The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren- Book Review

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren- Book Review

Title: The Soulmate Equation

Author: Christina Lauren

Publisher: Piatkus

Publish Date: May 18, 2021

Rating: 4/5

Summary(blurb): Jess Davis is a numbers genius, but when it comes to love she's had to accept there is no magic formula. Juggling a career with raising her daughter, it's not surprising that her love life is... nonexistent. When yet another date ends in disaster, she's prepared to give up on love for good. But then she hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new matchmaking company that claims to find you the One using a DNA equation. Suddenly, love doesn't seem so far out of reach...

**This book review may contain spoilers**

I first got this book from a secondhand bookstore that had most of its books off at less than half price- I got this one for about 60% off. I usually enjoy romcoms that have an interesting premise-- for this one it was the DNA dating app and I was interested about its social implications, which is why I picked it up. 

You can actually infer a lot from the cover and title-- Soulmate. Equation. Double helix becoming a heart. Pink and yellow color scheme. So definitely a romcom, something to do with a DNA and equations maybe. And the blurb gives even more information-- a DNA based dating app, the single mom trope, and most likely an unexpected match that somehow goes wrong or feels wrong. Well, it's all spot on-- it's a standard cliche romcom based on a DNA dating app-- but I enjoyed it a lot because of some of the characters, and appropriate justification. More on that later. 

So the plot is, there's a single-mom freelance data statistician called Jessica Davis, her daughter is called Juno (a great wonderful child), and Jess's best friend is Fizzy, an author. They basically go to this coffee shop where they spend a lot of time and work together, and nearly every day they see a tall dark handsome cold person who comes at the exact same time to order an Americano. Fittingly, Jess and Fizzy call him Americano (behind his back of course, they dont know each other). 

It turns out Americano's real name is River Pena, and he is the inventor of the DNA based dating algorithm as well as the founder of GeneticAlly, which is the DNA dating app company. If you spit into a vial and send it to GeneticAlly they will analyze it and notify you of people you are compatible with above a certain compatibility score (like 60%). 

Jess is busy and has a lot going on in her life with her job and kid, but one day sends in a sample on a whim and receives a stunning 98% match score with River Pena, of all people. They begin artificial-dating in order to learn more about the technology and because it will be good for the company, and eventually (of course) it blooms into a full relationship with both of them really loving each other. But then it turns out the scores were faked by some of River's most trusted friends in order to make the company better as well as help River get out of his emotional emptiness. 

After this scandal River is deeply troubled, and is completely absorbed in his work for about eight days. Jess, who's developed a strong connection to River, feels left behind-- when they finally meet again they talk about it and it gets resolved pretty quickly. River and Juno (Jess's daughter) are an amazing combination and it's so fun to watch them together. 

So, the first thing I liked about the book was how Jess's character was so rounded out, unlike many other romance novel main characters. Readers get to see Jess before the love interest comes into the picture and she falls in love, in contrast to other books such as All The Bright Places and It Ends With Us which had the main characters instantly falling in love from the start. I also love Juno, Jess's daughter (i will probably mention this repeatedly throughout) and she is a very wholesome cute seven year old daughter that Jess did a great job of rearing. The other characters are fantastic and realistic enough as well, River was a very nice character overall even though he didn't get as full of a description as Jess, and Pops and Nana were fantastic supporting characters as well. 

Another thing I should mention is the excellent justification for many of the events. Being a cliche romance book means there are lots of necessary plot progressions, such as the characters meeting and starting to meet each other and becoming sort of enemies to lovers, and this book provided good reasons for nearly every one of those progressions. 

For example, Jess and River getting a score of 98 is unprecedented and amazing, and it provides the justification for why the two people are love interests-- they're forced to, even if they don't like it. 

Also, Jess and River don't necessarily have to start dating with that score, but the author justifies the events through money-- Jess needs money, and the company stands to benefit from the dating (an example of what the company can bring about, so the company will make a lot of money if the dating works out), so Jess signs a contractual agreement where she gets paid to date with River even if they don't feel emotionally close. 

The quite unbelievable score of 98 that really feels like it was the author's unrealistic influence is also justified by revealing that some of the company's executives faked the data so that the compatibility score would intentionally be 98. That is also a nice lead-in to the conflict that happens within the relationship, since River seemingly disregards Jess for eight days because of this scandal. 

However, Juno was my favorite character of this book since she is so likeable and innocent, she always has a smile on her face and tolerates/understands her mom's bad days. Also she gets along really well with River and even has a secret handshake with him-- they've gotten really attached. 

All in all this was a very charming book and I thoroughly enjoyed it-- Jess is a very fleshed out character and there aren't many weird or unexplained reasons for cliche events happening. We get to see her before she falls in love, and although it's not really a slowburn I still liked the pacing. Also Juno is an amazing child, as Jess repeatedly mentions in the book, Juno is one helpful and joyous kid. 

 

I would recommend this book for grade 8 and up, there are some graphic scenes but they are offscreen and also some swear words in the book.

Rating: I would give this a 4/5 - a great romance with an interesting premise of the app, but following Cliche Formulae. I originally wanted to give 3.5, but Juno was so delightful that the score had to be raised.