The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
I’m in the middle of several books right now, and while they FEEL interesting, I haven’t been in the mood to read those genres. I think the funnest books for me always have romance, and so I went to this pile of books that I ordered from Target (but haven’t shelved into my library yet because they all have the annoying Target percentage off circle stickers) that are I have on a bench in my office and picked up one of the best romance writer’s (or plural) newest books, Christina Lauren’s The True Love Experiment.
Genre: contemporary, romance, romantic comedy, realistic fiction
Published: May 2023
Read: July 2023
It’s interesting because the main character is a fellow Chen. It’s good that they include diversity in their books and also that they consulted Chinese Americans to as accurately create a Chinese American character whose background has an influence on her life (e.g., especially with her family). I would say that she definitely is not the most “traditional" Asian girl though, whatever that means. No, but yeah xD It’s fun and great. She’s a romance writer and loves dirty jokes/puns. But I can’t imagine what Asian parents would be like with that personality. But it’s cool hhaha. As a minor spoiler, I also think that her mom is too supportive for a traditional Chinese mom, but really, it’s cool. If more Asian parents can learn to be less overbearing and be happy for their children and happy ABOUT their children, that would be so amazing and so good for mental health….
Anyhow. It’s about a romance writer who can’t think of what to write next and a documentary producer who’s tasked with creating a reality dating show instead of working on his conservation documentaries that he likes the most. The book started out really fun, the premise of the reality show and everything.
Spoilers start here: But after Fizzy’s brother’s wedding and the hotel and when she learns how Connor and his ex-wife Natalia ended up divorcing (he didn’t TRULY PASSIONATELY LOVE HER, it was just because they’d gotten pregnant that they decided to get married)—he cheated on her which was really lame and immature and bad—she spazzed out and ran away—this is because she ended up being the (SMALL3) (xD too lazy to switch keyboard right now-it means the third person/mistress/whatever in Chinese) in her last serious relationship and she’s traumatized by that.
But after this part, a downfall which happened after they both realized they were in love with each other and super happy, it seemed like it got slow. So I took like two days off from it. But I just picked it up again and read the last ~100 pages.. And it was fun again. I think the feeling that makes me feel the most like T___T is LONGING. And so they did a good job with it and then made the finale of the reality show fun. Also then I read their acknowledgments and then it was really cute so then I almost cried lolol.
I think Christina Lauren’s writing(s) fine. But sometimes it’s just too like.. Obviously romance?? In the sense that you’re reading about this main character and her thoughts and narration are talking to you, the reader. I think that that’s when it starts to feel slow to me. Like there was one sentence where it was like, ‘it happened like this: 1) xy, and 2) z.’ Like that’s not exciting writing style/POV to me I think... But other than that, the humor, particularly Fizzy’s humor was pretty fun.
Also fail on my part. I didn’t realize that this was like “Book 2” in this “series”. There’s a first book that features her friends Jess and River, The Soulmate Equation. Woops. Oh whale. I did this with Abby Jimenez’s Life’s Too Short too. It was really fun, and then I realized that it was “Book 3” and that the other side characters mentioned also had their own books/arcs already so… XD Anyway. It was fun. Because of the ending and the emotions that were envoked (happy grateful feelings XD), I decided to round my 3.5 ratings to a 4 (instead of a 3).
Did I cry? Almost, like happy eyewatering.
Should you read it? If you want a fun chickflicky romcom book, shore. I don’t think it’s profound by all means but it’s fun.
-huay