And Then There Was You

Cousens (Is She Really Going Out with Him) questions what makes the perfect man in this entertaining sci-fi-tinged rom-com. Chloe Fairway dreads her Oxford college reunion. Her fellow classmates are extremely successful, especially her former best friend turned Hollywood screenwriter, Sean Adler, while Chloe, who had great hopes of becoming a writer herself, is stuck working as a PA for a film producer and living with her parents in London. Not wanting to show up without at least a date, she signs up for secretive new dating service Perfect Partners, which promises to match her with her ideal guy. Rob Dempsey, the man she’s paired with, is exactly her type in both looks and personality and he’s demonstratively smitten with her. Chloe is thrilled—until she learns that Rob is a robot programmed to her exact specifications. Still, she takes him as her date to the reunion—where she reunites with both Sean and another friend, John Elton; reexamines their shared past; learns she can’t trust the glossy facades she sees on social media; and feels unexpected sparks with a perfectly imperfect man. Some serious suspension of disbelief is required, but Cousens has a lot of fun with her premise, and it’s easy to root for Chloe to find true love. Readers will be charmed. (Nov.)