"The Dating Equation" by Emily Merrill is a delightful and clever romantic comedy that brilliantly combines the unpredictability of love with the precision of mathematics. Merrill’s writing is witty and engaging, creating a story that is both heartwarming and intellectually satisfying. The protagonist, a character with a knack for numbers and a logical approach to life, finds herself navigating the often illogical world of modern dating. As she attempts to apply mathematical formulas to matters of the heart, she discovers that love doesn’t always follow the rules.

Merrill expertly balances humor, romance, and moments of genuine emotional depth, making "The Dating Equation" a refreshing and enjoyable read. The characters are endearing and relatable, and their journey toward understanding that love can’t always be calculated is both entertaining and touching. This novel is perfect for readers who enjoy a smart, funny, and charming take on romance, where the heart and mind must find a way to work together.

Thank you to NetGalley, and the publisher for providing me an early release copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Plot summary:
This book follows Penny, who is currently working on launching a dating app with her best friend Rory from University. Penny decides to prove the success of their app - LEVEL - by downloading it herself and trialling it out. However, after a series of bad dates, Penny is starting to lose all hope in the app that she hoped would turn dating around for herself and so many others.

Just when Penny had lost all hope that she would ever find love again, the biggest dating app - LINK - has offered to take over the LEVEL app. However, Penny and Rory both disagree on what the correct decision is going forward. With tensions high, and friendships hitting rock bottom, Penny starts to wonder if Rory means more to her than she ever let herself believe. What if the reason her love life was a disaster, was because the right one had been in front of her all along?

My thoughts:
I absolutely love a friends-to-lovers romance, so I was so excited for this, especially after lovinggg heartbreak houseshare. One thing that the author does soooo well is make characters and plot-lines that are SO bloody relatable. Everything that Penny goes through, I think any girl in her 20s can relate to, and it just make you feel so seen reading about it! I loved the plot line of the app being launched (and wish it was a real thing!!), and I loved the friendships between everyone. Also loved the ghosting in this (well not literally), but it made it so much more believeable!

The only thing I felt was that this book didn't need a romance at the end!! I honestly just loved reading about Penny and her problems, that we are all experiencing living in our 20s. Although I did like the romance between Rory and Penny, I felt that we didn't actually see much of them together, as they made up quite late into the book!

Overall though I loved this book, and would definitely recommend!

This book was an exciting romance to really get you in a great mood! It was written so well and just was such a cosy romance! The characters were fleshed out well and the story over all was so well constructed you truly feel as if you know the characters! I’m so grateful to have received an e arc of this as it was such a wonderful and fun read! I cannot wait to see what else Emily writes!

This was so much fun to read, I adored it! With relatable characters navigating the chaos of dating, maintaining friendships and ultimately searching for happiness – this is a hilarious heartwarming romance for your 2024 reading list.
If you love a friends to lovers or workplace romance – this is one for your TBR.

This book is a slow burn workplace romance. Penny is the CEO of a dating app her co COE is her best friend Rory. One thing you should know about Penny is she claims to know nothing about love. This book is fun and relatable. It is definitely laugh out loud sometimes. If you want an easy to read book this book is for you. Highly recommend. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review

Penny and Rory are best friends. Although Penny has never had a boyfriend, they decide to create a dating app, one that doesn't base people off their pictures, one that matches on personality instead.

I really enjoyed this book! I love the fact that the main characters are programmers (that's my job too 😂!)

Although this book is a romance story, it's also heavily about family and friends, and I loved that! Seeing Penny and Joe's relationship with their parents, and with each other, was definitely a cute addition to this book. Also the group of friends was like found family! They were all so supportive of each other, and I loved that for this story!

Overall, this was a super cute read, perfect for summer. It had dating fails, amazing friends, and an attempt to 'crack the equation for love'.

Romance novels aren’t my usual genre but I fancied something fun and chilled, and this delivered. This one felt like it was straight from the 00’s rom com canon- think ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, ‘The Intern’, and ‘10 Things I Hate About You’!! That’s not to say that it didn’t feel fresh- plenty happened outside of the romance plot. Sure, I worked out what was going to happen quite early on, but it avoided any major cliches for the most part, and the characters were lovable. My only complaint is that it felt like almost too much happened to close together in the last 30 or so pages. Huge thanks to the publishers and NetGallery for the advance copy of this book. 3.5*.

Penny and her best friend have developed a dating app, and despite her own disinclination towards finding love, she ends up trying it herself. But the launch of the app turns out to be life-changing for her in all sorts of unexpected ways.
I really enjoyed this; it sucked me in in that “just one more chapter” kind of way. I sussed out pretty quickly how it was going to play out (maybe I read this kind of book too much…) but it didn’t matter because the writing style flowed well and there were all sorts of descriptive little details which really helped to set the scenes. Penny, as the sole narrative voice, is a capable but flawed character whose struggles are understandable (even if you want to shout at her a few times for her obliviousness), but for me the best part was her relationships with her friends and family, which were full of affectionate banter and support and honest growth. A genuinely fresh and fun read.

