A Trilogy Review: Twin Souls by DelSheree Gladden

I first discovered DelSheree Gladden's books when I stumbled upon her Destroyer Trilogy. I loved that trilogy and decided to give some of her other books a go. Twin Souls has a very interesting premise. It is rooted in Native American mythology and legends and is very atmospheric. I love New Mexico and the story takes place in a small village set in the state, so the main elements were quite interesting and attractive to me.

The main character Uriah is a long-awaited Tewa hero who is destined to defeat an evil monster plaguing the world. Uriah does not know about his destiny and dreams of marrying his high school sweetheart Claire and leading a life of a simple rancher. However, when he and Claire approach the elders for permission to get married, the tribe's shaman announces that both of them are destined to meet their twin souls (i.e. their true love, or the "other half" of the soul that was separated from them at birth). The elders therefore, refuse to let them get married. Uriah and Claire are determined to stay together and fight the twin soul bonds. In the process, they also learn about their real destiny that was prescribed by the gods long before they were born, and get on the path of fulfilling it. I did really enjoyed the first book. I rated it 5 out 5 stars on goodreads and a detailed review of it is available on my blog here.

The second book was not as great. I felt that it really suffered from the second book syndrome and is basically a filler between the first book where the story is set up and the third book where the denouement occurs. There are some new things revealed in the second book. However, that happens only in the very end. Most of the book is focused on emotional struggles that Claire and Uriah go through. There was too much detail about that and overall, I felt that the story dragged and hardly moved a long. I rated it 3 out of 5 stars.

The third book was a definite improvement over the 2nd, but still not as good as the 1st. It took me a long time to get into the 3rd book simply because the second was so disappointing. I did like how the story moved along and the ultimate conclusion. In true Gladden's style, there were some surprises along the way that I did not anticipate or saw coming. We learn a lot of new information about the main characters and see how their stories are interwoven together. The overall plot is very creative and interesting. But I did have some problem with how the books were structured and especially with the pacing of certain scenes. Too much emphasis was placed on emotional struggles, tearful conversations, and guilt. The way Uriah and Clair interacted with each other seemed unrealistic to me. Some of the emotional conversations they had felt more like a counseling session rather than an exchange between two teenagers in love. Despite those issues, I did like the third installment and rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

Overall, I think this book is great for fans of Native American mythology. But I do think the second and third book could be combined into one.