Meant to Be Mine
By: Hannah Orenstein
Published Year: 20202
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 288
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): What if you knew exactly when you’d meet the love of your life? Edie Meyer knows. When her Grandma Gloria was a young woman, she had a vision of the exact day she would meet her soul mate—and then Grandpa Ray showed up.
Since then, Gloria has accurately predicted the day every single member of the family has met their match. Edie’s day arrives on June 24, 2022, when she’s twenty-nine years old. She has been waiting for it half her life. That morning, she boards an airplane to her twin sister’s surprise engagement, and when a handsome musician sits beside her, she knows it’s meant to be.
But fate comes with more complications than Edie expected and she can’t fight the nagging suspicion that her perfect guy doesn’t have perfect timing. After a tragedy and a shocking revelation rock Edie’s carefully constructed world, she’s forced to consider whether love chooses us, as simple as destiny, or if we choose it ourselves.
First Impressions
I first heard about this book on a list of book recommendations based off of your zodiac signs. It was recommend for Cancers, which I’m not, but it sounded so cute that I knew I needed to read it. This is definitely the case of the summary getting me a little more than the cover, but I do think it’s super cute and definitely would’ve pulled it off of the shelves.
What I thought
This was a very cute book and just the perfect length.
Edie’s grandmother Gloria has predicted the day that everyone in her family would meet their soulmate. On Edie’s date she has her eyes wide open and meets a wonderful man but something doesn’t seem quite right. Is everything that she believed in real or will it be worth risking faith?
Edie is a Jewish fashion stylist who lives in New York City. She also has a twin sister Rae who, at the beginning of the novel, is getting engaged to her long term boyfriend Max. While Edie could be frustrating at times, I enjoyed her for the most part. I really liked her commitment and love for her family and friends. She is truly loyal and seemed exactly like the kind of person I would want to have as a friend. As someone whose family is Jewish, I love reading stories that have Judaism woven into the story like everyday life. It wasn’t something that was a central plot point, but it made Edie who she was and was obviously very important to her character.
This book is under 300 pages and I think if this book had gone on for much longer it would’ve been too much. I honestly could’ve seen this book as a novella because it felt like the central conflict was a little drawn out in my opinion. I wouldn’t have minded a little more pre-soulmate day and a little less in the middle part.
The way this story tackled the difficult notion of fate and soulmates versus choice was very well done. This is a question I constantly wonder and question. It was fascinating to watch it play out and see Edie battle between her feelings and her faith.
This was a very cute short story centered around romance. I could very easily see this as a Netflix or Hallmark movie. I loved the little sprinkle of magic but would’ve appreciated a little more explanation, especially at the end. I also wouldn’t have said no to a better epilogue. This was a good introduction to Orenstein and I look forward to checking out more of her other books.