Simon & Schuster Publisher
Release Date: May 16, 2023
Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚
Synopsis: Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.
Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.
The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.
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An unapologetic love letter to romance books and the people who love them, The True Love Experiment may be my favorite Christina Lauren book yet!
Felicity "Fizzy" Chen is having major writer's block and freaking out. She's past her deadline, fans are waiting, and she has lost her faith in love. romance, and maybe herself. When Connor Prince asks her to do a dating reality show in the tone of voice that tells her he's not only never read a romance or watched a reality show, but looks down on both (and those who read/watch them), she realizes it's a challenge she needs to accept. And maybe rediscover her joy in life and romance while she's at it.
What happens when you put a romance writer in charge of deciding the kinds of guys she'll date on reality tv? Fizzy challenges Connor to cast all the major romance types- and somewhere between wanting to strangle each other and one-up the other, they discover a friendship full of humor, honesty, and dangerously sizzling chemistry.
I loved Fizzy. She's so full of life and willing to be herself in any situation. She accepts challenges and starts them, comes at problems with confidence she may not always feel but always knows how to fake, and isn't willing to change to please anyone-not her parents, and not a guy. If they can't handle her as she is, they can get out of the way. I loved how Christina Lauren lets Fizzy passionately defend romance as a writing genre when she has to, saying what any romance reader will agree with, but never gets to the "preaching to the choir" point. And her vulnerability when she realizes she's lost her belief in romance or the joy of it enough to get past her writer's block is completely real. She's got to be one of my all-time favorite characters. Connor is tougher to pin down until you realize he's exactly Fizzy's Mr. Darcy. They start off on the wrong foot, but once they let themselves try again, he turns out to be pretty great. He listens, he's open to admitting when he's wrong and changing his mind, and he can match Fizzy's sense of humor.
The True Love Experiment is exactly what I want in my romance: humor, friendship, two people clearly meant to be together but trying to deny it (they are producing a dating show for her after all!) and with enough chemistry to scorch the pages even when our heroes are just exchanging glances. Add in a dating show paying homage to real-life dating and romance novels? Yes, please! This one is a must read!
I don't think you need to have read The Soulmate Equation to enjoy The True Love Experiment, but you'll enjoy it.
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