Review of The True Love Experiment

Like many people who read The Soulmate Equation, I said Fizzy should get her own book. Then she did. What did I think? Regrets? Check out my Review of The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

Published on May 16, 2023

I read The Soulmate Equation in June 2023

Thanks to the NYPL for ordering this book after my sternly worded email.

Plot Summary for The True Love Experiment

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. She’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist, 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.

Other Books by Christina Lauren

BFF writing team Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billing have written a LOT of New Adult, romances, and rom coms.

The Beautiful Bastard series (2013), The Wild Seasons series (2014), Dating You, Hating You (2017) Autoboyography (2017) Roomies (2017) Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating (2018), My Favorite Half Night Stand (2018) Love and Other Words (2018), The Unhoneymooners (2019), Twice in a Blue Moon (2019), The Honey-Don’t List (2020) In a Holidaze (2020), The Soulmate Equation (2021), Something Wilder (2022), and the (audio only) Honeymoon Crashers.

Review of The True Love Experiment

So in my review of The Soulmate Equation, I was ON THE RECORD as asking for a book about Fizzy.

After that, I forgot. When I realized Fizzy WAS getting a book, I was excited.

If you don’t remember (or didn’t read the book), Fizzy is the classic rom com BFF character. She’s witty and wise-cracking, loyal to a fault, and as sparkling as her name.

As I started reading, I got nervous. What if Fizzy was like the condiment of the book? Like salt: essential but better in small doses? We didn’t really get to know her on a deep level in the first book.

Then I realized the book had something else I am not a huge fan of: a reality TV plot. I find that books with reality TV plots often have too many characters and focus too little on the main couple.

But I should not have worried. Fizzy was as great as ever. And I actually felt that The True Love Experiment really took off when the reality TV plot kicked in. Who would have thought? The book minimized the number of other random guys Fizzy was dating for the show and didn’t make them a big part of the story.

I did wonder why Fizzy didn’t just use River’s dating app to find love. Was her bad dating experience in The Soulmate Equation a result of the app? I can’t remember.

In any case, while in terms of personality I’m more of a Jess than a Fizzy, I liked getting beneath Fizzy’s breezy exterior and learning more about her as a person. And while Connor wasn’t a hot nerd like
River Peña, he was hot and British, which was almost as good.

I do think if you enjoyed The Soulmate Equation, you will also like The True Love Experiment. You can read my review of the Soulmate Equation here.

Have you read it? Do you have questions? Talk to me in the comments!