Emma Hughes - No Such Thing as Perfect

CONDITION - VERY GOOD

Laura’s twenties have delivered one consistent and troubling certainty: when it comes to love, she’s just not getting it. In possession of a disastrous romantic history, Laura hits rock bottom when the one stable man in her life – her long-standing flatmate, substitute boyfriend (and ex) – falls in love with the latest addition to their household and moves out, just as her job as a junior features editor is threatened by redundancy. Meanwhile, her parents’ marriage, which Laura has been refereeing for years, is crumbling.

Sleeping on an air-mattress in her over-achieving, impossible older sister’s attic, Laura is approached by Cupid, an experimental new dating service, which promises to use your digital footprint – the google searches, the shopping you’ve done, the videos you’ve viewed repeatedly at 3am – to find the love of your life. In a last-ditch attempt to secure a splashy feature and save her job, Laura agrees to trial the service.

On paper – or in data – Adam is her perfect match. Off the charts on the compatibility scale, he’s handsome, kind, cares about climate change and manages to win the approval of her perpetually judgmental sister. Even their parents’ ancient collie, who has long been the emotional barometer of the family, is a fan. But when Laura starts to develop feelings for the charismatic data lead who designed the algorithm that led her to Adam in the first place, those familiar doubts rear their head once again…