The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

I only vaguely remember Fizzy as being a side character in a previous book but, dang, is she hilarious. Thirty-seven years old and a romance writer who has known who she is for most of her life, she is in the middle of a bit of writer's block and some decisions about whether where she is in life is where she wants to be. When she's contacted by a producer who thinks she would be great as a "Bachelorette" type main character on a new show he's developing, her first thought is she doesn't want to do it. But when she overhears a conversation (and only gets the tail end), she decides that she will do the show but only under her terms. To start? She's going to parameters around the men she's going to date (the words cinnamon roll may or may not be included.)

Connor's life is changing whether he wants it to or not. He was happy producing documentaries for a small network but now they want a reality show. He happens to see a news story about the DNADuos and thinks that maybe he could do a dating-type show where the audience chooses the match but they see if they can figure out who among the contestants would have been picked by the algorithm.

The two actually saw each other across a crowded bar and were intrigued. But now they are contractually forbidden from fraternizing with each other. However, the more time they spend together, the more they want to stay together.

I really liked Fizzy. Connor was pretty good too but Fizzy is the kind of person who lives their lives authentically and is just a fun person to know. Maybe a touch too much drama for me but overall an enjoyable read.

Four stars

This book came out May 16, 2023

Follows Soulmate Equation

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from library November 2024

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

Can romance be crunched by data? According to a new app, they can look at your DNA and calculate who in their database is going to be your soulmate. Jessica "Jess" Davis probably wouldn't have been interested if she hadn't been dragged along by her best friend, Felicity "Fizzy", to the headquarters. Even then, they probably wouldn't have even gone if the app hadn't been run by "Americano," the man who comes into their favorite coffee shop every morning at 8:24. Jess might be a statistician but that doesn't mean she's going to be playing by the numbers, even if she matches with none other than her coffee nemesis, Dr. River Pena. A 98% match though is not only going to be good for Jess's potential future but also for the company so she agrees to at least test the relationship waters with the man. Lord knows he's amazingly hot. But she's trying not to drag her daughter into the mess; Jess grew up with a mother like that and she doesn't want to do that to Juno.

This was a really fun book and I liked that the relationship took a bit of time. A little insta-lust but a lot of getting-to-know-you. I didn't love the Big Misunderstanding at the end nor how it was resolved but if you love Christina Lauren or even just contemporary romance, you will really enjoy this book.

Four stars

This book came out May 18th, 2021

DNADuos #1

Followed by The True Love Experiment

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from library September 2024