Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆🍆🍆/5

Thank you to Gallery Books for gifting me a review copy of The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren.

Jess is a single mom and freelance statistician living in San Diego, next door to her grandparents who mostly raised her. She definitely doesn’t have time in her schedule for romance. When it turns out that the hot guy that always comes into their local coffee shop works at a high-tech company that claims to be able to find your soulmate based on your DNA, Fizzy (Jess’ best friend) drags her along to their offices to check it out, and she’s roped into signing up.

She forgets all about it until she gets a call from the company, GeneticAlly, asking her to meet with them. It all seems pretty strange, and when she arrives she is told (in front of a meeting room full of people) that she has been matched. That’s not all, she’s their highest match ever at 98% and she matched with none other than surly, hot coffee shop guy. She’s super reluctant to believe it, but they offer to pay her to spend time with him, to build a marketing campaign around the match, and see if they really are compatible.

I’ll admit this one took me a little while to get into. For starters, it’s super weird to read about a character with your same name who lives right where you used to live in San Diego. Secondly, this book is pretty nerdy, with lots of statistics and science—which I love, but there was a fair bit to wade through before things really got going.

Having said that, I ended up loving this book SO much. The main and supporting characters were all amazing. Jess’ grandparents, Juno, Fizzy, River’s sisters…they all added up to make this a book I wanted to hug at the end. In fact, Fizzy needs her own book pronto!

And can we just pause to appreciate River for a moment? Talk about dreamy. I love a good dislike-to-love story, and he’s all tall, shy, and considerate, with flirty eyebrows and nerdy hotness. Swoon.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2021 and I’m now jealous of anyone who gets to read it for the first time. You won’t want to skip this one, so grab a copy via the button below.

Synopsis:

Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Raised by her grandparents--who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno--Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in. After all, her father's never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn't "father material" before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close, but working constantly to stay afloat is hard...and lonely.

But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that's predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands. At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly's founder, Dr. River Pena. This is one number she can't wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Pena. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we'll pay you. Jess--who is barely making ends meet--is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the "Diamond" pairing that could make GeneticAlly a mint in stock prices, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist--and the science behind a soulmate--than she thought.

Funny, warm, and full of heart, The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.