Wonderful storytelling paired with a swoony romance

I adored everything about this book. I will def be buying my own copy

I loved these characters and this story. I will definitely be reading more by this author in the future. The audiobook is very well done and I enjoyed the narration.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Forever for the audio advanced listener copy, all opinions are my own.

This was an interesting dual narration audio about a magical meeting that you could say was designed by fate and the resulting year that is full of changes for the characters. I loved the characters and the development that they both go through. Rooney and Jack meet by accident at a printshop waiting for their print jobs, but their characters are kind of like ships passing in the night, bright lights fleetingly illuminated. Rooney is a creative string artist obsessed with the idea that there is a red string that attaches soul mates, and does string art installations (and creates string art animals to pay the bills), while Jack (Jackson) is very much her opposite, science rules, and very logic based. They end up spending 6 hours together the night of the Lunar New Year in New York City but when things don't work out quite the way they planned (phone numbers are difficult), they randomly meet again when Jack's job is to hire an artist in residence for NASA, and the artist he chooses ends up being Rooney.

The story is compelling, and sweet, stakes are relatively low, but this is not cozy read, there are some heavier things going on in both of their worlds. There is only a couple of kisses on page, and nothing beyond that. The romance is not the main focus of the story.

Recommend for those who love the idea of the red string leading to soul mates or leading to opportunities to expand the self.

This is a sweet Romance where two people fall in love but is it because of the theory that we all have a red string and it will lead us to our soulmate, true love or is love all by chance? I liked reading about different cultures which this author did so well.
This is a perfect book/audio to read wrapped up in a blanket while it raining or snowing.
This is the first time I read anything by this author but it will not be my last I already ordered Lunar Love to read soon I hope.
I listened to the audio version of this story which was really well done thank you @netgalley

A cute AAPI version of Serendipity with an artist and a NASA scientist.

The art title got a little annoying after a while and I wished there was a little more depth to the chargers, but still enjoyable.

(4.5 stars!) really enjoyed this one. I love the idea of believing in fate and science but both pointing to someone being your person. This reminded me of what it is to believe in something magical again. It was sweet and tender and I loved it. The narrators were great and I would recommend to my friends!

An artist and an engineer meet and spend a magical night exploring New York City together before going their separate ways. He ends up back in California while she continues her life in New York. When their paths next cross, they still feel that gravitational pull between them, but circumstances keep them from pursuing a relationship. Are they truly connected by the mythical red string of fate if there are obstacles that keep them apart? Can they trust their love for each other?

Lauren Kung Jessen writes such cozy love stories. I adored watching Jack and Rooney fall in love in this one and watching them both grow as individuals as well. The grand gesture at the end warmed my heart.

I especially enjoyed the discussions of and meditations on fate and free will throughout the book. Rooney feels strongly that she and Jack are tied together by that red string. Jack feels like life is a series of choices.

I wish I had a wise Gōng Gong in my life to dispense wisdom and help guide me like Jack does. This quote especially stuck with me:
“‘The only difference between fate and free will is perspective,’ Gōng Gong says. ‘To some, like you, life is the sequence of choices you make when you decide how to live it. Small decisions add up. For others, it’s the individual moments that have meaning. Both are right.’”

If you’re a fan of all those small moments that add up to a big love in a romance, this one is for you.

The audiobook is told through duet narration by Yu-Li Alice Shen and Andrew Grace. I love when the narrators and engineers take that extra step, so that the characters’ voices are consistent for all the dialogue in a story. I feel like both narrators captured the characters well, especially with the voices of the main characters and of Wren Gao and Jack’s Gōng Gong.

I received an advance copy of the audiobook from Hachette Audio and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

This was such a fun story! I enjoyed the discussion of fate and art throughout the story! The concept of the romance in this one is so interesting and it kept me engaged the whole story! I enjoyed learning about the asian-american culture throughout the book!I loved Jessens writing style and will definitely be checking out her first book! This is a great no steam romance!

The narrators in this one were fantastic! I really liked how they would switch between the narrators during conversations! It made it feel so much more real and authentic.

If you are looking for a sweet rom-com about fate that tasks place in both the STEM and art worlds than this is a great pick!

What a delight this book was! This audiobook was nothing short of fabulous! I absolutely loved how both the male and female were narrating at the same time. It made the book so fluid and I lost myself in the story.

