Heptagon Books: The Rom-Com That Rewrites Dating Apps

Picture this: you are not a person anymore. You are a number. Not a phone number, not a lucky number, but a single, algorithmically calculated score that determines your entire romantic worth. Age, looks, personality, intelligence, wealth: all collapsed into one cold digit. It sounds dystopian. It also sounds uncomfortably familiar. That tension sits at the beating heart of The Attraction Abacus, the debut comic novel from UK independent fiction publisher Heptagon Books, and it is the kind of premise that makes readers laugh out loud before realizing, with a slight chill, that the joke is already half-true.

A Publisher With A Point Of View

Heptagon Books launched with a clear and deliberate identity. Based in the UK and operating under the tagline "Stories with many sides," the independent publisher focuses on contemporary fiction that is commercially appealing without being creatively safe. Rather than chasing trends, Heptagon Books sets out to publish titles that reflect the cultural conversations readers are already having, just told with more wit, more warmth, and considerably more self-awareness. Its current flagship title, The Attraction Abacus, is precisely that kind of book: culturally sharp, emotionally resonant, and genuinely funny.

The publisher represents the work of authors Evelyn G. Foster and Steve Frogley, and its mission extends beyond simply releasing books. Through an active online presence and a content-rich website, Heptagon Books positions itself as a destination for readers who follow modern book culture closely. Its articles section covers everything from slow-burn romance to BookTok versus Bookstagram debates, signaling a publisher that understands not just what readers want to read, but how they discover and discuss what they love.

The Premise That Changes Everything

The romantic comedy genre has always thrived on one central question: will these two people find each other? The Attraction Abacus asks a sharper, more unsettling question first: what happens when finding each other is outsourced entirely to an algorithm?

The novel imagines a dating service that has taken the logic of modern apps to its inevitable endpoint. Where today's platforms already reduce users to a profile photo and a handful of carefully chosen words, the fictional Attraction Abacus goes further. Every user receives a single eligibility score, a composite of the five traits the service deems most relevant: age, looks, personality, intelligence, and wealth. You are not a person browsing for connection. You are a number, ranked and sorted, waiting to be matched with another number of equivalent value.

The premise is a spoof, but it is a spoof with teeth. Anyone who has spent time on a dating app will recognize the dehumanizing mechanics the novel exaggerates. The comedy works because the satire is honest, and the satire lands because the comedy never lets it become a lecture.

A Story Within A Story

What elevates The Attraction Abacus beyond a clever concept is the structural choice that gives it genuine literary texture. The protagonist, Evelyn, is not just navigating the absurdities of the Attraction Abacus as a user. She works there. And while she is living through the daily surrealism of reducing human beings to scores, she is also attempting to write a romantic comedy about it.

That layering, a character trying to write the story she is simultaneously living, creates a self-aware, meta quality that feels fresh within the genre. Readers follow Evelyn through the comedic chaos of her workplace while watching her wrestle with how to shape that chaos into something meaningful on the page. The result is a novel that is funny about dating, thoughtful about storytelling, and quietly perceptive about the distance between how we experience life and how we try to make sense of it afterward.

It is an original premise, and originality is not something the romantic comedy genre always rewards. Heptagon Books is betting that readers are ready for a rom-com that does something genuinely new.

Why This Book Matters Right Now

The timing of The Attraction Abacus is not accidental. Dating app culture has reached a moment of widespread fatigue and self-reflection. Readers, particularly those who have spent years swiping, matching, and ghosting, are hungry for fiction that acknowledges the absurdity of the system they are still using. The novel does not moralize. It does not argue that technology is ruining romance. It simply holds up a mirror, tilts it slightly, and lets readers laugh at what they see.

That tonal balance is difficult to achieve, and it is one of the clearest markers of skilled comic writing. The Attraction Abacus earns its laughs by being specific, by grounding its satire in the recognizable textures of modern dating rather than vague cultural hand-wringing. The five-factor scoring system is funny precisely because it feels like a logical next step, not a wild invention.

Heptagon Books has built its early identity around exactly this kind of fiction: stories that are entertaining first, but that carry something worth thinking about long after the final page.

Readers Are Already Responding

Early reader responses on Amazon and Goodreads reflect the novel's tonal success. Reviewers highlight both the humor and the originality of the premise, with particular appreciation for the meta-narrative involving Evelyn's own writing process. For a debut title from an independent publisher, the engagement signals something important: word of mouth is building, and the book is finding its audience organically, which is precisely how the best rom-coms always do.

Discover The Attraction Abacus For Yourself

If you have ever felt reduced to a profile, judged by a swipe, or quietly wondered whether the algorithm knows something you do not, The Attraction Abacus was written for you. Visit Heptagon Books to explore the novel, read more about its authors, and discover what independent fiction looks like when it refuses to play it safe. Order your copy today and find out what your score might be.

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