Die ersten 100 Seiten von The Soulmate Equation haben mir echt gut gefallen – vor allem, weil ich den Klappentext nie lese und dadurch erstmal gar nicht wusste, wo das Ganze hinführt. Das war etwas verwirrend, aber auch eine nette Gelegenheit, um Jess und ihre Freundin Fizzy besser kennenzulernen. Ab Seite 150 war mir dann ziemlich klar, was der Plot sein wird. Leider hat mich die Geschichte ab da kaum noch überrascht. Ich habe eher darauf gewartet, dass das Offensichtliche passiert, wodurch die Spannung etwas verloren ging. Die Idee rund ums DNA-Matching fand ich spannend, aber das Potenzial wurde für mich nicht ganz ausgeschöpft. Insgesamt eine solide, süße Story für zwischendurch – für mich sind es am Ende 3 Sterne.

Ich hatte mir den Klappentext schon echt lange nicht durchgelesen, deshalb war ich so überrascht von der Handlung mit GeneticAlly… aber seehr positiv überrascht. Ich fand es war mal eine realitätsnahe Romcom, zumindest was das Verhalten der Protagonisten betrifft. Es ist immer wieder schön zu lesen, dass sich Buchcharaktere auch wie rational denkende Erwachsene verhalten können haha. Ich muss zwar sagen, dass jede Interaktion mit Jess’ Mutter und Rivers Verhalten kurz vor Ende mich wahnsinnig gemacht hat, aber ein schönes Ende gabs ja trotzdem. Da muss ich aber sagen weiß ich nicht, ob der wahre Score von den beiden genannt wurde oder bloß angedeutet wurde … es ist gut möglich, dass ich es überlesen hab, aber wenn nein, wäre es schön den zu kennen haha. ☕️💗

"I haven't been home in years but I feel that way with you." What if "The One" by John Marrs wasn't a thriller, but a romance book...? Well, you do not need to think about this anymore: Christina Lauren actually went ahead and wrote a book about this scenario. And what a fun book it was! I loved the data/statistics aspect, I am a little science nerd - even though I didn't understand everything. But I had fun! Also, it was very interesting to think about the way we humans trust data. Did they like each other because they felt pressured through the results, or did they actually like each other? Something fun for me to analyze (because yes, I will be writing a term paper for my masters degree on this book). I especially loved the dynamic between Jess and her family aka Juno and her grandparents, and also the friendship with Fizzy. River did stay a bit bland in comparison (like, we know he's hot... but what is he like??). Other than that, I would recommend it. It's a bit like fake dating but also not really? Just let yourself be surprised by this book!

Die beiden Autorinnen Christina und Lauren schreiben absolute Wohlfühlbücher. THE SOULMATE EQUATION ist süß und herzlich, sodass ich mich einfach gut gefühlt habe beim Lesen. Die Geschichte war humorvoll, alles war irgendwie leicht und locker und hat großen Spaß gemacht. Die Protagonistin Jess war sehr erwachsen und stand mitten im Leben, ebenso River. Es gab kein unnötiges Drama zwischen ihnen, keine Missverständnisse. Sie waren einfach offen und ehrlich, was mir beim Lesen eine unheimliche Freude bereitet hat. Der wissenschaftliche Bezug zur Genforschung in Verbindung mit einer Partnervermittlung war für mich sehr interessant und hat das Buch einzigartig gemacht. Ich hatte tolle Lesestunden.

War eine solide Romcom. Die Aspekte mit der DNA und dem ganzen wissenschaftlichem im Bezug auf die Liebe und DEN Match zu finden, war eine interessante Idee. Leider wars mir zum Teil aber sehr unschlüssig und ich konnte nicht ganz nachvollziehen, warum gewisse Handlungen jetzt gemacht wurden✨️

Nach The Unhoneymooners wollte ich noch ein Buch von Christina Lauren lesen. The soulmate equation ist da zwar nicht ganz rangekommen, war aber trotzdem eine gute Geschichte für zwischendurch. Ich mochte Jess und River super gern und fand die gesamte Geschichte total Herzerwärmend. Besonders der Familienzusammenhalt bei Jess zu Hause war einfach nur süß und Rivers Umgang mit ihrer Tochter genau so. Extrem fesselnd fand ich das Buch jetzt nicht unbedingt, aber ich hab es trotzdem gern gelesen. Ich werde auf jeden Fall noch weitere Bücher der Autorin lesen 🥰

3,5 Stars In the aftermath of reading Unhoneymooners, I decided to read another romantic comedy. As you know, the hot weather is killing me, and I need something light and fun, and not a 500-page-long fantasy book (sorry). I had another book from the Duo known as Christina Lauren, which was on my TBR (and you know what July is all about). Because I was so underwhelmed by one of the most overhyped books from those authors (BTW: the soulmate equation was also a hit on Booktok), my expectations were not really high. Our FMC is Jess, a single mom, smart and hard-working. She does everything for her daughter, and her best friend Fizzy thinks she needs more fun. Fizzy is my favourite side character and romance author. Dr. River Peña is a geneticist who finds DNA love matches and develops an innovative dating app. This concept was just amazing and through it, he actually found love, but maybe that also has to do more with people than science. Fizzy and Jess do a DNA test at River’s company to find their true love match. But when her numbers come back, and she is matched to one of the company founders, she is dumbstruck. Because she already knows him in real life, and he is rude and stuck up. How could they be genetic soulmates? The premise of this story is what initially caught my eye. It's absolutely fascinating to contemplate the possibility that compatibility could be genetically encoded into our DNA. As I read, I laughed at some points, cried at others, and threw the book across the room (or in this case train) at others. I liked the relationship between Jess and her daughter, which made my heart melt. However, the scenes of Jess and her mother made me want to throw the book away - just because of the emotional impact of those moments. My biggest issue with the book was that the romance between Jess and River felt underwhelming. Were they even dating? As I said, the start was slow, the middle is better and the last ¼ of the book was good. This is because I wanted to know how they would deal with the conflict/situation. And there came the facepalm and the abrupt and forced ending: it was meh. And as I read along, I was slightly reminded of Ali Hazelwood’s work. I think many people will love this one, especially if the romance works for them. However, it was an okay read for me.

Overall a cute, easy and enjoyable book. I liked the tension the characters had but as soon as they got together I kinda got bored, lol. The 3rd act is also unnecessarily stretched out because of the MMC. Tbh, the way he handles the issue and how he treats Jess could have been avoided. Communication is a foreign word to him, it seems lol. It also made me mad that Jess doesn't address certain things during their conversation that I would have addressed. I also read The Unhoneymooners by them and it in that book the 3rd act is also handled poorly. Especially the solution to the 3rd act is just not it. It may be a Christina Lauren thing

4.5 Stars I loved this. This Book is everything I wish in a romance book and had me giggling out loud and smiling IN PUBLIC. The writing of these authors is phenomenal and kept it interesting even though it was quite slow-paced (It took me 4 days to read through which is slow for me) but I still enjoyed every second of it. River was such a cutie, a broody asshole who's actually just really shy and not mean at all even though I wanted to punch him when he called our MC Jess 'average'. I also was sceptical with the single mom trope, because I normally really do not enjoy children in books, but Juno was just stealing River and Jess the spotlight every time she was in a scene. She was very mature and smart, and I can´t really believe that she is seven, but I let that slide. There was one page where I understood exactly zero when Jess was doing statistics and math, but I just quickly overflew that page so that I didn´t feel completely stupid. The rest of numbers and science was understandable in my opinion though, and that one page was the only one where I really struggled