I went into this book tentatively. I liked Helen Hoang’s debut novel, The Kiss Quotient, well enough, but I didn’t love it. However, The Bride Test proved me wrong. I loved it.

Esme and Khai are the best. Esme is such a sweet character and with real struggles and vulnerabilities that I had no real grasp of as a non-immigrant. She proves to herself and others that she’s a go-getter and will not settle, which I really liked about her. The whole “mail order bride” premise had me nervous, but Esme was a great character. Khai is a really endearing character too. You can’t help but like him. I loved what Helen Hoang did in her first novel about educating the reader on what it’s like for someone with autism. It was really informative for me, and she continues to do that in The Bride Test through Khai.

The romance was great too. Khai and Esme have a sweet relationship that developed naturally. No insta-love here.

The plot is cute, but it has some substance too. A must read for me.

A wonderfully written tale about complicated love! I never got the chance to read the Kiss Quotient, but have heard amazing things about the authors work and I can certainly see why! This is a wonderful read and so very heartfelt. I can't wait to go back and read the first book now!

What a cute little read. Great chemistry between the characters and interesting perspectives. Plus steam! Can't go wrong with this one.

Having loved The Kiss Quotient, I knew I would be in for a treat with Hoang's new book. I was not disappointed. Khai is on the spectrum, and he knows he doesn't feel anything for anyone, not even those closest to him. His mother, on a trip to Vietnam, persuades a young mother who cleans the bathrooms in a hotel to come to the US and maybe marry her son, which would give her so many more opportunities. Once in the US, Esme, the American name she has decided on, finds a strange connection with Khai, though it takes time. She works to better herself and find her American father while falling for Khai, but he remains convinced that he has no feelings. Can they work this out, or will Esme return home with a broken heart?

I really liked how Khai, a virgin the first time, didn't realize how unsatisfied Esme was. The relationship, as I said, took time, and that was realistic.

Delightful! A wonderful follow up to The Kiss Quotient. I can’t wait to read more from Helen Hoang.

The Kiss Quotient was my favorite novel of 2018, and while Khai and Esme can’t supplant my love for Michael and Stella, they certainly worked their charms on me. What is amazing about story writing is that author Helen Hoang states in her author notes at the end of the story that Esme wasn’t originally intended to be the romantic heroine of this story. She was originally intended to be an impediment to Khai’s true love, but Esme charmed Helen charmed as well and the story changed to Esme and Khai. After finishing this marvelous story, I couldn’t imagine it going any other way. Esme was strong and honorable and absolutely perfect for Khai.

In Kiss Quotient, Stella as Asperger Syndrome and Michael learns to work with Stella’s quirks so they can reach a happily ever after, but Michael’s cousin Khai is just a smidge further on the autistic scale. Khai doesn’t believe that he can feel love and because of his stone heart, he has never pursued any type of romantic entanglement. So his mother takes things into her own hands and seeks to find a potential wife for him in Vietnam. She brings My over to California and gives her the summer to convince Khai to marry her. My picks Esmeralda (Esme), as her American name after her daughter’s favorite Disney character. Yes, that is the one lie of omission that brings Esme guilt throughout the story. She hasn’t confessed to Khai or his mother that she has a child. When she was a teen, she was pursued and seduced by a boy who wouldn’t marry her since her family was so poor.

Esme works hard to try to seduce Khai and he is not responsive to her attempts. She tries to make herself useful to him by straightening and doing chores, but he is unhappy with how she is doing things. She feels that her attempts to win Khai’s love are doomed to failure since he doesn’t seem to have any interest in her. When Khai confesses to her that he is autistic, she has no idea of what this means, but when he explains his sensitivity to touch, that she understands. Knowing that this is something Esme would never have guessed if Khai hadn’t told her specifically, she makes him agree to be more open with things that will bother him so she can adjust.

Once they work past this hurdle, Khai and Esme’s relationship begins to grow more intimate, except sex won’t solve all their issues. Esme sees what a kind and wonderful person Khai is and she is quickly growing to love him. But as her time in America begins to come to an end and Khai’s mother needs an answer whether there will be a wedding before Esme’s visa expires, Khai still isn’t willing to believe he could ever love Esme back.

