Super original way to bring these characters together. I don’t know if I’d call it a enemies to love, or a pretending to date situation, neither quite applies. But this is a book where two characters who would likely have never given each other a chance all of their own accord were brought together by a twist of fate.

Jess is single mom. Her daughter seems like a little Angel most of the time, but life hasn’t been easy for Jess. She had her daughter right as she was finishing college and the father was never in picture. Jess has almost always lived with, or near, her grandparents. They raised her when her own mother walked away. They’ve helped her raise her own daughter. Jess has a good job and good friends. She might like to have someone to love but she says she’s too tired to date. She doesn’t have enough hours in the day.

River is just an acquaintance that Jess and her best friend Fizzy run into every day at their favorite coffee shop. They kind of think he’s a jerk. He’s always rushing, he doesn’t talk to anyone and he only tips in change.

I think I would have enjoyed this book a little bit more if Jess and Fizzy’s dislike of River wasn’t so immediate and seemingly unfair. Based on their interactions in the coffee shop alone, I can’t see any reason why they disliked him. He was just quiet and seemed like an introvert.

One day, they find out that River is involved in the creation of a dating app that will help people find their soul mates. Basically, it takes (what Jess would consider) “the hard work” out of it. You send in a spit sample and you can find people that could be your perfect match. They’re also truly looking for committed relationships.

Fizzy talks Jess into submitting her info on her 30th birthday. She’s right to say that it seems like the perfect scenario for Jess.

But something interesting happens. Jess matches with River at 98%. There’s never been such a high match. At least for the sake of the company, River and Jess need to give things a try. Jess is reluctant, so the company offers her $10,000 a month to go on a few innocent dates with River.

Being practically forced to spend time together, they realize that they do actually feel very connected to each other despite how different they seem. As it turns out, they actually aren’t all that different.

But given everything that had led up to their dating, it can’t go perfectly smoothly, can it? It definitely felt like the other shoe was about to drop. And I was curious to find out what the challenge would be to their happiness.

I enjoyed the story and appreciated the unique storyline. I’ve enjoyed all of the authors’ books but Holidate and Love and Other Conversations have definitely been my favorites so far, so I wanted to make sure my rating reflects that.

I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley. Thanks!

The Soulmate Equation was such a fun read. I loved it right from the beginning. I loved Jess and her daughter Juno but all the characters were really well developed. The chemistry between Jess and River was made the book so much fun to read. It made you really think about using a genetic dating app and all the crazy what if's that could happen.

If you are looking for a fun summer read this one needs to be on your list.

This book is so insanely cute and uplifting. My heart just melted into a puddle again and again. It somehow got to the maximum level of sweetness without being sickeningly sweet. It all felt a little rushed though and I would’ve enjoyed more time building trust in the relationship, especially if that meant I could’ve known Jess, River, Fizzy and Juno a bit longer and better!!

I loved every single page of this fantastic book and did not want it to end... It was everything I had hoped for and much more..

I won't bore you to death with my usual story about Christina Lauren books, but just know that I've really enjoyed all of the ones I've read (and yes they all fall into the "recently published rom-com" category instead of their previous series). I tend to not love books involving kids as much so I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this one, but I ended up really enjoying that aspect.

Jess is a single mother and freelance statistician with excellent grandparents who help her out whenever needed. When she and her friend Fizzy are recruited to join an up-and-coming dating app based on DNA matches, she is shocked to find that she is a top-level match with the owner and founder of the company, River. She also hasn't had the best experiences with him so far, so she's really unsure of how this would ever work. They offer to pay her a lot of money to just spend time with River and see how things go. You can guess what happens from here, I'm sure!

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Many are comparing it to Christina Lauren's older books, which I haven't read, but I think this is on par with all of their books that I've read. I tend to just love the characters' chemistry and their easy, addicting writing style. I was able to mostly read this via audiobook while doing stuff around the house and it really kept my attention. That's genuinely hard to do with audiobooks lately.

I don't know how I didn't see the "black moment" coming, or figure out what it would be, but it was logical and not really related to "miscommunication" (my least favorite kind). I believed in their chemistry and loved them as a couple, but I wish there was a liiiiitle more? Almost like the book needed 2-3 more scenes of them being ~on the same page~ or just building it up a bit more. It didn't really feel rushed, per se, but verging on it.

