Book Review – The Soulmate Equation

The Soulmate Equation is the latest contemporary romance book by the writing duo Christina Lauren. This book follows the story of Jess, a single mom and statistician, and River, a scientist and founder of a DNA-based dating service that’s about to launch. The two don’t get off to the best start and then find out they’re the highest ranking DNA match River’s company has ever found. They’re Diamond match status means they’re 100% destined to be soulmates, a fact they’re told without ever going on a date and only speaking a couple of times.

I really enjoyed this book, it was so much fun and the DNA twist was really different in a sea of contemporary romances that often seem repetitive. I thought the idea of being told a person who is essentially a stranger is your soulmate and then starting to date them was really thought provoking and interesting to read. I wish it had focused more on this and less on the money side of things and utilizing this match to promote the company. That said, I know this wasn’t meant to be that type of book, I just think there’s another potential book in here that I’d love to read.

The characters is this book are also really well done. Jess is a good blend of typical rom-com female lead and stressed out single mother. She’s a little insecure about her looks but then everyone says she’s beautiful, that wasn’t really discussed but randomly thrown in from those two extremes and not really sure what was up there. River was a fun male lead. He is mysterious but also sweet and nerdy, a fairly typical male lead for this type of plot but well written. The side characters of Jess’ best friend, Fizzy, and daughter, Juno, were really fun and good for a couple laughs.

I’ve gotten really used to romanced being told with multiple POVs as so many recent ones are written that way. In the beginning, I was really wishing this one was so that I could get River’s perspective. By the end, I really liked this choice of only following Jess and was glad I got to struggle to understand River right along side Jess.

The romance is well written and at a believable pace (not too insta-lovey). The sex scenes weren’t fade to black but also didn’t get too explicit. I thought it was a good balance for this story.

Overall, I found this one to be really fun and enjoyable. It shies, maybe a little too much, away from digging into the phycological and practical implications of this type of technology but as a romance, it really delivers. I laughed out loud multiple times and felt pretty invested in the characters by the end, I definitely recommend it.