3.5 ⭐️

thank you to net galley and harper collins for sending me an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. for the first almost half of this book i was obsessed and thought it was gonna be a five star. i found it so relatable and couldn’t put it down but then around 50% of the way through it just completely fell off for me? i’m not sure what happened but i just found the main character so annoying all of a sudden and i just didn’t believe in or care about the ‘romance’ or anything that was going on. i felt like if the characters were as close friends as they were made out to be surely their communication would be so much better? it just got a bit ridiculous and ending was also so rushed.

that being said, i loved the found family aspect and the amount of taylor references 🦋🩵 this book also had a lot of relatable, powerful messages about dating which i really liked.

This book didn't disappoint in anyway and I found it difficult to put down. This was a cute & easy read. Following Pennys dating journey and her navigating her friendships.

Twenty-six-year-old Penny Webber has never had a boyfriend, but she’s about to launch a new dating app with her best friend, Rory, designed to make dating less shallow. What could possibly go wrong ?

➡️ Workplace Romance
➡️ Slow Burn
➡️ Friends

This was a cute & easy read. Following Pennys dating journey and her navigating her friendships.

Thanks to Net Gallery for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tropes:
✔️ Friends to Lovers
✔️ Workplace Romance
✔️ Slow Burn

This is the second book I've read from Emily Merrill and it did not disappoint!

The Dating Equation follows Penny and Rory who met in university and have been best friends since. It’s 8 years later and they are launching their own dating app together, an app designed with the perfect formula for love… Even if at the age of 26, Penny has never had a boyfriend! After being challenged by her coworkers (excluding Rory), she decides to give her own dating app a go.

At the same time as trying to navigate her dating life, Penny is also trying to help her brother and soon to be sister in law plan their wedding, as well as support both her parents who each coped with their divorce in very different ways.

I loved the character development of both Penny and Rory throughout this book. As well as all the other characters we follow along the way, it’s a tight knit friendship group which I loved and I felt like we got to know each character just the right amount.

This book shows the real life highs and lows you find in the dating world nowadays, especially when using an app.

A book perfect for anyone looking for a lighthearted, easy read. Also, I would recommend checking out Merrill's other book Heartbreak Houseshare if you enjoyed this one.

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpernorthuk for allowing me early access to this book!

This book didn't disappoint in anyway and I found it difficult to put down. I found that the book truly captured the struggles of dating in the model technology obsessed world. All the characters were written in such a way that made them so likeable and relatable. I really enjoyed the friendship they all shared and the aspects of falling in love also. I felt that the struggles of juggling business and personal life were portrayed really well.

Overall the book was a really fun and interesting story. Therefore I would really recommend The Dating Equation to anyone after a cute romcom.

Thank you Harper North and NetGalley for letting me read the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

This was a cute and light-hearted read and I liked the characters.

There were some parts of the book that I found annoying or boring and found myself skipping a few parts due to this.

The ending was cute but felt like it went from denial to acceptance very quickly.

I would read this author again.

Tropes:
• Friends to lovers
• Colleagues

The Dating Equation is a fun and entertaining book that follows best friends Penny and Rory as they are launching a new dating app at the same time as navigating the modern dating scene in their own lives. This was a very enjoyable read with quite relatable characters. There weren't always the most likeable but I feel this definitely made them more real. This felt like a coming of age story with some romance sprinkled in rather than a full on love story but I really enjoyed the development of the characters as well as the side plots with the group of friends and family. Overall this was an easy and enjoyable read which I think did an great job of capturing life of young adults in London and the dating scene. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future!

I really enjoyed this fun read, my first by Emily Merrill (but not my last) it had everything I wanted from my romance, lighthearted, playful, great characters and lots of pop culture. Great escapism

For full disclosure I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I had never read any Emily Merrill books before, but after this book, I will be looking through her past and future books and making sure that I enjoy all of her amazing stories.

This wasn't a bad book, but it took me ages to get into it – a lot of it felt flat and paint-by-numbers, and the dialogue wasn't always convincing! It did grow on me a little as it went on but it didn't really deliver on the friends-to-lovers as much as I would have wanted.

The Dating Equation follows a 26 year old who has never had a boyfriend! Penny is going to be launching a new dating app called 'Level' with her best friend that has been made to make dating about the person and not their looks. Turns out, everyone loves the app!
Penny decided that she wanted to give her app. Penny goes on a few dates which turn out to be horrible and then she realises that love has always been right in front of her.

I found that this story had such great potential but there was just something missing! I didn't particularly like Penny through most of the book which is a shame as she could have been such a lovable character. Rory grew on me for sure. By the end of the book, I ended up liking him! It depicts what it is actually like to be out in the dating world in the 21st century! It is a bit of a slow burn so if that is what you are looking for, definitely give it a read!

It is a classic romcom and It would be a great holiday read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperNorth for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. Views are my own.

The Dating Equation
3.5⭐️

•Single POV
•Workplace romance
•Friends to lovers
•Slow Burn

Penny and her best friend, Rory have launched a new dating app with a difference. The app focuses more on the person and not on looks. But can Penny make the app successful if she’s never been in love herself?

This is such a fun and sweet story about how two friends manage to find love (with a little help from their friends) while trying to juggle life and running their own business.

The book shows the highs and lows of dating in real life and finding love on dating apps.
The characters are all very relatable in their own way and it is enjoyable to see how they interact together as friends.

I recommend reading The Dating Equation if you are looking for a lighthearted easy read with lots of laughs.

Thank you @harpernorthuk & @netgalley for sending me a copy of this book.