Overall, I loved Juno and Jess and River and Fizzy and the grandparents. Everyone was lovely and this book was exactly what I needed.

3/5 stars

Thank to Netgalley for providing this book!

The book was fine but i unfortunately wasn't too attached to the characters

I have been trying to write this review for basically two weeks and I just still don't know how to explain in words that Christina Lauren has this magical ability to give me exactly what I need most of the time. I think there is a lot of noise surrounding the writing duo because their style has changed dramatically since they started out in terms of how steamy their books are and sometimes their books are a little more women's fiction and a little less romance. But, for me, most of the time, their books hit me right where they're supposed to and this one is not an exception.

<i>The Soulmate Equation</i> is about Jess Davis, a single mom and entrepreneurial statistician, who gets roped into contributing her DNA into this new fangled dating app that can allegedly find your soulmate. Both Jess and I are skeptical of this design and I was pleased that the book at least touched on the fact that the premise screams a eugenics problem and it was enough for me to then hand wave away all other concerns. Anyway, Jess winds up with an unheard of 98% match with this man who is one of the founder people of the company AND happens to be the man with whom she keeps sort of having small clashes with. But the company wants the PR so they convince her that they'll pay her to date River Pena.

So that's the premise. The book itself? Excellent. I loved the banter and Juno (the kid). I loved the grandparents and the best friend. I loved River and his grumpy attitude. I loved the description of this photoshoot they had to do and wanted to be able to see pictures of the results. I literally do not have criticism for this book because everything about it worked for me. It was a huge boost of serotonin and I am so grateful for it.

In determining whether you should read it, these are some things you may want to consider:
1. This book is not steamier than many of their other recent releases.
2. It's maybe a little bit of a slow burn.
3. Juno is everything to me, but if you don't like kids in your romance, steer clear.
4. If you cannot hand wave away issues of eugenics after Dr. Pena promises you that's not an issue... Welllllll, the entire premise of the book then becomes problematic and I'm a big believer in not torturing yourself.

But if your reading tastes are kind of like mine and you want something sweet and soft? This book!! So good!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Gallery Books for the e-ARC!

CWs: hospital scene, parental abandonment/neglect(?)

I adored this book! A sweet look at the science of love, and very believable characters. Everyone deserves to find their best match!

This is another winner by Christina Lauren. She has become a must-read author for me. Occasionally, I'm disappointed, but usually Lauren's novels are outstanding. This is one of the best!

Christina Lauren's books are almost always winners for me, and I really liked this one. It's much less open door than most of their other novels, although there's still a bit of steam. Jess is a single mom and freelance statistician (which is a job I'm pretty sure I haven't seen in other romance novels) and she agrees to go with her friend Fizzy (a romance novelist herself) to check out a new scientifically-driven online dating service from a company called GeneticAlly. The company and the brains behind it, Dr. River Pena, claim to have collected enough data to be able to determine how compatible two people are based on DNA samples. The big surprise is that Jess and River show up as 98% compatible according to their DNA, and GeneticAlly essentially offers to pay Jess to hang out with River and find out if the results are accurate. She has a pretty bad impression of him, but needs the money after one of her major freelance accounts drops her, so she agrees. As they get closer, they also get tons of media attention - People magazine, the local paper, the Today show.... and in typical romance novel fashion, things are going really well until suddenly they aren't. I loved Jess as a character, and loved her daughter and her grandparents and Fizzy. River was surprisingly interesting, too, after coming across as a dick for several chapters. I'm kind of hoping there's another story in the works starring Fizzy, who deserves to find love, too.

I finished The Soulmate Equation this morning and it’s by far, one of my favorite romances of the year! Lauren never disappoints. In undergrad, my concentration in Biological Sciences was Genomics/Bioinformatics so I went full on nerd with its cool and creative plot. Cute but not too cheesy, funny but not too predictable, and just the right amount of steam🔥😉

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Romance
𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞: Fake dating
𝐏𝐮𝐛. 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: May 18, 2021
𝐌𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4.8🤩
𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4.24

Synopsis:

Single mom Jessica 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. 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 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: one of GeneticAlly’s founders, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. 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. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond Match” that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought.

