✔️ serendipity
✔️romantic vs cynical
✔️ opposites attract
✔️closed doors

This was such a sweet and cute story. It felt like watching a 2000 romcom set in New York. It reminded me so much of the movie Serendipity (2001)

I actually loved how different the main characters were but how their love and connection were undeniable. I loved both of their growth and willingness to go out of their comfort zone.

This is definitely a book I recommend to romance book lovers, especially. I think you won't regret reading such a cute story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

What an absolutely beautiful story and it really stayed with me long after I finished, Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of this book.

Love, love, love this book! It reminded me of a webcomic I've been reading for years, so incredibly a read I needed

I liked the writing, and individually the characters were sweet and relatable. I just didn't go with the whole plot... It was lacking something for me to feel intrigued. The relationship they have is sweet, the fact that they bump into each other over and over again is interesting. But they liked each other from the beggining and I feel like it impacted my interest and my will to go on with the book... I am more used to romances with more challenges, this one felt too platonic.

Unfortunately I didn’t get chance to finish this book before it expired. I’m writing this review on the 62% I did manage to read.

This book started really slow. Too much time was spent on the main characters night together and it became a bit boring. Following that night, I’dve liked to see them spend more time trying to find each other before fate brought them back together.

I enjoyed the aspects of Chinese superstitions and I wish they’d been explained and played into further. The aspects included made this book unique and interesting.

This book was a story of opposite attracts and whether or not love is destined or chosen. I found the writing style a little difficult to get into at times, but the concept, and characters won me over. An enjoyable read

This was such a dreamy, lovely opposites-attract romance about art, science, fate, missed connections and actively choosing to pursue what feels like destiny.

I loved the way our protagonists balanced each other out, and I was swooped right along with them on the whimsy of one perfect evening, and the quiet devastation of a missed opportunity, as well as the awe of being brought together once more by serendipity.

I absolutely adored this book with it's unique setting, diverse characters and wonderful prose. If I could give this ten stars, I could! Can't wait to get started on the author's other books.

I enjoyed the originality of the concept, but I felt the writing style hard to engage with, and didn’t feel the chemistry between the two protagonists immediately.

This was very sweet and I liked the concept, with finding the balance of whether love is a choice, or whether it's fated in the stars. Rooney and Jack were characters that played off each other well, although I have to say I didn't feel an overwhelming sense of chemistry between them; I would've been just as satisfied if they had ended up as friends as if they ended up together.

I really liked the first third of the book, where Rooney and Jack spend a night wandering around New York, discovering food and secret artwork and following a lantern to take them wherever they're meant to go. The rest of the book just didn't feel as special as that, with slower pacing and a lot of plotlines that felt underdeveloped, like Jack's parents.

"Red String Theory" by Lauren Kung Jessen is an enchanting journey through love, fate, and the cosmic ties that bind us. Eloquently blending romance with a touch of magic realism, Jessen crafts a tale where destiny weaves intricate patterns, connecting souls across time and space.

Rooney believes in fate, especially the red string of fate. She makes an art installation in the hope it helps people find their stringmates, and it seems like it works as it brings her a chance meeting with Jack, a NASA scientist who is in New York for one day only. But that night ends sooner than they’d both like and they go their separate ways, not able to contact each other … until a chance meeting brings them back together.

This is a cute story about the idea of whether soulmates really exist and how art and science personalities can come together to enhance each other’s lives. It has a lot of traditions woven throughout which I enjoyed learning about a lot.

You have to be really on board with insta love to enjoy this story, as it’s literally based on this premise. I found the insta love slightly unbelievable, though it was cute watching Jack and Rooney fall for each other. It’s a very light touch story, no steam and limited kissing if you like that sort of story. The third act drama made sense, and was resolved quickly.

My main criticism would be it was quite focused, especially in the final third, on really hammering home the difference between fate and choice and believing things happen for a reason or choosing for it to be so. Conversations between the two (and their supporting characters) felt a little stilted as they had wordy conversations about these topics in ways no one would in real life.

It was still a cute story and I think many people would enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.75 stars

I love the idea of a red string theory; that you share a fated connection with someone. It's something I have thought about for a long time, and I was so excited to read a book that actually has that concept. Rooney believes in Fate. Jack believes in choosing. And when these two find each other and have a little adventure, they find themselves falling for each other. But then they're separated. And six months later, they reunite. This time, things will be different. This time, they can have their happy ending...

Though this was a genre of books (Contemporary Adult Fiction) that I don't usually read, I did enjoy this one. Although I felt there could be something more. At one point, I also got confused at the POV switches, because I couldn't distinguish where Rooney's POV ended and Jack's POV began. But overall, the writing style was really beautiful and I loved how Lauren Kung Jessen wrote about the idea of fate and of falling in love.

All in all, this book is one that has made me want to pick up more of Jessen's work and I cannot wait to do that!