I adored the premise. Fate is always at the back of my mind so it was really enjoyable to have a book with this as a main premise with the other side of the story being science. It was a unique storyline that I haven't read before.

I would have loved a bit more tension between the two main characters. Those scenes had me wanting to speed up the audiobook to find out what happened next!

This is an author I will keep my eye on in the future as well as both narrators! I have already recommended this to friends to need a good light vacation read!

I tried to get an ARC of Red String Theory late last year and was so bummed when I got denied. But I ended up getting an ALC right around the time of release, and I'm so happy I did. It was such a cute book!

I loved Rooney and Jack, and how they were so opposite (yet also so similar). Without even having to try, they were able to really connect and were just interested in learning what made them different from one another. But I really was worried that the end was not going to be HEA for a minute there. Thank goodness Gong Gong finally talked some sense into that boy.

One of the fun parts for me was learning new things about Chinese culture. I'm planning on picking up Lunar Love soon since I liked Red String Theory so much, which I'm hoping will have similar cultural elements to it for me to learn more about.

Red String Theory had what I'm usually looking for in a contemporary romance - wit, a touch of tension, strong female characters, and a HEA. So if those are what you're looking for in a contemporary romance, then this one should definitely be on your list.

I very much enjoyed Lunar Love and couldn't wait to read Red String Theory. I found a lot of the writing and characters to be similar -- both included important aspects of Chinese culture and of course a love story but also how being Chinese American affected the characters. Both had family as an important thread to the story and characters and both had the idea of love as a "worth it" risk, a leap of faith. The pacing also felt similar to me. All that to say that if you liked Lunar Love you'll enjoy this one too! I also loved that the author gave us a very mini sequel to Lunar Love by showing us where she imagines the characters from that book are at in Red String Theory. I enjoyed the dual perspectives and seeing how both characters navigated the forbidden love and complicated romance aspects. I think my favorite aspect was how the FMC's art tied into the story as a whole and the journey she was on. If you like romance, the forbidden lovers trope, Jessen's other books, or a feel good read, pick this one up!

LKJ can do absolutely no wrong in my mind. Everything she writes turns to gold. I love the infusion of culture into romance and how it depicts how these traditions can change falling in loved

A sweet romance with a bit of Chinese culture added in their lives.They have once change to meet but it didn't work then they got one final chance to meet again.

This story was absolutely stunning! The love story, the cultural aspects, the meaning of fate, it was beautiful. The writing of the story really captivated me and I was hooked from the beginning. Rooney and Jack have different meanings of what fate means to them. Rooney is a true believer that everything happens for a reason and that with just one change, our stories would never be the same. On the other hand Jack is a scientist and is a more facts driven man. But the fate of meeting Rooney quickly has him second guessing his thoughts and realizing that she really is the one.

The scientific and artistic aspects of this novel where very intriguing and showed the contrast between how people may think when they are in the same situation. I truly loved this story. I smiled the whole way through and truly connected with these characters.

Red String Theory is a contemporary romance told by both characters Rooney and Jack.

Jack is an engineer at NASA and Rooney is an artist who meeting one day/night in New York City. They have different personalities but somehow fing something in common.

This book's theme is whether things are fate or just science. I love that topic and found the author did a great job with it. I found it very interesting to learn some Chinese-American customs as well.

The characters from Lunar Love made a little appearance too.

This is the second Lauren Kung Jessen I have read and I have been meh about both. This one was so bland and boring to me that I DNFed it at 67% because I just couldn't push through it anymore. I wanted to really like this because the synopsis sounded so good!

I think part of my issue was the fact that the main characters were reduced to one personality trait and didn't have any actual spark. The FMC's whole thing was her birth video and being RSG. The MMC's thing was working at Nasa/Mars.

The whole thing just didn't work for me.

Thank you Netgalley for the audio ARC of Red String Theory.

4.5/5

Red String Theory has been a highly anticipated release for me ever since it was first announced, and it absolutely did not disappoint. Rooney & Jack provided all the warm and fuzzy feelings (plus a dash of space-nerdom).

What I loved:
- the meet cute moment (love a good meet cute!)
- mixed-race Asian representation in both the FMC and MMC
- dual POV
- the character development of both protagonists, and the development of their relationship arc

I would like to note that I found the audiobook to be a little jarring at first. I'm used to dual-POV audiobooks simply alternating between narrators, but for this book each narrator also read the dialogue for their respective characters, even throughout the other POV chapters. At first, this really removed from the story each time it happened, and I found it distracting. Once I got used to it, though, I wasn't quite as bothered.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ALC!

