I’ve read several YA books that tackle something similar to this so the idea was really intriguing – that we could give a simple DNA sample and be matched up with a soul mate, someone perfect for us. The thing is, the matching program doesn’t discriminate. Someone’s perfect match could be halfway around the world. They could be of a different religion or background. They could even be of a different sex to the one that the person believes they are attracted to.

The book revolves around five people finding their “match” – Ellie, a businesswoman who is incredibly wealthy but often the target of public hatred, Mandy, a divorcee whose marriage ended when her husband was matched with someone other than her, Jade who received a match on the other side of the world, Nick who is pressured into taking the test by his fiance to see if they are truly compatible and Christopher, a psychopath who realises that he’s different from other people but takes the test anyway, to see what sort of match it might give someone like him.

The narrative revolves around the five characters as they meet their matches – and overcome surprises for some, get to know them, decide if they want to disrupt their lives in order to be with these people that have been termed their soul mates. Some of the stories are more interesting than others – I think it was Ellie, Nick and Christopher’s that really kept me interested. Ellie’s match was always a little too good to be true, a bit too perfect, almost rehearsed and I was pretty sure there was a big twist coming but I definitely didn’t expect it to go the way that it did! Nick’s match was one of the more interesting ones and I think that both of them handled it in quite a mature and respectful manner, because they were both surprised to be matched up for quite a few reasons. Nick was also engaged and his match had a partner as well, so they had to deal with the feelings that come from making contact, which is something that apparently happens to all matches. Quite often it’s immediate but it generally happens with 48 hours of meeting. I also really liked Christopher’s story because he was completely different from most of the others. He wasn’t really interested in meeting a soul mate exactly, but he was interested in what it might be like for someone like him, who doesn’t really have the same thoughts and feelings as most other people. He’s a serial killer – he’s already killed numerous women and has plans to continue killing quite a few more. His match is somewhat interesting and Christopher seems to have little regard for her at first except as in terms of curiosity. However he’s intrigued to find that he is capable of feeling things and that perhaps he could have a life with his match.

There was always a lot happening in this book and it was all very fascinating as people struggled with these new feelings – some of the stories were a bit less interesting but probably the one that I didn’t really get into was divorcee Mandy who gets her match only to discover something quite shocking about him. Mandy probably has some reasons for acting the way she did but she made some really frustrating choices and it seemed like every time we got back to her narration, she’d made an even worse choice than the one before until it was all just snowballing into crazy. It did build quite well though and it was clear that it was going to end quite badly.

Most of the stories have some element of psychological suspense running through them and pretty much all of the matches are not without drama, heartache and turmoil. It seems like it doesn’t matter how you find your match, it still contains a huge element of risk. Perhaps even more so because although your DNA might be perfectly compatible, it might change everything that you once thought or believed about yourself.

I definitely enjoyed this and I felt like it was really quite a clever take on a matched story line. The suspense is built really nicely where relevant and I really liked the ending and thought that it worked well.

7/10

An interesting premise broken up into lots of different scenarios. What if you could find your one genetic true love? What if they are a serial killer? What if they are dead? What if they are the same sex as you? This was a well told story that touched on all these scenarios and more. Totally engrossing with more twists and turns along the way. Looking forward to this author's next creation!

The concept behind The One is interesting - match.com with DNA profiling. I was expecting a book that would explore whether likability or sexual attraction could be predetermined by something so scientific as a double helix. Some of the themes could’ve tackled the viability and ethicalness of such a solution, or social equality or religious considerations, heavy themes that would make you think.

Instead, John Marrs, the author, went down a different route. Five independent story-lines follow couples who have been matched, and in the nature of page-turning fiction, they were all worst-case scenarios. All the themes were light, all had more holes that a dirt track, and most didn’t have any authenticity or believability.

This book made me think of James Patterson - he was even referenced in the book, so I suspect this isn’t a coincidence. All chapters are a few pages long, they finish on a cliffhangers and revelations, and the writing, to be kind, could be described as ‘accessible’.

