Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC!
Four years ago one of my best friends introduced me to Christina Lauren while I went through the worst breakup and the hardest time of my life. I was immediately hooked and read every one of their books within three months. Since then I have been a devoted fan. I adored The Soulmate Experience but, wow, The True Love Experiment is impossibly better. Fizzy’s story is every reminder I need in my life right now- that joy is within reach, and to chase it when you can. I also love that she is a 37 year old heroine, who is unapologetically single but also learning to embrace love, even when it’s scary. I loved every second of Fizzy and Connor’s story, and I hope there’s a new book for “season 2.”

Christina Lauren is very much one of my “swing” authors, meaning that the majority of their books I’ve picked up and finished have been mostly “mid.” I read the Soulmate Equation when it debuted and felt like it had good execution and characters; however, it just didn’t hit the mark of being spectacular (3.5 overall stars)
I was excited to see where C & L took this spinoff story. I was unsurprised that it took almost half the book to get to the main plot point (reality dating show). I feel like it’s super common in CL’s books for the main plot to drag while the character relationship builds. I did like Fizzy as the FMC - she was relatable and provided a few LOL moments, but she did become borderline crude in some scenes while didn’t bode well for the overall feel of the story.
I found myself wanting to take so many breaks out of pure disinterest. The True Love Experiment has some good bones, but there were too many moving pieces that just didn’t line up and overall I just wasn’t super satisfied.
I don’t have a great track record with CL books (most of them have been 3 stars or under) and this one really wasn’t any different,

The True Love Experiment is the perfect sequel to The Soulmate Equation! I adored Fizzy in Soulmate and it was fun to explore her love story in True Love. Fizzy is such a great lead- she is so witty, smart, and has a lot of depth to her character. She is truly delightful!

This book had me rooting for her the entire time and I loved the ending so much! While it was fairly predictable, it still made me feel all the things and I got a little teary. I really enjoyed the reality TV aspect of the plot, it was very enjoyable!

If you like romance or Christina Lauren books, you HAVE to read this one.

Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

A great follow-up novel from the soulmate equation! Christina Lauren are very popular and prominent in the romance genre, and this book shows you exactly why that is! They know their craft, how to suck you straight in and make you fall in love with both the characters and the story! I highly recommend ANY of their books for anyone trying to break into the romance genre for the first time!

I loved this second installment of the Fizzy and Jess novels. I actually went and read the Soulmate Equation first then dove straight into this (recommend to do if you haven’t read the first one about Jess). The chemistry was great in this one and the plot was creatively fun.

Absolutely loved this one. You can really see a change in their writing style from previous novels. The first couple of chapters are still a little off with chemistry, but it builds way faster than their other novels and ABSOLUTELY KILLS IT.

BASIC SYNOPSIS: Beautiful Asian romance writer gets into a shitty relationship and one year later she is struggling to write new novels. Enter handsome, sexy, abs of a God, male lead who is being forced to give up his documentaries and produce a super lame reality show. He decides to try and convince the romance writer to join but she replies with a list of demands. She wants the show to cast eight hero archetypes (the cowboy, the bad boy, the prince, the one that got away) AND he has to spend an absurd amount of time with her so they can get to know each other. The show is an absolute hit and she convinces the sexy British man to interview her every episode which shows off their insane chemistry.

Well, the rest is for you to find out. All I have to say is that it was a great book and I did love it. No doubt it will be an absolute hit.

I love Christina Lauren books and this one was no exception. The synopsis sounded cute, but I was a little skeptical about the idea of a reality dating show. Man, was I wrong! Such a cute story between Fizzy and Connor. I adored their friendship and the flirty scenes between these two characters! Connor was adorable and equally amazing! I enjoyed The True Love Experiment so much more than The Soulmate Equation. But I do not feel like you would have to read that one first. I think this absolutely could be a stand alone read! This book is a perfect combination of sweet and spicy, and was just a relaxing, take a break from reality, read! Such a cute premise for a book! Definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Galley books for an Advance copy of The True Love Experiment in exchange for my honest review.

This book will be released on May 16, 2023!

DNF at 41%. While I have really enjoyed many Christina Lauren books, lately they seem to be pretty hit or miss for me and this one was definitely a miss. I didn't love Fizzy as the horndog best friend in The Soulmate Equation and I really didn't care for her as a main character here. This book is supposed to be the authors' big "love letter" to the Romance genre, but it included some of my least favorite tropes:

*The main character is super Extra and only a very special man can understand her and keep up with her.
*As I mentioned earlier, she was the horndog best friend in the first book, and having that whole attitude as the main POV was pretty trying for me. If a male character was saying all the same stuff, it would have come off as super creepy, yet we're supposed to find her saying it as refreshing?
*There's an eyeroll-worthy subplot on "finding joy."
*While I didn't read far enough to get to it, I saw in other reviews that there is also a cheating plotline.

I really tried with this one, but there were just too many things that didn't work for me and I couldn't make myself finish it. That said, I know there will be many people who don't have problems with the things I did and will probably really enjoy this.

Gotta love Christina Lauren! I love all of her books and this is no different. Perfect jump from The Soulmate Equation, there were refreshers along the way. The relationship between Fizzy and Connor is swoon worthy, the flirting and suspense was just right. One of my favorites from CL thus far!

