And Then There Was You
By: Sophie Cousens
Publication: November 18, 2025 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
384 pages
Genre: Adult, Contemporary
Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)
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Goodreads description--From the New York Times bestselling author of This Time Next Year comes another "what if" romance about a floundering young woman who signs up for an unusual dating service to find The One . . . at a special cost.Chloe Perfect is thirty-six, and despite her surname, suspects she’s not most men’s idea of the perfect woman. She wears too much corduroy, has an unglamorous job marketing gardening supplies online and her hair refuses to be straightened however much she tries. Between looking after her plants and her bad-tempered grandmother, she finds herself lonely, despairing she will never meet "her person."
So on a whim, she signs up to Perfect Partners, an experimental dating agency with an unusual model. The caveat? There are many, but Chloe must agree not to date anyone else outside of the program for the duration of the trial. Well, she's never had much luck finding someone the "normal" way, anyway.
After a few days, Chloe is matched with Rob, who checks off all her boxes, and she's instantly smitten. But the more seamless the dates, the more seriously she's forced to weigh the moral complexities of their setup.
And when she meets Oliver, another Perfect Partners participant, who quickly takes on the role of her confidante away from Rob, the more Chloe starts to perhaps her person isn’t someone perfect after all. Perhaps it’s someone just as kooky as she is. But is she really prepared to jeopardise the perfect life she's been wanting for so long? And more importantly, can she?
This was not the book I was expecting to read. And I think probably that's why it's received fairly low ratings. I think the publisher has worked hard not to spoil things for the reader. And I haven't read other reviews, so I can't say what other readers took issue with. I don't want to spoil things for future readers because the experience can be part of the journey. But maybe readers going into this book thinking they're getting a mostly contemporary romance and finding themselves thrust into a futuristic, science/realistic fiction book is the cause of the disharmony with readers. At least, that was my issue. And that's spoiler enough, but I will mark other spoilers in the review clearly below.
Chloe went to Oxford. And she had a group of close friends at the time. She is still only in touch with one of them. Her best friend is married and has a baby now. Her writing partner from school, Sean, who expressed feelings for her that she didn't return, has gone on to become a famous Hollywood director. And their other mutual friend, John, she hasn't kept up with because he and Sean were close. Once Sean confessed his feelings and Chloe rejected his advances, Sean got a new girlfriend who wasn't content with his relationship with Chloe. He chose the girlfriend over Chloe. And then moved. Chloe emailed him at some point, and he never replied. Now they are having a class reunion, and Chloe has nothing to show for her last ten years. She still lives at home with her parents. She is single. And she hasn't advanced at her job, meaning she's still a glorified assistant. Her acting career never took off. She hasn't written anything in years. She feels like a loser. So she seeks out a dating service to find someone to take with her to the reunion.
****SPOILERS AHEAD**** (highlight to read) The man that the dating service hooks Chloe up with is actually a BioBot, meaning an AI humanoid robot. He feels like a human. He smells human. And he kisses like a human. So much of Chloe's experience with "Rob" feels real. He reacts to her emotions. He helps her with her goals, professional and fitness. He is designed with Chloe in mind specifically. But he isn't real. He did have a few glitches, which I was thankful for. Otherwise, he seemed too good to be true. And Chloe could feel the draw to him. She could see how someone might choose a BioBot instead of a real human partner. But this isn't what we contemporary romance readers were here for. ****END SPOILER****
I need to proceed on shaking ground here as well, but Sean isn't what Chloe is after either. They were great friends, but for her, it never went past that. She was never drawn to him physically...even if she tried to talk herself into it. Haven't nearly all of us been there? What does happen is that Chloe is reminded of a mysterious person always in the background of all of her college experiences. She thought this mystery person was Sean. And that's why she tried to convince herself that she was in love with him despite feeling nothing physically for him. Yet she comes to discover who this mystery person actually was. And this is the element of the story that I kept reading for. Because, to be honest, once I got to that spoiler paragraph above, I almost bounced. It's one thing for a book to surprise you with a plot twist, but it's another thing for a book to turn into an entirely different genre than you were expecting.
Favorite quotes:
-Was this fiction's fault? Had reading ruined men for her?
I think we've all felt that way at some point.
-"And if you soak too long in nostalgia, you'll drown in it."
-Was there any greater salve for sadness than the cold nose of a friendly dog?
-"I've spent my life not saying the things I should have."
-"Oh, I thought he was trying to hit me in slow motion," Rob said. "My apologies."
-Looking around at people walking through Oxford, she felt a nagging dread about the future, about what the world would look like when everyone had a Rob. But then, seeing the glow of a screen lighting up every face, she wondered if they already did.
-"I don't think I was supposed to be your perfect person," he said, his voice steady. "I think I was meant to show you what it feels like, when it is right. To give you the confidence to trust your instincts again."
-"You're not annoying," he said. "And if you are, I can't wait to be annoyed by you."
-"People are messy and flawed. Unpredictable. Sometimes they get things wrong, do things they can’t explain, articulate themselves poorly. They can be selfish and smelly and irritating.” Chloe grew more animated. “They’ll contradict you, tell you you’re wrong, forget your birthday, and leave their wet towels on the floor however many times you tell them not to. But then— then— they’ll also say something so ridiculous, that will make you cry with laughter until you can’t breathe. They’ll surprise you, disarm you, love you in million tiny ways that you never even thought to imagine. And I love that about us.”
All of that being said, I ended up enjoying And Then There Was You. If you allow yourself to push through a little discomfort of a genre that you weren't expecting, you might find that you enjoy this story, as I did. Mostly, I enjoyed the real story behind the extra stuff I wasn't expecting. I also enjoyed the author's note at the end of the book. And Then There Was You gets 4 Stars. Have you read And Then There Was You? What did you think? Let me know!
