Book title: The Soulmate Equation
Author: Christina Lauren
Year Published: 2021
Genre: Contemporary M/F Romance
Narrative type: Single PoV, Linear, Third person
Trope/s: Forced proximity, Enemies-to-lovers, Fake dating (to a point), single mom
Probable triggers: Drug addiction, alcoholism, child neglect
Maturity Rating: I'm gonna say teen becos this one was surprisingly clean and I got Bangxiety
Personal rating: 3
(I wanted to rate it higher but ...😒. Though I thought I would probably rate the MMC a 4 but after the shit he pulled in the last few chapters 🤔, I would have to grade him down too)
Synopsis:
Jess Davis is a single mom and a freelance statistician, happy to dote on her 7-year-old daughter and her grandparents whose apartment she lives in. When she's not doing that, she's hanging out with her BFF, Fizzy at the local coffee shop, Twiggs, as they both freeload on the Wi-Fi and try to get 'work' done. She's definitely not looking for a relationship & definitely isn't checking out one of Twiggs' hot & stand-offish regulars with his broody good looks and long, dark hair. Why, she even has a nickname for him - Americano - based on his order. Very inventive! Except she's kind of taken aback when she finds out he is more inventive than her (😆) and a nerdy geneticist to boot! He has developed a first-of-its-kind app, DNADuo, that matches couples based on their genetic compatibility. Bumble & Tindr move over! The app is still in its soft launch and Jess & Fizzy are invited to provide their DNA samples to try it out. Jess demurs initially but then, on a lark, sends off her sample on her birthday. Imagine her surprise when she's told she has a match, and not just a Basic Match but a Diamond match which is as rare as an honest politician. And not just that - her Diamond match is the hot, broody, nerdy Americano - Dr. River Pena. Together they've managed to hit the app's highest compatibility score ever! Naturally, everyone is invested - mostly the investors and stakeholders. It would be foolish not to milk this for all it's worth. Jess is invited to be the brand ambassador for the app along with River and made an offer she cannot refuse, so Jess takes it up while trying hard not to wonder if their insane score on the app is responsible for all these tingly feelings she gets around him. After all, she doesn't even like him, or does she? As River & Jess spend more time together (For Science, y'all! ) they discover that they don't just like each other but their connection seems to be something much deeper. Could they be soulmates for real? Or is the app just acting like a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Review:
Ok, I have to admit I went aggressively searching for contemporary romances written in Third-person , because they seem to be a non-existent entity (😆) and found this one on GRs list as well as BookTok's. I had also heard of this author - rather authors because Christina Lauren is/are two people. And the premise sounded interesting. I'm always up for anything nerdy & scientific and I still feel romance fiction needs more geeky, nerdy science buffs as leads. This one had a Scientist and a Statistician. So far, so good right?
But I almost DNFed it. My reading experience with this book was like a Bell Curve with the peak happening around the 60 - 70% point. The build-up was excruciatingly slow. 🤔 Until almost 50% of the book, nothing significant happens for River and Jess except that they don't like each other. I was trudging along reluctantly. Oh, there's a lot of cutesy stuff about Jess and her kid, Juno, her grandparents and Fizzy, her BFF. Also her past with Juno's bio-dad who was an irresponsible jerk. But it wasn't enough to hook me in.
I think I have mentioned before that I do not enjoy books written entirely from one perspective (eg. The Love Hypothesis), and this one only had Jess'. So an immediate downer for me because I neither knew River and the way he was written until midway through the book was extremely one-dimensional. We know why - because he's described only inasmuch as his interactions with Jess and what she thinks of him, which frankly isn't flattering. I wanted to know River's thoughts, how he felt about Jess - besides his Darcy-like dismissal of her initially. I wanted to see more his bonding with Juno and his sisters. Sighh! Though the way he's described with his long hair that he keeps flipping back brought to mind the exceedingly gorgeous Rodrigo Santoro (specifically the way he looks in Love Actually ☺️) - he's whom I was picturing as River and that - let me tell you, folks - improved my reading experience ten-fold (make that 100-fold).
Like I said, nothing much happens until 50% and then bamm! they're fake dating and posing for magazine covers and OMG- there's this really cute scene when she's cold and he wraps her up in his coat ☺️ & I was squeeing at the cuteness of it all. Also, River turns out to be shy and not arrogant as Jess had assumed (P&P Darcy vibes here). They force-attend investor parties, and give interviews and People magazine terms their Chemistry as palpable. In the meantime, River ups his game and shows up for Jess in meaningful ways & just seems to get her, so how could she not fall for him? Especially after she sees how much Juno likes him?
Then comes the crisis or conflict where they have to evaluate whether their connection is a choice or just a trick of fate. If they hadn't been a 98 on the app, would they have even come together? It's a question that comes up many times for Jess until circumstances take away the element of fate, leaving behind only choice.
The Leads: This is the big problem I had, since we only hear Jess' PoV, I didn't really know River in this book. Though there are some things he does in the middle of the book that made me want to squeee and awww and melt into useless goo (much like Jess). Not to mention having the mental image of Rodrigo doing those things 😆. But because we don't get an insight into his innermost thoughts his character arc was all over the place. When he sort of 'ghosts' Jess in the end and then shows up as if he'd done nothing wrong, I wanted to hit him on the head with a brick. Jess was written in a way that the reader's sympathy rests almost entirely with her. Single mom, with her own mom never showing up for he, and Jess having to bail her out time and again. Plus her concern for her grandparents who raised her. Her equation with Fizzy. It's all good. But this is a romance - at least that was my expectation when I began reading this book, and when more than 50% of the book is anything but, your interest starts to dim.
The sex scenes were so vanilla - My God. Wait- not even vanilla, they were non-existent. The descriptions (or non-descriptions) gave me bangxiety and that did not get better. I kept waiting for spice because the build-up does promise spice, but nahhh! A teen could read this one safely. I cannot remember the last time I read a clean romance. 😆 Major downer for me! 😆
Read this one if you like them - clean romances, that is. It does have its moments. 😳 But not for me. I can safely say I'm not venturing into Christina Lauren books anytime soon. (or maybe never)
Edited by LizzieBennet - 2 years ago
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