My thoughts:

Loved it. Fast paced and just the right amount of unrealistic love that I was needing😂🥰!

Oh man I loved this! It was such a fun and sweet story that I would 100% watch if it was a Hallmark movie. I actually got some major Pride & Prejudice vibes from this - from the way River describes Jess as "average" when he doesn't realize she can hear him to stuffy personality vs. independent woman personality to River being there for her family in a crisis. I actually went back and re-read the blurb after I finished to see if it was marketed a loose retelling. It isn't, but I swear, there are Pride & Prejudice vibes.

I also liked the plot of this story in general - a matchmaking system based on DNA where people spit into a tube and have their compatibility tested based on shared markers between thousands of data points from long-lasting couples. I think the idea is fun and I just really liked that the story itself revolved around the creator of the system having a "Diamond match." It was predictable as far as romances go, but the all of the plot points themselves were actually not predictable. I didn't see certain things coming and I think those enriched the story.

This was a hit for me. I'm not sure if I like Soulmate Equation or Unhoneymooners more.

I absolutely love Christina Lauren novels. They always seem to get me out of a book rut. I went camping this weekend with my husband and kids in our new toy hauler. This was the perfect read to escape into between relaxing and exploring gods country. I won’t give too much away since it doesn’t come out until May but I loved this one. What a unique idea. I luckily never had to dip my hands into dating sites but if I wasn’t already married I would absolutely sign up for an idea like this.

The Soulmate Equation was a fun read. I have been really enjoying the juxtaposition of science and romance in some of the books that I have been reading lately.

Jess was a likeable character that took a chance out of frustration and was matched with someone she least expected. Dr. River Peña was most definitely a hate to love character. I really respected the relationships that Jess had in her life and I rooted for her every step of the way.

Reading a Christina Lauren book is a way to escape and just have some fun.

THE SOULMATE EQUATION by Christina Lauren is a lighter selection than I normally make, but I couldn't resist the publisher's comparisons to titles like JoJo Moyes' One Plus One and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project. Lauren's new book is another LibraryReads selection for May 2021 and seems perfect for her intended audience. GeneticAlly, a brand new DNA-based matchmaking company is at the center of the story; it improbably uses science and numbers to find one's "soulmate." Jess Davis, a statistician tries it out on a dare from a friend and is matched at an extremely high level with River Pena, a brusque scientist and one of the company's founders. Initially reluctant, Jess can't turn down the company's offer to pay her to hang out with River and the adventures begin. Overall, THE SOULMATE EQUATION is a fun escape for rom-com fans.

This story is everything you want in a romance, especially if you're a fan of Christina Lauren. It is refreshing, intriguing, witty fun with some twists and great chemistry. It's definitely a different twist on a romance story, but I loved it.

I always love any romance by the writing duo Christina Lauren and this was no exception! This was a fun and quippy romance that felt high energy and fast paced, but was also incredibly sweet.

Rating 2/5

I miss CL's steamy romances. This had a much more "nerdier" flair with two scientists and numbers and it was an okay read for me. Not enough steam for a romance that I would want, and not enough comedy for me to enjoy the little banter that's in this.

Loved the blurb....loved the cover... and this book just hit the spot! This book had me grinning it was so cute!

What did I like? Jess notices the behavior of River first as he gets his coffee from the barista and only tips his change. He barely notices her and calls her average. An genetic app brings them together as the perfect match but fate throws only curve balls here. I absolutely loved it!

Would I recommend or buy? This is a mass paperback seller and this book is fabulous! You know your getting a great story when you grab a book by this author! I didn’t want to put it down! Five stars!

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review!

The Soulmate Equation was good. I wouldn’t say great though. I do think it’s a tad overhyped.

I found the plot to be a bit slow and nothing really happened until I was around 70% into the book. However, because the premise was super interesting, I did find myself moving quickly through the book.

I liked the characters. They were cute. They didn’t have much depth, but definitely were entertaining.

This isn’t my favorite Christina Lauren, but I think their fans will find this one super enjoyable. It’s a cute read that explores a cool idea.

Overall, I don’t think it would be at the top of my “romance recommended reads” list, but it might make it on there? I haven’t decided yet.