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Our society is filled with formal and informal methods and systems set to introduce two people looking for someone to love and spend their lives with. These include special interest clubs, on line setups via filling out a background form, family groups and matchmakers.
John Marrs postulates a near term future when DNA testing will find one’s perfect mate including all permutations and combinations of individuals. One company, whose founder developed the system of a quick swab in the mouth, will become one of the largest businesses in the world when they corner the market on this method.
Five couples are followed when the swab indicates that they are destined for each other. In addition, Marrs points out the very probable human reactions to the testing when couples married or together for many years begin to doubt their union when each of the two involved take the test and find that they are compatible with someone else.
Presented are a couple who are thousands of miles apart, another where after the test one partner dies, still another where a female police officer is matched with a serial killer who continues his murders while professing love for the cop. In addition, the question of a couple taking the test and finding that the male member has another male as his perfect love, and finally when the founder of the company that perfected the test finds a match via the system.
The author uses a method of going from one set of partners to another throughout the book allowing the reader to relate to the situations faced in this new world. What type of world would such a system create? Can matches crossing international boundaries bring the earth to a point where intentional conflict is passe? Would there be mass divorces due to being found by the test for the couple to be incompatible?
My reaction to this novel was simply that I couldn’t put it down getting totally immersed from the git go. I do believe that most readers will have the same reaction and finish knowing that they have just read something completely different and completely well handled.
2/18 Paul Lane
THE ONE by John Marrs. Hanover Square Press (February 20, 2018). ISBN 978-1335005106. 416p.
Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™ 
Thanks for the review! This sounds so intriguing!