Chemical Souls by Roxana M. Rotaru

Can two broken people save each other, or will they destroy one another?

What if your soulmate knew your darkest secret before your first date?

Some people fear being alone. Others fear being known. Patrick thinks he’s tried everything to find love, until he discovers Chemical Souls, a company promising perfect matches through cutting-edge technology. When he meets Margaret Warner for his intake interview, he’s instantly drawn in. She seems to see straight through him… maybe even into the parts he keeps buried. By the time the questions end, Patrick doesn’t want to leave and neither does Margaret. But when their connection exposes the darkness beneath the surface, both will have to decide: is this love, or something far more dangerous?

Roxana M. Rotaru’s Chemical Souls is a striking departure from the warmth of The Man Who Feels Like Home. Here, Rotaru trades comfort for unease, crafting a dark, hypnotic exploration of love, guilt, and obsession. Patrick’s and Margaret’s connection is equal parts magnetic and unsettling, a psychological dance that asks: how much darkness can love forgive? What if the person who understands your worst secrets is just as broken as you are?

Rotaru’s writing hums with tension. Margaret’s chilling logic and Patrick’s spiraling fixation call to mind the obsessive energy of Caroline Kepnes’ You, though Chemical Souls favors quiet menace over gore. Every choice feels inevitable, every boundary dangerously thin. Trigger warnings for stalking, obsession, and death, but nothing gratuitous. Chemical Souls is dark romantic fiction at its most intimate and haunting, a love story that stares straight into the abyss and dares you to keep looking.