I think this was a missed opportunity, but given the success of James Patterson and his co-writers, I may have a minority view. Still, I did read to the end, and it was a page turner, so it’s unfair to give it less that a 4*.

Absolute belter of a book! Had me hooked from the first page and didn't disappoint all the way through. Each chapter ends on a cliffhanger and despite being on my honeymoon at the time, I really struggled to put it down.
The concept is interesting, a liitle far fetched but just this side of plausible preventing the novel from being a sci fi one.
Its a thriller, a love story and a tale of how the human concept of monogamy can vary between people.
Loved it and already on the lookout for more by this author.

An absolute cracker of a read! Original, gripping and totally fascinating. By choosing to write about a number of different couples, all 'matched' as perfect partners via DNA, John Marrs covers a range of fascinating themes including terminal illness, serial killing, sexual orientation and grief. I was fascinated by every one of the couples, and loved that Marrs kept me on a knife edge with each of them.. Just as I was desperate to know what would happen next, he switched to writing about another, equally compelling, couple. I simply couldn't put this book down and recommend it highly for lovers of psychological thrillers, romance or simply a bloody good yarn. Read it!

I loved everything about this book, from the plot to way it was constructed. It was perfectly written and I never wanted to put it down.

John Marrs was very clever about the way he set the book out. The chapters are set out using the names of the five main protagonists. This started out really confusing for me, as before you get invested in the characters and their stories, you can’t really piece the people together, but after each character has been introduced and we start to circle through them, you really do become obsessed! Each chapter ended on a cliff hanger, which meant you wanted to quickly read through the 4 other characters chapters in order to get back to the one you just read, but each time you finished the next characters chapter, you were in the same situation of wanting to get back to their story, thus finding it extremely difficult to put the book down – very smart move Marrs!

Throughout the journey, I kept throwing guesses out that I thought might happen. I was pretty close with one of my predictions, but not 100%. Other than that single one guess, I could not have predicted anything else, as there were so many twists and plot changes. Personally I thought this was brilliant. As much as a reader may sometimes like that they guessed a part of a book, in reality we really do not want to be know what is about to happen. We love the suspense and surprise of it all.

“The One” is a psychological thriller that I can without a doubt say is set apart from the rest within its genre. The fact that John has used today’s technical advances to create an idea which could (one day) actually be a possibility, is brilliant. However he created the idea and displayed what could actually happen if you start to play around with love and people’s emotions, let alone if it all goes wrong.

I for one thought the story was brilliant. The idea behind the plot was genius, and really got me thinking the whole time. Once I finished the book, I read through the acknowledgements and absolutely loved that Marrs thanks his readers. This is not something I have seen before and thought it was a really nice touch.


Before picking up “The One”, I had never read a book by John Marrs before. I believe he has 2 other books already published (“The Wronged Sons” and “Welcome To Wherever You Are“), and he is working on one right now which I am lead to believe is titled “The Good Samaritan” and is due to be released next January. I will defiantly be heading over to pick up another one of his books very soon, and would highly recommend you do to.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and John for approving me to read this ahead of it’s release date. As a avid reader and reviewer, as always all opinions are my own and non-biased.

The premise of the novel is that a company has created a DNA test that provides you with your "perfect match" partner, and the book alternates between 5 different POVs of people who find their match this way with unexpected results. It was an entertaining read, but way too preposterous in too many ways.

A gripping read that held me from page one through to the end. Based on a world where your dna can find you the perfect partner the book looks at the stories of five individual characters and their “partners”.
Psychopathic characters made this a page turner.

I really loved the concept of this book. It is nice to find a whole new idea put forward into a book and I commend the author for that. This is probably the reason I have given this four stars as opposed to three.

