Book ~ "The Soulmate Equation" (2021) Christina Lauren

From Goodreads ~ Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. Raised by her grandparents - who now help raise her seven-year-old daughter, Juno - Jess has been left behind too often to feel comfortable letting anyone in. After all, her father's never been around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn't "father material" before Juno was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close but working constantly to stay afloat is hard ... and lonely.

But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that's predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: this Jess understands. At least she thought she did until her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly's founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can't wrap her head around because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: get to know him and we'll pay you. Jess - who is barely making ends meet - is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the "Diamond" pairing that could make GeneticAlly a mint in stock prices, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist - and the science behind a soulmate - than she thought.

Jess is a thirty-year-old single mom to seven-year-old Juno. She works freelance as a statistician and she and her author friend, Fizzy, meet every day at a coffee shop to spend the day there working. Every morning at 8:45am a cranky-looking man comes in and orders an Americano coffee.  One day on a whim, Jess and Fizzy talk to him and it turns out he is River Peña, the founder of a matchmaking company called GeneticAlly that matches you up according to your DNA.  

Just for fun, Jess and Fizzy submit their DNA and no one is more surprised than Jess and River when they have a 98% compatibility.  The company makes Jess an offer she can't refuse ... date River for the next three months to see if science is correct and she will be paid $30,000.  She doesn't really like River, she needs the money so she agrees.  As they get to know each other, they start to believe.

This is the first book I've read by these authors (it's a duo) and I thought it was okay.  The concept was interesting.  It is written in third person perspective from Jess' perspective.  There was a lot of science/statistic jargon that went over my head and I found boring.  I thought it was a bit unrealistic how quickly Jess and River got together considering his first impression of her was that she was "average" and she thought he was an A-hole.  Towards the end, there is a surprise which could threaten GeneticAlly's existence and Jess and River's relationship, which I saw coming right from the start.  As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.