I love Chinese culture, well more ancient stuff but still. I love it and I love learning about it so I had to listen to this one. Plus I have heard so many amazing things!
I LOVED the narration. It is perfection. Wonderful performance!

Jack and Rooney are as opposite as you can get. She’s an artist living in NYC who puts great stock in the Chinese legend of the red string of fate and uses it as inspiration for her experiential art installations. Jack is a NASA scientist living in LA and believes our choices dictate our lives rather than fate. Despite their differences, they hit it off immediately and fit like two peas in a pod. They’re completely enamored with each other, and Rooney believes Jack is her string mate. Jack doesn’t believe in fate, isn’t sure they can make long distance work, and has some general hesitation around Rooney’s calling them fated. Can they find a way to see things from the other’s side and harmonize their worldviews? (This is a HEA, they can!).

3.75 rounded to 4.

Thoughts on the book:

I LOVED the intersection of art and science! The portrayal of art as a vehicle for explaining scientific concepts and generating excitement for NASA projects is genius and so fun. And I loved reading scenes set at NASA centers - KSC, and JSC, and JPL, oh my! Gosh this is a fun one for romance loving space nerds like me (anyone else out there?)

I also loved learning about Chinese traditions, like the lantern release for Lunar New Year, the red thread of fate, and the zhua zhou ceremony for first birthdays (there’s a fun easter egg for readers of the author’s first book at the ceremony!).

The audiobook narration was some of the best I've heard. The book itself is dual POV, flashing between Jack and Rooney. In most audiobooks, the male narrator will read the Jack chapters, and the female narrator will read the Rooney chapters, regardless of the dialogue that happens in those chapters. In this audiobook, the non-dialogue narration was executed as usual, but the female narrator voiced Rooney and the male narrator voiced Jack for ALL dialogue, regardless of which character’s POV the chapter was from. This elevated the dialogue beyond even what I expect from a great audiobook and I got completely swept into the story. Highly recommend the audio for this one!

This is a big one and the reason for my 3.75 stars instead of 4.5: the primary conflict between Rooney and Jack is their differing opinions on fate and choice. These are pretty abstract concepts and TBH it hurts my brain to try to logic my way through their differences in actual application. It was mildly infuriating to deal with so much drama over this and I just wanted them to figure it out sooner.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Forever for the gifted audiobook.

Lauren Kung Jessen's "The Red String Theory" is a romantic comedy that explores the red-string of fate and how it affects the development of a relationship. Although the book includes Chinese mythology and cultural elements, a few issues detracted from my overall enjoyment of it.
The novel is unique because it merges Chinese mythology with modern life. It explores the "red string of fate" concept, which connects people to their destined partners and adds depth to the story. I appreciated the author's attempt to blend traditional beliefs with a new style, showing how different cultures and identities can be combined to create something special.
I didn't find the story's execution impressive except for one positive aspect. The main characters, especially Rooney Gao, the female protagonist, felt stereotypical and one-dimensional. Rooney is a classic example of the "manic pixie dream girl" trope, and her cheerful personality revolves solely around the concept of the red string of fate, leaving little room for depth or growth. In contrast, Jack Liu, the male lead, falls into the grumpy trope but lacks the charisma and complexity to make his character more interesting. Their interactions, which revolve around the conflict between fate and free will, felt unimpressive and lacked chemistry.
I didn't enjoy the story much, as I felt like I was trying to finish it. The relationship between the main characters, Rooney and Jack, wasn't interesting enough for me, as it lacked chemistry and complexity. Their constant arguments about love dragged down the story's pacing, which seemed repetitive.
If you're into Chinese culture and low-drama romance, you might enjoy "The Red String Theory". The book uses the sunshine/grumpy trope and is available as an audiobook with excellent narrators Yu-Li Alice Shen and Andrew Grace. While it didn't appeal to me personally, everyone's tastes differ, so give it a listen and see if it's a good fit for you.
Although the author integrated Chinese mythology and cultural elements into "The Red String Theory", I found the story's development unsatisfying. However, some readers may appreciate the blend of romance and cultural exploration.