The book follows 5 people who have done a DNA test to find their perfect life partner. It is very simple, just take a mouth swab, send it off and wait to be matched with the perfect person for you. The person whose DNA exactly slots into yours making you two halves of a whole. A whole industry has grown up around this matching with people who are married to their "Match" getting better deals on insurance, jobs etc as their are deemed to be happier, more stable and less likely to split up. I won't give details of the five scenarios but suffice to say as the book progressed I did find them more and more unbelievable. A couple of the stories were so unlikely that they did not hold together.

The book changes between five people. Each chapter has a named heading and we get a chunk of their story per chapter. I do like this idea in a book and don't usually have a problem switching between characters. However, for this to work the main characters do need to have very different personalities which need to be apparent & jump off the page. Unfortunately the author didn't define the characters particularly well and there were two in particular that I struggled to tell apart. The supporting cast weren't that well defined either.

The writing in this book was quite basic in some areas. There were parts that really didn't flow well and some of the dialogue was quite awkward.

Although the book itself needed a bit of work I was quite hooked on the idea and wanted to continue to read the book to find out what happened. I particularly like the last page. However I don't find myself thinking about the characters beyond the book as they just weren't sell enough defined to become people for me.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

5☆ Strangely Compelling and Highly addictive

I really enjoyed reading The One. It's actually scary that this could quite possibly happen.

Times have moved on in the wonderful world of dating.
There are now so many ways to find your perfect match... but to what cost?.... can you really ever be completely sure who your meeting.
Through the likes of Tinder, speed dating, etc...

What if there was a way you could be sure of finding your perfect match..... would you be interested??
Would you be willing to risk It??

Well "The One"  does.... It explores the dating world if DNA and science was your sure fix way of finding your perfect match.

The story follows 5 people on their quest to find love using just a DNA match.
No one said the quest to true love is ever easy.

The match can uncover a whole can of worms.
The matches can be any age, race, sexuality, any country, married/divorced/single.
 Those who put there faith in the science have to be open to what may/will be revealed as a perfect match! Good or bad!

It's a very compelling read, really explores the ups and downs and dangers. Each story is cleverly written and John Marrs seamlessly switches between the stories making it so easy to follow. 

Normally I find stories that have so many character stories really hard to digest, but with this book i was so enthralled everything just fitted into place.

The One is extremely addictive.... you have been warned!
The nature of the book is enthralling and believable this could so easily be real.
The Characters were so well written by the end of the book I felt I had lived their journey alongside.

Would I recommend this book.... 100% Yes!!

Perfect book for readers who like books that test the boundaries, offer something fresh and new. Readers who love Thrillers and Physiological reads.

 I Urge you to read this book it really is highly addictive, edge of your seat, hanging on to Marrs every word!

Let me start by saying I absolutely LOVED the concept of 'the One' by John Marrs. Being an old romantic at heart the idea of there being only 1 person, genetically made for each of us regardless of our gender, skin tone, age or religion really grabbed my attention and got my mind thinking.

This book focuses on 5 couples who are joining the millions of other people who have signed up to matchyourdna.com to find their perfect match, however, don't be fooled into thinking this is a love story. It comes under the thriller category for a reason.

Would you give up your life to be with someone just because science says you are meant to be? Would you fly to the other side of the world for them? How do you know they are who they say they are? What happens if you don't find a match? Are you now destined to be alone forever.

Men and woman have left their husbands and wives to be with their perfect match. Families and lives have been destroyed but in the long run it will be worth it because everyone will be happy with their perfect match. It is 99.9% accurate after all. Or is it?

This book is a real page turner. It makes you want to speak to everyone around you about the concept and what they would do.

The only 2 downfalls for me were I found some of the characters stories to be predictable and very similar to books I have previously read (I don't want to name the books as it will give away twists and turns) I was also left disappointed by how little I felt for the characters. There were so many shocking events in this book that should of left me at least feeling empathy but I didn't feel anything. I don't know if this was because the whole concept of finding your perfect match was based on falling in love so quickly that I found it a bit cheesy, if I felt some of the characters were so naive that nobody would allow themselves to end up in the situation they were in or if it was because of the writing itself and how much time each character was given.

