AND THEN THERE WAS YOU

Desperate to impress her classmates at their college reunion, a woman brings a robot boyfriend as her plus-one.

Chloe Fairway feels like things couldn’t get worse. At 31, she’s living with her parents in the London suburbs, working as an assistant rather than a screenwriter, and stuck in the dating trenches. But then an old colleague recommends a mysterious dating service called Perfect Partners. Chloe figures it can’t hurt to try, so she books an appointment and is set up with Rob Dempsey, a gorgeous man who seems ideal. He’s kind, courteous, and can quote Brideshead Revisited, her favorite book, from memory. But then she finds out the truth—Rob is a “state-of-the-art AI humanoid robot. An android. Physically, practically indistinguishable from a real person.” He’s been crafted to meet the exact specifications Chloe detailed in her 42-page questionnaire, the one where she said her ideal men were Fitzwilliam Darcy, Anthony Bridgerton, and Friedrich Bhaer, all men who are, notably, fictional. Chloe could never date a robot—that is, until she thinks about attending her college reunion in Oxford solo. Everyone else has an important career, like her old friend Sean Adler, now a big-time Hollywood director. Chloe resolves to bring Rob to her reunion and introduce him as her boyfriend, impressing all her Oxford friends (and, most importantly, Sean). Rob is the perfect partner, but as the weekend rolls on and she reconnects with people from her past, Chloe begins to wonder if perfection is all it’s cracked up to be. Cousens takes a truly bonkers premise and imbues it with the warmth and humor she’s known for in her romantic comedies. The idea of an AI boyfriend feels scarily real, but Cousens manages to keep things light even while examining what it means for humans to find deep connections with robots instead of each other. Rob is a character who elicits both sympathy and laughs, and the romantic plotline is surprising enough to keep things interesting.

A science-fiction twist on romance that brings a whole lot of heart and humanity.