I actually thought one of the greatest moments in the Samaria series was the one when Alleya confronted the ship for the first time: and the moment that she was told that the whole soulmate thing was, in fact, just a computer who could track genetic trends breeding for traits in a population. It sort of turned the thing around for me, because it raises an interesting question: if you believe truly that this person is supposed to be your soulmate, and there are admirable things about them, wouldn't you fall in love? Even if you wouldn't have ever if the Kiss didn't tell you that you would? Except one of the big themes of the romances in that series was about choice, choosing above and beyond destiny after destiny stopped being a factor. And the entire "destined mate" thing was contrasted by the Edori, who didn't even have formalized marriages. I can't really disagree with your assessment of the trope, though; I just think we got different things out of it.

Although Elizabeth's story *was* the better of the two in that book. Not my favorite, probably Jovah's Angel gets that honor, but still interesting. I can't remember, have you read any of Shinn's other series/standalones? She's been one of my favorite authors for years, but her new novel, a foray into urban fantasy, I couldn't even finish.