This book isn't one of my favourites but I would definitely recommend it as I found the concept alone so fascinating. I just wish the characters resonated with me more.

Thank you to netgalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for my free e-copy on return for an honest review.

The One is absolutely brilliant. It's original, compelling and thought provoking, with so many twists you'll be hooked from the get go. One of the best thrillers I''ve read - and definitely one of my favourites. Highly recommend!

What a wonderful, compulsive read that I just had to finish in one sitting - reading way past a reasonable bed time and as a result spending the next day way too tired. It is a bit outside my normal genre; I do not read many books classified as "thriller" but I just loved the premise so much that I decided to give it a go - and I am so pleased I did.

Like I said, the premise is absolutely wonderful: what if scientists found a gene that made it possible to find the one true soul mate you have? In this near future this gene has been discovered and it has revolutionised dating, destroying quite a few otherwise happy relationships on the way. We follow five people who have just recently received the message that they have been matched and what happens to their lives after that.

The book is told in fast-paced, short chapters alternating between the five people. This choice made it near impossible for me to put the book down and it worked absolutely wonderful to showcast the different experiences, opportunities, and dangers inherent in this technology. Oh, and one of the main characters is a psychopathic serial killer. As usual, there were some storylines that interested me more but in the end John Marrs achieved the seemingly impossible: making me care about every single one of then, even the more than flawed ones.

Like I said, the premise is the biggest strength of this book; the world created just begs to have more stories told and I love how John Marrs managed to showcast wholly different ways of experiencing the changed world while showing that human nature fundamentally stays the same - relationships do not get easier just because they are "meant to be" and sometimes the loving relationships people built without the genetic component are strong enough as they are (the sappy romantic in me did love that notion). Part of me wishes that John Marrs decides to keep writing books with this premise, part of me wants to see what other brilliant ideas he can come up - all of me is excited to have discovered this book.

2.5 stars.
I started this book expecting a psychological thriller, but that only made up a small element of the overall story.
An interesting concept - that there's a gene responsible for us being attracted to our 'soul mate'. It started well and I was drawn into all the complications such a gene and finding or not finding 'a match' could present.
I was disappointed to quickly realise that all the stories weren't going to be connected and come together at the end (other that Ellie's story which holds the common theme, but is hardly connected). The book is actually just a collection of short stories; variations on the same idea.
This became the book's downfall... Taken as individual stories, a couple of them could have made strong thrillers if explored properly (Christopher, Ellie perhaps).
Mandy's story went from silly to ridiculous to completely rushed - there was no drama towards the end, because you could easily guess it would all pan out fine.
Nick's story was interesting to start with but then became eye watering with the number of twists in quick and increasingly far-fetched succession.
Half way through the book, there was the chapter I was looking forward to, even if it did feel shoe horned in - how the 'matching' works. I love fantasy when the world in which it is set follows its own rules. But the maths just seemed so off here! There's one other person out there for all of us... And yes, some matches have big ages gaps... And some matches may be from different continents or already be dead (or presumably not born yet?). But the number of people alive currently or even within the last 1000 years only makes up a tiny fraction of the number of homo sapiens ever to have lived. In which case, even if 7 billion DNA samples are held, surely there would only be a handful of 'matches' where both partners are alive currently?
Ok... I appreciate the book was never going to be about the finer details, but then if it wasn't sci fi, what was it? Romance? Thriller?
I sound like I hated this book, but it wasn't that bad! It was a light, easy read. I was skim reading towards the end because I had a good idea of where some of the stories were going and the ones I didn't guess, just made me roll my eyes!

Every 10 pages or so there were typos... 'How do you get you head around that' 'with a with a generous application of foundation' 'he didn't know how to tell that him that instead of travelling'. Too many for me to keep noting, but hopefully these will be identified before publication.

I didn't find any of the characters particularly likable or believable, possibly because of lines like this:
As much as she admired a strong female role model like Madonna, Ellie was no material girl.

