Christina Lauren - The Soulmate Equation

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. After all, her father was never around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before her daughter 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 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, 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, 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 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.

Comment: The writing duo Christina Lauren has been well liked by many readers but I must confess something about the blurbs of their books just didn't "call to me" and I didn't mind I might be missing out. However, the blurb of this one felt intriguing and I wondered how the authors would develop such a premise, so I've convinced a friend who also had it in her TBR and we buddy read it.

In this story we follow heroine Jess Davies, a single mother trying to make ends' meet - and humbly succeeding - at the same time she raises her daughter and deals with the frustration of what it means to be a single woman trying to date. She and best friend Felicia hear about this new app whose matchmaking method is based on DNA and on a whim they both send their samples. Jess is surprised to learn she has a 98% match result, something unheard until now and the company directors call her in, trying to think about a way to market the app further. And who is Jess' match? One of the founders of the app, dr River Peña, who also happens to be the man she and Felicia see every single morning getting his Americano at the same coffee place they go to. But Jess has doubts this works despite the numbers, can she and River really match beyond those results?

I think what I probably liked the most about this novel was the substantial research the authors must have done on matchmaking apps, on math, on odds, on all the necessary things to present a DNA based matchmaking method that kind of sounds plausible. I mean, I'm not knowledgeable about any of those subjects, but the more technical information used here, even though I can't say how realistic it is, sounded strong and helped me to accept the odds presented throughout the story.

I kept thinking, though, as the characters sometimes, could a DNA match be that competent to mean a couple would have an instant connection even if, perhaps, there wasn't chemistry between them? The couple still needed to get to know each other, right? It could not be a given that the couple would work out without much effort, isn't' it? I suppose the authors tried to follow some of these issues by choosing two characters who are practical and have a more scientific background ( Jess works with data and statistics) so that their path to happiness wouldn't be due to simple romance expectations. Well, if it wasn't so, it felt like it to me.

Overall, the story was both cute and clever but I wasn't dazzled by it. I can't decide if I feel the authors took too long setting up the app and Jess' character - we don't have River's POV - or if the book just wasn't long enough for the romance to feel strongly developed, but I had the feeling Jess and River are placed in a situation they can't truly control but they are still expected to match right away. In a way, the romance wasn't that romantically done. Despite the app and what it should mean, I still wanted to have scenes with them bonding, with them really feeling the chemistry, with them learning about one another in such a way that the notion they could be "the one" would be effortless and spontaneous.

I think this isn't an obvious conclusion, though, and then there are also many distractions. The story is told in third person but focused on Jess and, in a way, this is a little unfair to the hero, for I feel River was not as fully developed, even though he shares things about himself with Jess.

The thing is, a lot more is focused on Jess and in how her unbalanced relationship with her mother affected her need to be in control of her life, how much she loves her daughter and her grandparents and how money worries sometimes affect her too... all these things are valid elements to make Jess wary of a new romance but I thought the goal would be to have River "convince" her that they would be a good couple and, sadly, I didn't finish the book with that impression.

As expected, when things start to go better for them and it seems as if their connection really has a base to go, something happens that makes Jess doubt things, then River doubts as well and it seems as if they can't trust their feelings enough to advance. I understand this need to add some sort of conflict, so that we could more easily accept their decision and their (kind of) emancipation from those problems they believe could separate them, but by this point I was simply liking the story, not really loving it.

All things considered, this wasn't a bad book, no. But the sum of all the parts and the rather weak romance just didn't fully convince me. I liked having the experience of reading a book by these authors but I can't say I'm a fan... Perhaps I'll try another book one day if I see it at the library.

Grade: 6/10