Soulmatch

During the 200 years following WWIII, the Global Coalition of Governments mandated a soul identification process called kirling, which matches people with their past lives, leading to unprecedented international peace and prosperity. Eighteen-year-old Sivon knows that there’s something unusual about her soul and anxiously awaits her kirling, hoping for an explanation for her nervous tics and preternaturally gifted performance in games of strategy. Instead of the answers she seeks, though, Sivon is identified as a new soul with no previously recorded lives. Catapulted to instant celebrity, Sivon is recruited as spokesperson for the prime minister of North America in exchange for getting a security detail. She quickly discovers that the glamorous appearances of her new job, boss, and life belie a dark underbelly of corruption and deadly plots. But her investigations are complicated by her steamy yet antagonistic relationship with her 19-year-old bodyguard, Donovan. Debut author Danzenbaker conjures a futuristic dystopia that uses reincarnation to summarily explore ideas of criminal rehabilitation, predestination, and the perils of constant surveillance across a relatable first-person perspective that features ample dramatic intrigue and a forbidden, smoldering enemies-to-lovers romance. Characters are described as having “an array of bronze skin tones.” Ages 12–up. Agents: Michelle Wolfson, Wolfson Literary. (July)