While I liked watching Esme and Khai’s brother Quan work to break through Khai’s belief that he can’t feel emotions like other people, I absolutely adored Esme. In the beginning of the story, the one question she got right that the other candidates didn’t showed that even though Esme was dirt poor, living with her grandmother, mother, and daughter in a one room shack, she wouldn’t act sell her soul or stab Khai in the back for money or to achieve the American Dream. When Khai’s mother chased her down, she finally agreed to meet Khai and would marry him only if she could win his love.

With that opening scene, we could see the depth of Esme’s character. She tried to win Khai’s love but when she feared he wouldn’t love her back, she refused to marry just for a green card and while she continued to strive to win Khai, she took classes at the adult center to learn English and accounting to improve her life. After being tossed aside by the father of her child for an appropriate wife, Esme finds she keeps being passed over. She suffers from low self-esteem, but instead of being a sad sack and allowing life to kick her around, she fights harder every time life kicks her. And when she doesn’t believe Khai will ever love her, she is depressed, but then she starts to investigated how else she could extend her visa. She is very honorable. She cared too much for Khai and wouldn’t use him to stay in the country. Because she believed she had more value than life kept showing her, she wouldn’t accept less than his whole heart.

We also see this in the fact that Esme knew Quan was the CEO of a company but Khai never bothered to fix up his house so Esme doesn’t think Khai has money. She is convinced he has a closet- sized office and when she sees the company logo on TV and realizes it must be a big company and thinks he should be able to go far someday if he works hard, not knowing he actually owns the company If she just wanted money, she could have pursued Quan instead.

It was a delightful story and I breezed through it in a day because I simply didn’t want to put it down. If you didn’t get a chance to read The Kiss Quotient last year, do yourself a favor and grab both of these stories. You can thank me later.

The Bride Test proves that Helen Hoang is not a one hit wonder, ya’ll. This one was so good! Did I love it as much as The Kiss Quotient? Not quite, but that was a really tough act to follow. Still, it was wonderfully written, delightful, and swoony.

If you’ve read TKQ, you know Khai, who is Michael’s cousin. His mother is a bit bossy and wants him married. She knows how Khai is and knows he will never go after a woman on his own, so she finds the perfect girl for him while visiting Vietnam.

Esme comes from Vietnam to America for a new life. She is strong, brave, and wants better than what she has. She’s nervous and hopes that Khai will like her. She doesn’t know english well and it’s hard for her to adjust at first. Khai doesn’t make it easier for her… it’s not on purpose, it’s just his way. But no matter how Khai acts, Esme is patient with him.

Khai and Esme living together was something else. Khai just doesn’t know how to live with a woman. And as their relationship progresses, things get really confusing for Khai. He doesn’t know how to express his feelings and he thinks he can’t feel certain emotions, even though its obvious he can and he does.

Helen Hoang is a gem. She’s an author who writes what she knows and does it so well. I respect her and love her words. I love so much that her characters have obstacles to overcome and are flawed. They’re real and I can appreciate that. I don’t always want to read a romance with a perfect hero or heroine, that’s not real life. Hoang seamlessly gives us the best balance of realness mixed in with just a little bit of that fairy tale love story.

Khai and Esme completely charmed me. Sometimes two people so different can be perfect for one another. That is them. Khai is autistic, and I loved that he wasn’t a carbon copy of Stella. He had his issues, but he was so lovable. I loved how sweet and determined Esme was. She didn’t want Khai for his money, she just wanted him. Yes, she was fighting for a better life for herself and her daughter, but she grew to truly care for Khai. Their romance was a slow burn and it was great watching it grow.

The Bride Test is a book you don’t want to miss out on. I laughed, I cried, I smiled and I had so many feels! And I just want to put it out there, I want a Quan book so badly! He was the absolute best in this book! This story was all consuming, heartwarming, and the best kind of romance! I can’t wait for the next book in this series, I’ll be reading anything and everything Helen Hoang releases!

Looking back to 2018, I can say that The Kiss Quotient was my favorite romance novel. The characters, their limitations and the way they fell in love brought happiness to my heart. So with that being said, you can guess how desperate I was to get my hands on The Bride Test. With all my heart, I was hoping to love it as much as its predecessor. Yet, it was not meant to be. I liked it but I didn't love it.

Why you ask?

My answer has to be that I felt there was a lack of connection between both main characters. I love Khai and Esme as separate entities but I didn't FEEL their love for each other which was disheartening.

The novel begins in Vietnam where a desperate mother is trying to find the perfect wife for his autistic son. Khai Diep's mother thinks she has found the perfect one in Esme Tran.