I have been a huge fan of just about everything I’ve ever read by Christina Lauren, and I particularly enjoyed The Soulmate Equation, so it’s safe to say I had high expectations for The True Love Experiment. I did not, however, expect it to be a high five star joyride that I couldn’t put down, one that made me cry on multiple occasions. There was just something about this book that absolutely worked for me. The characters, the challenges they faced, I loved all of it. It wasn’t perfect (there’s some inconsistency in character decisions, and a little flimsy plotting at times) but to me, it sort of was. I loved my time with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who is a sucker for reality romance shows, this book was so entertaining to me! I've read a number of Christina Lauren books before but this was my favorite so far. I like Fizzy as a character (except her name) and appreciated her style of humor and bluntness. I like that she was generally positive throughout the story. Connor was adorable and so easily likeable with the single father and British accent trope! What's not to like?! He seemed genuine and honest and I love that he was just trying to be a good person. It was so fun reading how their friendship/relationship builds and unfolds while still also being invested in the dating show storyline and outcome. The ending/grand gesture/romantic spiel, while predictable, was exactly what it needed to be, both for the characters and the tv show setting.
My one critique is that I felt like the book felt a little long.

This is Christina Lauren at their absolute best. I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried a little at the end. This book is pure joy. Wish it was a movie so that Brett Goldstein could play Connor and Stephanie Hsu could play Fizzy.

This is a wonderful follow up to one of my favorite books by Christina Lauren. The story line was fun, tugged at my heart strings and felt a bit like a book within a book since our main character is a romance author. I always enjoy the dual POV when we can get feel a bit of what each character is thinking. I would highly recommend this to someone for a great beach read or if you are a fan of The Bachelorette!

I enjoyed this book but didn't love it. Fizzy was just too much for me. I liked how she was strong and independent and fun, but she could also be mean and insulting. She's supposed to be 37 and some of her antics were too over the top for my taste. That doesn't mean this wasn't a great book. Its just one that rubbed me the wrong way, and I'm sure others will love it way more.

I loved Connor. He was fun but also a responsible adult. He recognized his flaws and made corrections. When he realized (with some help) that he judged romance readers wrongly he adjusted his behavior. The banter between Connor and Fizzy was fun and well timed. I don't even watch TV and I enjoyed the idea of the show and liked the concept brought to completion through the story. The ending was a bit predictable but still fun.

I really loved this book. I’m still catching up on all the Christina Lauren books, but this is my fourth one and now my favorite. I loved the characters, I found the premise incredibly compelling, and I was especially taken with the way the book talked about the form.
Because it is a about a romance novelist (Fizzy) taking part as the “Heroine” of a dating show, the book talks about tropes of romance novels in an extremely loving way. Fizzy’s romance with Connor begins due to her inability to categorize him – the novel points out the importance of these tropes, but also acknowledges their limitations. It also talks about reality TV with warmth, although it is willing to critique reality TV to make it more like a romance novel. The focus on fandom and fangirling as a positive in this book made it a joy to read. This book was just so FUN.
In my experience of reading romance novels the 3rd act conflict between the two leads is often a major let down in a book. However, The True Love Experiment offers the best of these conflicts that I’ve ever read. The reasoning and logic behind why Fizzy and Connor’s relationship break down made so much sense but was also something that felt entirely fixable. Sometimes in romance novels the conflict feels so out of the blue that it is hard to imagine the couple coming back together, or it feels so forced that it’s silly. Not so in this excellently plotted and paced book.

First, thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC and for always giving me ARCs of Christina Lauren books. I don't know how I keep getting approved, but oh man I'm thankful.

This was so charming, fun, and horny as hell. It was lovely to see Fizzy again after she was so fun in The Soulmate Equation, and Connor was the swoony DILF we never knew we needed. The concept and execution of the reality show was compelling, if not so predictable in parts, but that didn't stop me from devouring it.

This will absolutely be a instabuy and re-read for me in May when it comes out.

The True Love Experiment is a novel full of heart and comedy.

I fell in love with Fizzy while reading The Soulmate Equation and hoped that Christina Lauren would give her her own novel and they did. While both books feature cameos of characters from both you could read them separately.

When Fizzy, a best selling romance author, meets Connor Prince, a tv producer trying to get Fizzy to do a reality dating show, sparks fly and not necessarily in a good way. Thanks to a careless remark between Connor and his business associate Fizzy makes it as hard as possibly on Connor when choosing her bachelors. And what a riot it was to see the list Fizzy gave him and Connor rise to the challenge finding exactly if not better than what Fizzy thought would be impossible.

The banter and tension between Connor and Fizzy fly off the pages, the only problem is he’s the producer not a contestant.

Fake dating
Bachelorette tv show
Spice
Comedy
Opposites attract






This is the perfect summer read to sit by the pool and get easily lost in.

Christina Lauren has done it again, though is anyone really surprised because is there any story that can’t they can’t tell. I absolutely loved Fizzy and Connor’s story, and despite not reading The Soulmate Equation, I loved the other characters as well. The True Love Experiment has become one of my favorite Christina Lauren books, as well as one of my favorite books read this year.

I am obsessed with this. I predicted part of the twist at the end pretty early on, but the story was so sweet that its predictability didn't even spoil it for me. I absolutely adored the characters and the reality tv atmosphere. It felt so believable and still so swoon-worthy.

This is laugh-out-loud funny. Felicity aka Fizzy has a heart of gold and she also got them jokes! This makes it so I am definitely rooting for her to find love throughout the book. I find Fizzy to be way more memorable and affable than her counterpart, Jess. 3 quick annoyances: being over 6’ doesn’t automatically make you attractive/a good lead. If every romance author would quit that nonsense, that’d be coo. Where my short kings at?! The other is: I think writing a story set on a reality/dating show is getting overdone. Also, maybe I wanted some futile details trimmed, but those were minor.
Yet…Christina Lauren writes another hit for all of us RomCom lovers! You are whooping it up for the protagonists, smiling, and hopeful for love on their journey. What more could ya want? Thank you Christina Lauren, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my ARC.