A sweet, heartfelt story about artist Rooney and NASA employed Jack. A chance encounter in NY leads to more unexplained meetings bring the threads of their lives closer and closer together. There were so many beautiful moments in their story and their banter and chemistry were perfection. A little slow, but perhaps what we needed to really build the tension.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC of 'Red String Theory' by Lauren Kung Jessen.

'Red String Theory' by Lauren Kung Jessen has the most beautiful concept to come out of 2024 so far! I absolutely loved this part about it but for me personally I just didn't fall in love with the writing style and it just fell flat on me due to this which was gutting.

3.5 stars

This was such a lovely romance story about fate and love.
I really liked the romance elements in this one, which was my major issue with Lunar Love, but I didn't like how slow the plot developed.
Still, I liked the overall love story and their journey to find "each other again," and I adored our heroine, Rooney.
Also the recipes in this series always make me hungry 😋
Overall, this series is magical and sweet, and I'm loving it so far, so check it out.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fun, romantic story, with super fun moments. That tells us about destiny, choices, inspiration, art, the galaxy, life itself and improvement.

I started this story without really knowing what I was going to find and the truth is that when I started it I didn't want to let it go. I admit that it took me a little while to finish it due to certain responsibilities I had. But if I could have, I would read it in two days.

It is a very good read to start the year, to think about our choices, about destiny, about coincidences.

Sometimes it happened to me with Red String Theory, I felt like there was a LOT of dialogue, and few descriptions, so it was a little difficult for me to imagine the whole scene in my head.

I really enjoyed the path that the protagonists took on their path of self-discovery, that is something that I have been finding in several romance books and that complement the story very well. Personal growth, being able to think about yourself.

Thanks Headline for the ARC I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The question that prevailed in this book was whether you believe in fate and soulmates like Rooney, or in choices bringing you to a certain point in life like Jackson. I loved seeing both sides of the coin.

Rooney was an artist who preferred to be anonymous so that she could achieve success without her successful artist mother's influence and infamy. I loved it when she finally embraced herself as she was. Jack had layers to him aside from being a NASA engineer so focused on science and advancing in his career. I loved how Rooney brought out his hidden side even around his workmates.

The cultural aspects of this book intrigued me especially the zhua zhou ceremony in which a one-year-old is to pick an object that will determine the course of their life. It also hinted at the couple from Lunar Love which I plan to read some time. Overall, an interesting read albeit repetitive at times.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I adored the author's debut, Lunar Love, so I was really excited for Red String Theory, and it did not disappoint!
The book revolves around the idea of fate, based on the myth of the "red string of fate" connecting us with the person we're meant for.
Our main characters could not be more different. We have Rooney, the daughter of a famous artist who is an artist herself, trying to make it in the art world without her mom's fame overshadowing her. Working under the pseudonym "Red String Girl", she is known for her art and installation using red string. She deeply believes in the concept of the fate and the red string of fate and is searching for her 'stringmate'.
And then we have Jack, an engineer at NASA, who thinks that fate is not fate but rather a series of coincidences and choices that were made.
Their paths intertwine and while they disagree on whether it was by fate or coincidence, they slowly start falling in love.

It was a really sweet story and I loved the romance. I think the whole 'fate' concept was a bit on the nose at times, but that didn't stop me from sobbing at the end.
Another big theme of the book was how our parents define us and how so often we want to prove ourselves to them. Even though their parents were very different, Rooney and Jack had similar experiences and I personally thought this whole aspect of the book was very well done.

As a white woman, I can't make a qualified statement about the mixed race rep, but from an outsider's perspective, I really enjoyed the look into Chinese culture.

I also thought that the setup was quite unique, the whole NASA / installation art constellation was something I've never seen done. It felt a bit unrealistic at times but it was certainly entertaining.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book a lot and would certainly recommend!

3 stars
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC to review. All thoughts are my own.

This was my first time reading a book by this author, and I came into this excited by the premise. Rooney, the daughter of a famous artist, also expresses herself through art but is not interested in the limelight. Her concepts are mostly based on the red string theory of fate and she believes firmly in everything happening that way. She isn't out to the world as the artist behind her creations, so when she crosses paths with the cute NASA engineer Jack, neither pick up on the fact that her sculpture is what brought them together one fateful twenty-four hours. Of course, their meet cute was well, cute. They are deeply changed by that chance meeting, but don't cross paths again until they end up collaborating on a project together at Jack's workplace.

Overall, I didn't gel with either character enough to enjoy this read. The concept of fated love and the red string theory was a great idea but lacked proper execution, and overwritten scenes distracted me from the plot. Without the concept in play, this just made Rooney needlessly kooky , and Jack was very beige in comparison. I didn't care for a lot of the side characters (except I did enjoy Jack's grandfather, he was so sweet), and found the romance lacking any true spark that ignited my belief in the couple.

Red String Theory is a cute story that reads very quickly, but the idea execution and writing style just wasn't for me.