Esme is a young woman. Her mother is Vietnamese and her father is an American whom she has never met. Her family is poor and she lives with them in a small bedroom. She works cleaning bathrooms and here is where she meets Khai's mother. When she's offered to come to America and have the chance at a better life, she knows she has to take it. Not only for herself but to help her family.

Khai Diep believes he can't love. He's autistic and when his best friend died, he couldn't cry. He knew that day that he was different. He felt that something was wrong with him. Since then, he doesn't believe he can love. He won't have any romantic relationships. When his mother brings Esme to his home, he's shocked. He doesn't want Esme there but he also doesn't want to upset his mother. He hopes he can avoid Esme for the next three months and then she will be out of the picture.

Funny how things don't happen the way we want them too. Esme founds herself liking Khai even though she doesn't understand him half the time.

I like Esme. She was trying to do what was best for her and her family. She had ambition and purpose without being heartless. She was patient with Khai and she appreciated his uniqueness.

Khai was an extremely interesting character. His autism and the way he handled it was well portrayed by Mrs. Hoang. His love for numbers, running in his suit, not wanting to have light touches and so many other details made him endearing to me.

Like I said earlier, I love both characters, I just didn't feel their love for each other. No one is more disappointed than me. I think I have no one to blame but myself. I had such high expectations for The Bride Test.

I do hope the next book makes me fall in love again. I'm hoping it's Quan's story. He was fantastic as a character in The Bride Test. He stole so many good scenes and he was prepared to do the right thing while helping Khai realize what love was.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another solid book from Helen Hoang, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4! And thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC to review.

Like The Kiss Quotient, The Bride Test features an autistic main character and this time it's a man, Khai. The book opens with his cousin's (who was also his best friend) funeral, and you realize Khai thinks he has a stone heart because he's not processing his grief like everyone else around him. No tears, just numbness. This pivotal event begins his withdrawal and isolation, and he believes he is incapable of love. Khai buries himself in work and avoids relationships for years, to the point that his mother decides to go looking for a bride for him.

My lives in Vietnam and cleans toilets in a hotel to support her 5-year-old daughter, Jade, and her mother and grandmother. In a chance meeting at the hotel, Khai's mother is impressed with her work ethic, and shocks My with a sudden proposal to take a trip to America and try to make her son fall in love with her. An arranged marriage? Whaaaa? Americans don't do this! But My takes the offer, thinking it could be the ticket to a better life for her and her family, or at the very least, it would be a free trip to America to track down her American father, a man she's never met.

Khai and My (also called Esme when she comes to America) come from very divergent backgrounds: Khai is a wealthy, educated American with a professional job and autism. My, on the other hand, is neurotypical, a school dropout with a manual labor job, and a single mother attempting to navigate a new country. They speak different languages, they have different levels of sexual experience, and My has that daughter that she's keeping secret...for now. With so many differences, how could they ever make it work?

It's definitely not love at first sight, but slowly and sweetly Khai and My start to see the good in each other. The arranged marriage trope is everywhere in romances, but Hoang was able to turn it into something fresh. She uses humor (Khai running home in a suit like the Terminator, My's hammer pants!), and very human main characters. I particularly liked naive, hardworking My who overcame obstacles as an immigrant in America and searched for her unknown father. The author's note at the end of the book, where she wrote about her mother's struggles and successes as an immigrant from Vietnam to America, was especially touching.

Something that didn't work for me, and it's a flaw I found to be true in her previous book as well, is that the secondary characters aren't fleshed out enough, and they feel like props for the main characters. The exception to this is Quan, who is a fantastic character. And now I have one question: when can we read Quan's story???

I may be the only person who hasn't read The Kiss Quotient, but I fully intend to after reading Hoang's sophomore novel. This is a fun, fast-paced romance that will capture everyone's heart this Spring!

Not your typical romance, Hoang again creates characters with depth and uniqueness. Esme is Vietnamese, coming to the States with the hope of changing the circumstances of her life and offering a better life for her daughter. She makes a deal to come to the US to enter into a marriage. Khai is high functioning autistic, unable to easily express himself and his feelings, or so he believes. There is so much more than romance to this story. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC; recommended.

In the same family as her The Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang writes another SIlicon Valley love story. Her characters are interesting and well-written, particularly our hero, Khai (who we met in The Kiss Quotient as the cousin of Michael). Khai has Autism, is super smart, and believes he is the type of person who is just fine on his own. He is immensely likable and understandable. My, or Esme, is a single mother from Vietnam who happens to meet Khai's mother one fateful day. Khai's mother arranges for My to go to America for the summer in hopes of winning over her son. My takes the opportunity because she longs for new opportunities for herself and her daughter. Of course, our characters fall in love but there are many complications to them being able to be together.

