Review: The Soulmate Equation

• Title: The Soulmate Equation

• Author: Christina Lauren

• Series: N/A

• Genre: Contemporary Romance

• Rating: ☆☆☆☆

“I haven’t been home in years, but I feel that way with you.”

Once again, this author duo delivers an impacting love story that not only has you aching for your own Dr River Pena but makes you want to believe that soulmates do exist out there. Add in an adorable seven-year old that Jess does a pretty darn good job at raising, a hilariously fun best friend who is hooked on romance, and a whole bunch of nerdy science chat, and this book should be an instant five stars, right? Whilst I can say that for the majority of this book I was utterly hooked, some elements made me question a little of the writing process and thought behind them. It seems that whenever I read a Christina Lauren novel, there’s always something that holds me back from adding it to my top tier romance ranks, which is an absolute shame as I REALLY adore their writing. Whilst the plot was pretty predictable from the start, I found myself struggling to get a grasp on Jess as a main character. She seems to be bold one moment and then running in the other direction the next. And I get it, being a single mum makes things challenging when it comes to stepping out into the world again. Jess has spent so much time doting on her daughter Juno and making sure she gets the stable upbringing she didn’t entirely receive, that it’s hard for her to commit to anything other than what she has in her life. Still, her back and forth reactions were why I struggled to understand her, especially over submitting her DNA for the dating app but how she felt about River, to begin with. River, however, was pretty consistent all the way through, and even with the later argument scene, which I found rather frustratingly put together and ruined the flow of this world and the main reason this story fell a tiny bit for me, I really liked how he was represented in this book. River fitted like a warm glove into Jess’ life, and boy did my ovaries hurt whenever he was with Juno. The romance was very believable once they started to open up towards each other, and the steamy scenes were tastefully done. The chemistry was palpable, and I think this is probably my favourite romance of Christina Lauren’s that I’ve read. The plotline was cute, and I liked the STEM aspects too. You can tell they put a lot of time into creating believable characters with the effort of statistical and scientific dialogue, and I always appreciate the level Christina Lauren go to with shaping their characters. Admittedly, I feel it was the plot that let this story down in the later parts of the book, but it wrapped up really sweet and I was smiling a whole lot throughout reading this.