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Single mom Jess Davis spends her days doing her freelance statistics work, raising her bright and delightful 7-year-old daughter Juno, and hanging out with the grandparents who raised her. She meets her best friend, novelist Fizzy (short for Felicity), at a coffee shop every morning to get work done. And she goes on disappointing dates: Given her less-than-thrilling experiences, Jess is quite sure Tinder isn’t going to help her find a man she can love and who will love her and Juno.
Then one morning Jess and Fizzy find out about a new company, not even launched yet, called GeneticAlly, which uses DNA to help people find their ideal matches. If Jess were to use a service to find a good man, this would be it: GeneticAlly is data-driven and has been tested on thousands of people. In a low moment, Jess caves in and swabs the inside of her cheek and sends in her DNA sample. She forgets about it until she gets a call from the company: The data show she has an unheard-of 98% compatibility score with one other person in the huge database — and it’s the founder of the company, River Peña.
While Jess is a sucker for numbers, she’s positive these can’t be right: She’s met River Peña, and he’s completely antisocial and stuck-up. But GeneticAlly executives give her an offer she pretty much can’t refuse, given her tight finances: They will pay her to simply spend time getting to know him for a few months, up until the company’s launch. After all, if the “Diamond” pair truly fall for each other, that’s a story the media will eat up — and that will boost stock prices for the new company.
Of course, as these kinds of stories go, Jess slowly finds that River has a lot of admirable qualities, in addition to the insane hotness she certainly had already observed. The two hit it off. But can they overcome the challenges that present themselves? Are the data always right? And if the data are wrong, does that matter if they care for each other?
The Soulmate Equation is another fun, romantic story from Christina Lauren. It has all the elements of this writing duo’s satisfying novels: hot guy, protagonist who is pretty and has many great qualities but worries about her prospects in general or with that particular guy for various reasons, plenty of fireworks when the two get together. It’s not my favorite, which remains In a Holidaze, but I’ll keep reading their books when I need a little fun escape.
Rated: High, for 18 uses of strong profanity, 41 uses of moderate language, 15 uses of mild language and two uses of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes one detailed sex scene a couple of pages long, as well as other scenes of intense kissing, sex that is implied, and vulgar references. One minor character has a drug and alcohol problem.
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*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