I love how we hear from both Khai and My about their unique struggles. These characters made me stop and think about how people are judged and stereotyped in our society today. The story is lovely and romantic, but it's the characters with these unique perspectives that really makes it stand out.

Read this even if you haven't read The Kiss Quotient yet!

I definitely enjoyed this second installment in Hoang's TKQ series, though not as much as her debut. It had a very engaging plot, and I found it hard to put down in order to do necessary things, like sleep, eat, work.

The author does an excellent job with character development - I felt like I knew the characters personally. I loved Esme for how hardworking and earnest she was in achieving her goals. And I really enjoyed traveling with Khai as he gained a better understanding of himself and his feelings. While I know most people experience physical symptoms as a result of strong emotions, reading about it from Khai's perspective was enlightening for me.

I only had one issue with the story, but it was an important one given the current political climate. I felt that the subplot of Esme's immigration process was not handled properly and paints a thoroughly unrealistic picture. I know it's a work of fiction, and most readers will either be unaware of the inaccuracies, or will be willing to suspend disbelief in favor of the HEA. However, I felt that a little research and a some revision to the storyline could have made it less of an issue.

OMG...all the feels! I. Loved. This. Seriously, The Bride Test by Helen Hoang was sexy, sweet, funny and so swoon-worthy! You need to lock yourself in a room and devour it!

A full review will post at Caffeinated Reviewer on May 6th. I will share it on all social media and I will post a review on Goodreads and Amazon. Link below valid on 5/6/19 Thank you.

I loved Kiss Quotient, and this follow-up did not disappoint. A fun read with fresh perspectives, interesting characters and just enough steamy romance.

While this was a light, somewhat entertaining read, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Kiss Quotient. The plot and the way the characters act are not believable.
The first 3/4 of the book is just the MCs being awkward and misunderstanding one another again and again. I kept cringing. I thought the depiction of Autism at the beginning of book was good, but as the story went on, I couldn’t understand why Khai didn’t explain himself to Esme (and vice versa).
There are a few subplots that are just addressed very tangentially through most of the book and the entire story just falls into place and gets tied up in a neat little bow in the very last chapter sort of out of nowhere.
Nonetheless, I did find myself rooting for the characters and it was generally an entertaining read.

This ended up at around 3.5 stars for me. I adored The Kiss Quotient and I knew the chances of The Bride Test living up to that were low, however I found myself more disappointed than I even expected. The first half of the book is very slow and there’s little to no chemistry or romance between the leads. It felt like the set up for their love story had to go on for so long that I wasn’t getting invested in them as a couple, so much as I was invested in Esme/My as an individual. Had this been my first read by Hoang I would have DNFed. However, I’m glad I stuck it out because the second half brought the emotion and charm I was expecting. It takes that long for Khai to warm to Esme and that was where I could finally root for them and their HEA.

A romance with lots of heart, substance, and intrigue. Highly recommend to lovers of both romance and literary fiction.

I actually liked this one better than The Kiss Quotient. Esme was such a fun character to read. I really liked the way the author managed to make her stand up for herself while at the same time being uncertain about her place and how she fit into her new world.

I loved this book! I have not yet read the Kiss Quotient, but this book stands alone and you are not missing anything by not reading that book first. But now that I have finished the Bride Test, I certainly will pick it up!
The Bride test is very unique and its nice to see a main character you don’t often get to see in books. It was interesting to learn about the American/Vietnamese culture and how people process their emotions. The key takeaway I had from this book is communication and how important it is to communicate with yourself and others. I definitely recommend it and cant wait to read The Kiss Quotient!

I read a TON of romance, so it is pretty hard to impress me. I want a book that is different, sucks me in, and has me feeling all the feels. The Bride Test was all this and more. Khai has no feelings, or at least he thinks he doesn't until Esme walks into his life thanks to his meddling mother. Their arranged meeting has a deadline though, and culture shock, past hurts, and lots of secrets all conspire to put a stop to their love story.

Beyond the fact that the writing was great, the slow burn romance was hot, and the love story was sweet, it is also amazing to be able to read and then know that I can recommend a book that not only features a diverse set of characters, but also one that has characters on the autism spectrum.