The first third or so of the book seemed to have a real problem with describing technology - every time something was mentioned it was so clunky! I'm not sure anyone refers to their 'smartphone' or 'smart watch'. Too much detail for me which hindered the flow.

I really wanted to enjoy this book more and it's a 2.5 rather than a 2 because I was really excited by the idea, and direction the book started with. I just wish the author had picked one story and really nailed the fantasy/sci-fi/ethical side or picked a couple of stories and made then link together, avoiding the need for such brevity at the end.

In a world where love is determined by the heart, if science could find you your perfect partner from your DNA would you take the test? This brilliantly written story follows the rollercoaster lives of Jade, Ellie, Christopher, Nick and Mandy who have been DNA matched. Can science replace just taking a chance? Superb and totally addictive.

We follow these five people as they take the test and have to cope with the consequences as they find themselves dealing with the fallout. I am not going to be able to go into details because I’m allergic to spoilers and Marrs’ clever plotting is one of the best things about this smart near-future science fiction adventure. I have to say I nearly skipped this one in the early stages with the intention of returning when I wasn’t feeling so thick-headed and ill as reading a short passage in one viewpoint before being yanked away into yet another pov isn’t my favourite narrative mode. Fortunately, trying to work out what to read next proved just as taxing so I decided to go with my default which was to give it until 20% to get going. And by the time we got to that stage, I was hooked.

The cast of characters were all engrossing and well depicted. As for likeable – well, they mostly were with one outstanding exception and if I’d realised he was part of the story there is a strong likelihood I would have given this one a miss. However, I am glad I didn’t as I would have missed the sheer bravura of Marrs twisty plotting where little is as it seems.

In amongst this unfolding story, Marrs raises some interesting and disturbing questions… While couples in established and loving relationships are encouraged to take the test as they find it deepens their love for each other when they discover they are Matched – what happens if they aren’t? And while the genetic test can find a Match for the majority of the population, there are instances where they can’t. Either their genetic match has died, or isn’t on a database – what happens then? And has this engrossing tale demonstrates – being Matched doesn’t guarantee living happily ever after as there all sorts of intriguing scenarios where it is little short of a disaster.

In fact, I came away from this interesting, thought provoking book with deep thankfulness that I have a kind, loving companion who deeply cares for me – and a fervent promise to myself that whatever happens I’d never dabble in getting Matched, should the opportunity come up. This one is highly recommended.

While I obtained the arc of The One from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
9/10

Through this book you follow the lives of five quite different pairs, who have been DNA matched with their soulmate. Mandy “was ready to share her life with someone again, this time with someone who’d been made for her, rather than leaving it to chance. What could possibly go wrong?” The answer is – almost anything and everything.
This was a book full of surprises. Sometimes you may have an inkling about what might be about to happen – and then other shocking twists just come completely out of the blue. Take Christopher’s first appearance. From that point, you know all bets are off. But, still you keep hoping that at least one of the couples you meet will have a happy ending. It is not really a spoiler alert to say that a few do – and a few relationships explode in quite dramatic fashion. The thrill is in discovering which is which.
The characters in the book are so well drawn, that you become quite involved in their lives and how their relationships grow and develop. The whole process of DNA matches raises many questions. If you were in what you regarded as perfect match, would you risk everything to make absolutely sure you were actually with the ONE biological match for you? Would you drop everything (family, friends, career …) to rush to the side of your ONE? Is it better to be biologically certain of your soulmate, or to have some risk, uncertainty, trial and error, before making a full commitment to another person? Where is the fun and excitement of having your future predetermined by a DNA test? Certainty brings many advantages, what are the disadvantages? What do you do if you are not matched? Or if you are matched to someone entirely inappropriate? Does love at first sight really exist? Many of these questions are brought up by the stories of the pairs in this book, but few are entirely answered.
I really loved this book. It was not at all what I expected. It crosses the genres of sci-fi and romance – but doesn’t really fit neatly into any pigeonhole. It is a book to make you think, but it is also a fabulous thriller with a quite unique premise.