The DNA of You and Me is Andrea Rothman’s debut novel. It looks at what happens when romantic love conflicts with a woman’s chosen career. Emily, the main character, is a rational, somewhat cold, introverted-to-a-fault scientist. She feels she was born to be alone and has pretty much accepted that—until she meets Aeden, a fellow scientist who works in the same lab. She becomes somewhat obsessed with him before he ever notices her. A rather odd sexual relationship follows, then, there is a very slow-build romantic relationship between them.
I enjoyed the research aspect of Emily’s work on the sense of smell and the fairly accurate portrait of a woman working in STEM. As a physician, Rothman has enough scientific facts for me to suspend disbelief.
Emily at times fears she is missing something, that her introversion is keeping her from experiencing all she could. At the end, she does reconcile to a certain extent, her life. Her journey to self-acceptance is quiet but significant.
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