Book Review : The Soulmate Equation - witty and makes you wonder

The Soulmate Equation
by Christina Lauren
Genre: Fiction


What does it take to find a soulmate? Dr. River Pena and his scientist friends come up with a solution after testing over 100,000 couples. They identify over 3000 plus genes that lead to long term compatibility. They make an app using biotechnology to identify one's soulmate.

Jessica Davis, a freelance statistician and single mom and her friend Fizzy, a best selling romance author decide to try it out on a whim as they have seen River almost every morning at a coffee shop which they all frequent. Jess finds River physically attractive but is shocked to find the app says he is her soulmate. Both refuse to believe it and so he runs a blood DNA test just to be doubly sure and the answer is the same. They are soulmates.

While Jessica agrees to work for River's company which is to be launched in three months and be paid for public appearances with him, she wants to protect her young daughter while River wants it to be a  no sex and emotion involved deal which they work into the clauses of the contract.  River is the one who came up with the technology, so shouldn't he at least find out? If they are soulmates, does this mean River and Jessica can stick to the terms of the deal? Read the book to find out

I found the writing witty and wonderful. I was surprised to learn that Christina Lauren are two people but that doesn't mean it makes the book any less thrilling. It has been a long time since I laughed at science jokes and being the nerd that I am, I couldn't stop giggling and grinning all the while wondering if I would use such an app. What if there is a glitch or it turns out to be something like astrological match making which Indians swear by and use for marrying but is not based on DNA? Is romance over rated and it all boils down to just genetics?

Would you use such an app based on solid science instead of dating or matrimonial sites to look for a soulmate? 

If interested, buy the book here

The Genius Virus - Page Turner

The Genius Virus 

By John Benjamin Sciarra  

254 pages , available in different formats 

Genre:  Fiction - Medical Thriller

With friends and relatives fighting on social media over the election results and the Trump Victory or the Indian government’s  overnight demonetization drive, the terrorist attacks in Kashmir , Nagaland, etc. everything seem to be spiraling into the negative.  Happy, sane people were fast becoming angry, temporarily insane people. I truly needed a break from the conversations when I found Sciarra’s “The Genius Virus.”

What if you cannot get diseases? What if you can be killed only by physical demolition like being blown up? In addition, what if your IQ is superlative but your EQ is very little?  You are a Spock and Iron Man combination with a conscience while your boss is more of a Dr. Moriarty and you are working for him?  You attempt to heal all diseases which you know your boss doesn’t want as that would cut his fund flow through every drug you create. Will your boss find out before you are done?  John Sciarra spins an intriguing page turner in his just released book, “The Genius Virus.”

Tracing historically reported random events like the 4H virus outbreak and the HIV outbreak in the 80s, the death of Rosalind Elsie Franklin who discovered the double helix structure of the DNA and as result of taking pictures of the DNA structure contracted cancer and died at the early age of 37, but Watson and Crick stole her effort for which they received the Nobel Prize, the crash of a plane in the 80s which was just “shocking news” then, and the globalization of the pharmaceutical industry today, are they all connected?

It is not often you read an intelligent page turner with history and medicinal discoveries backing it up. The Genius Virus is one such thriller and can surely make you wonder next time what you are getting yourself into when you pop up in innocuous looking pill.

The style is smart and the science is made simple, so anyone can understand. There is no shining hero to save humanity. So what will happen?  The ending is completely unexpected. 

A must read.

 

To buy the book, click HERE.