Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Soulmate Equation

When started The Soulmate Equation, I knew what I was getting myself into and it sort of gave me exactly what I wanted. An hilarious fake dating, single mother rom-com! You have no idea how much I was craving for a rom-com!!
I'm a mood reader, and I believe one of the reasons I gave this book such a high rating was because I read it exactly when I needed to read it. Now let's crack its pros and cons real quick:

PROS:

Every character was so well-written: I have to give it to Christina Lauren, cause they did such an amazing job at writing especially the side characters so well, they didn't feel flat or without any personality, from Juno, to Fizzy and Jess' grandparents, everyone added so much to the story!! I think it also has to do with the fact that Fizzy has her own book after this one, so they had to build her character well from her first appearence in TSE, so yeah, I hope she stays the same for her book.
Single mother trope done just how I like it: I was dreading the moment they would go for the easiest and in my opinion most annoying way of handling this trope, but to my surprise they didn't! I hate the most when in single-mother books the plot revolves around the toxic and abusive ex / father of the baby, but fortunately he never made an apperance and Christina Lauren opted to go in a different direction with this trope, which I appreciate plenty.
River and Juno's relationship: when I tell you my jaw dropped with their first interaction!! I was dying of cuteness omg! And throughout the whole book, the way River treated and cared for Juno made my heart melt, truly. This is what I love to see in single parent tropes, the love interest and the kid having an actual relationship and cute interactions!
The humor had me laughing my ass off: if you take a look at my paperback, you'll see the green tabs are almost as many as the pink ones, because this book was fucking hilarious!! The banter, Fezzy's sense of humor and just so many scenes made this book such a joy to read. This book is indeed the perfect balance of romance and comedy.
The writing of the spice: I've read a book of Christina Lauren's super spicy saga, so I know they're more than capable of writing good, mind-blowing sex scenes, but I loved the direction they decided to go with this book. What I mean by this is that although this book doesn't have such explicit sex scenes, the writing portrayed their overwhelming feelings towards each other in such a fantastic way that I was sold! They totally convinced me this two were two parts of the same soul whenever they had sex.

Now CONS

Lack of the whole app thing: Putting aside how good the characters were and thinking plot-wise, I feel like this book had so much potential and more to give in that side and I do hope the whole DNA app thing appears in Fezzy's book and they don't just forget it exists, crossing my fingers.
The way the conflict was handled: having had my share of Christina Lauren's books, I have to say I hate how they handle their third act conflicts tbh. I haven't read the Unhoneymooners, but the things I heard about that love interest omg. I kind of understood the reasons behind this conflict and everything, but like almost every romance book I've read, River didn't grovel enough!! He said all the right things, yes, he justified himself without making excuses, yes, but Jess should've waited more to forgive him! Ghosting her and her kid for 8 days? Are you kidding me? Na-ah.
Their real compatibility %: it may be just me idk, but I was so frustrated when she decided to not know their real % and he did, HE KNOWS AND SHE DOESN'T! FUCK THAT BOTHERED ME SO MUCH!!! I can understand why she didn't want to know, I do, but I don't like how he knows and she doesn't, they should've conducted the process together.

Special Mention

So, it came to my attention that the epilogue I read is not in every copy of the book, it is bonus paperback-exclusive epilogue, so I can understand how people who didn't read this extra content may feel dissatisfied with the ending. To be completely honest, without this epilogue I would've ended this book with a bittersweet feeling, and give it 4 or 4.25 stars instead of 4.5 so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Content Warnings

v1l25's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Content Warnings

meganpbennett's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I received an ARC of The True Love Experiment from the Simon & Schuster table at a library conference. The rep said it was a good starting place for Christina Lauren books. I didn't realize it was a sequel, so when I got back from the conference, I checked out this book. It was very interesting.

Like a lot of romance novels, it covers some really deep topics while also keeping it light. It has one of my favorite tropes in it - fake dating - and it pulls it off quite well.

Content Warnings

vj_thompson's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

zandrabanana's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book just made me full so happy and I literally cried qt the end because of how happy I was for the charecters

Content Warnings

niffler98's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

I enjoyed this book and it honestly suprised me to be honest.
A dating site that uses dna and it’s markers to give you matches with diamond matches being 90% and above on a perfect match.

Somewhat enemies to lovers.
Somewhat moody sunshine
Definitely doubtful to head over heels energy and I loved it.

It had drama of its own throughout. It had some spice for those who like that. But it also incorporated several passionate family dynamics and that was honestly really heartwarming.

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