Reviewer: Tracy The One by John Marrs
Publisher: Hanover Square
Publication Date: February 20, 2017
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Point-of-View: Third person
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Fiction
Pages: 412
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How far would you go to find The One?
A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner—the one you’re genetically made for.
That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.
Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…
Match Your DNA is a scientifically proven way to find the one person in the world that you are genetically coded to love. When you meet that person it’s like fireworks going on inside your body and you just can’t imagine living without that person. Sometimes it takes a couple of days to kick in, but it always happens. There has never been a mismatch and the company prides themselves on that fact. Unfortunately while billions had found their DNA match, there have been many broken relationships when people find their perfect match.
This book follows 5 different people who have gotten their perfect match.
First we have Mandy, a 37 year old divorcee who has been matched with Richard a man who’s about 10 years younger than her. Mandy is a romantic and can’t wait to hear from Richard. She’s old-fashioned and wants the man to contact her. After weeks go by and she’s not heard from him she finally sends him an email, but she gets no response. When she finally hears something, details come to light that change her mind about what love is and what her future is going to look like. It’s utterly different than anything she could have imagined.
Next up we have Christopher. Christopher is a psychopath and a serial killer. Christopher meets his match with Amy, a police officer. Christopher is in the middle of a killing spree, but is finally meeting his perfect match changing him for the better?
Twenty-something Jade has met Kevin, but unfortunately, she lives in England and he lives in Australia. She has an average paying job and credit card debt so she can’t just jump on a plane and meet him. They’ve been texting and talking on the phone for seven months but they’ve never been on FaceTime or Skype. When Jade decides to take a leap of faith and surprise Kevin by showing up in Australia, Jade finds out that lies have been told – big ones. Does she stay and make the best of things? Does she leave and lose her perfect “one?” What does she do when she finds herself in love?
Nick is 25 and engaged to Sally, but Sally thinks it would be great if they do the DNA matching anyway, just to prove that they’re truly perfect for each other. Nick insists that he will be with Sally no matter what, but when they open their emails, they find that Sally’s results show no match. Nick’s results, however, show he’s matched to a guy named Alexander. What? Nick’s not gay – not even bi! He wants no part of the results, but Sally insists that he meets the guy to see if there’s any “spark.” How will the DNA match end up changing Nick and Sally’s lives, or does anything change at all?
Ellie is the scientist who discovered the gene that became Match Your DNA. She put her own DNA into the system 10 years earlier so she’s shocked when she receives an email saying that she was matched with someone. She meets Tim and while he’s so different from her, she falls in love with him anyway. While Ellie isn’t completely truthful (at first) to Tim about who she is and what she does, is Tim being truthful to Ellie about who he is?
When I first started reading this book and every chapter was another person I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue. Did I want to use my brainpower to keep track of all of these characters? Lol In the end, yes, I did. The book kind of sucked me in and I wanted to see how all of these matches turned out. Were they going to be together forever? How was it going to change their lives? Are they truly as perfect for each other as they thought they would be when meeting their DNA match?
While I enjoyed all of the different characters in this story, I really liked Nick and Ellie’s stories the best. I’m not exactly sure what it was about their stories that spoke to me, but I found myself looking forward to their chapters.
Mandy was fine, but she came across as a bit desperate and needy to me. She got herself into a fine mess and had a time trying to get out of it. It did end on a hopeful note, so that was nice.
Christopher’s story was just…strange. I’m not a fan of being a psychopath’s head and that’s where we were. The end of his part of the book was definitely different, and completely unexpected. I can’t say it was all together believable, but this is fiction, right? lol
Jade’s story was sad and frustrating all at the same time. I wasn’t surprised at the outcome of that part of the book as I saw it coming from a mile away. Her part wasn’t bad, but was too predictable for my liking.
Nick’s story made my heart hurt. I felt for this man who was forced into doing things he didn’t want to do, and then had to suffer the consequences. I just wanted to crawl through the book and give him a huge hug.
Ellie and her match Tim were an interesting pair. They were so different from each other that I suspected something not so great was going to happen and I was proven right. The magnitude of what happened was completely unexpected, but I loved that I didn’t see it coming.
Overall, I liked the book as Marrs is a good story-teller and the DNA match thing was intriguing. While I didn’t love the whole book, I did read it in (more or less) one sitting, so that was a plus. This was my first book by Marrs, but I’m sure I’ll be reading more by him in the future.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5