hepworth is such an incredible writer and continues to nail the writing. This would not be my first recommendation to a Hepworth newbie though. The characters aren't very likable. None of them. I absolutely wanted to keep reading to see how it ended, but I wasn't really cheering anyone on.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance digital copy. All opinions are my own.

Pippa and Gabe have moved to what they thought would be a coastal oasis away from their problems to start over again. However, the cliff behind their house, coined The Drop, has been busy with suicide attempts. Gabe has talked many down and has become somewhat of a local celebrity. But when a woman appears and cannot be saved, questions of whether she jumped or was pushed begin.

Told from the perspectives of the woman who dies and Pippa, we are shown past and present nuggets of their connection. The drama and suspense leave you questioning what really happened at The Drop that night. With every twisty revelation, Hepworth shows us that she is one of the best thrilling mystery writers out there.

Don't sleep on The Soulmate. You'll be up all night wanting to finish it!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

When Gabe and Pippa purchased what they thought was their dream home, they didn’t realize it came with a dangerous twist: “The Drop,” the cliff behind their house, a well-known suicide spot, with potential jumpers often visible from inside their home or yard. Despite saving every one of them since moving in, one night, Gabe fails to save a woman who arrives at the Drop. But when he explains what happened to police, Pippa realizes his description of events doesn’t match what she saw that night. And once she starts asking questions, her doubts and questions only multiply.

Trigger Warnings: Suicide, Mental Illness

This was quite a suspenseful mystery right from the start. It’s one that starts with just that little tickling feeling that maybe something isn’t right, and it just snowballs until you get a huge explosion, with enough twists and turns along the way to leave your head spinning. It’s truly amazing how much story the author fits into this book, which works between two timelines: the present and the past, which leads up to Gabe and Pippa purchasing the ill-fated home.

The ending was a bit shocking, to say the least, though a little convenient. I did not see the final big twist coming. I think I audibly gasped at that scene. It took me by complete surprise. Trust me, this book doesn’t let up once it gets going, which was really great, and kept me craving more.

I was a bit lukewarm on both Gabe and Pippa, they both had faults that made them a bit unlikable, but I was hooked into their story, so I could ignore that. I didn’t need to love them to like the story.

Overall, this was a great story and mystery/thriller fans will devour it. I highly recommend it!

This is Hepworth's best novel to date!

Imagine living in a home with a spectacular cliffside view, only to find out it's a popular spot for people who see no other option but to jump. But since Pippa and Gabe have moved in, so many lost souls have been saved by Gabe's empathy and charm.

Except one. Pippa can't believe what she thinks she's seen. Is Gabe the hero people believe he is or has his fluctuating mental health brought him to his limit?

The character development builds authentically and the suspense will keep you guessing about the price of loyalty and love.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance reader's copy.