A clear drop in quality. Hajar's soul mate feels forced. There's no visible connection between the two besides the very commonplace descriptions of her beauty. It felt as meaningful as when you pick which female lead you're going to 'romance' at the start of an rpg: extremely arbitrary.Hajar's new life choice similarly feels forced. Suddenly his many oaths are forgotten, the apocalyptic event not worth worrying about and even discussing his new plan with his soul mate (who'd definitely not go for it) is postponed. Again, extremely forced.After so much setup for a life partner and the milquetoast reveal, fridging her is an extremely uncharacteristically lazy, underwhelming and quick resolution to that. That, combined with the poor courtship, leads me to believe that the either can't or won't do romance, leading to this book entirely falling flat. There's more emotional weight to be found in an arranged marriage and the author seems to mistake sex for emotional connection.