Read an Excerpt From Soul Sworn by Kate Dylan
The tagline does a lot of heavy lifting here, and I respect that. "They were meant to destroy each other" is the kind of premise that either delivers a slow-burn tragedy or collapses into melodrama, and the interesting question is which gear Dylan chooses. Soul Sworn sits in a long lineage of star-crossed operatives, but the fantasy framing gives it room to push the metaphor further than a spy thriller could. When the stakes are literal souls, falling in love becomes a structural flaw in the universe.
I'd want to know how the binding works. Is it magical, contractual, both? That's the detail that will decide whether this lands as a fresh take on the trope or a familiar dance in new costumes. The excerpt is short, so I'm left with more questions than answers, which is fine. Good hooks do that. I'll be curious to see if the romance earns its inevitability or just assumes it.
I'm cautiously optimistic. The premise is clean, the title suggests commitment, and Dylan has a track record of writing protagonists who make terrible, human choices in impossible systems. That's the sweet spot.