Helen Hoang has a second winner here. Great characters rich with culture and patience and love. I love her stories and how they include autistic characters, the world is not a perfect place and everyone needs to learn how to fall in love and deal with grief. Written in her clever style I read this book in one sitting,

The Bride Test was delightful. Reaching many avenues of race, health, customs, traditions, and romance Helen Hoang's novel tickled the funny bone and pulled at the heart strings as complicated feelings were addressed. I loved the book.

Helen Hoang's second novel surpasses by expectations which were very high after The Kiss Quotient. Her heroine, Esme Tran, is vibrant and lovable, and I loved the author's note at the end of the book explaining her inspiration. I look forward to Hoang's next book!

I received an ARC of this book and loved it as much as her first. Such great dialogue and character development! I hate a romance where you can’t puzzle out why the characters are sabotaging their own HEA but Hoang really gives so much depth to her characters that you feel deeply for them and their struggles. I was so caught up in the interesting angles of autism and the immigrant experience. I love that she is helping change the face of romance by creating unique characters that challenge our assumptions about what a romance hero or heroine looks like.

I'm pretty heartbroken that I didn't like this at all. I freaking loved The Kiss Quotient, but this left me feeling cold. It kept trying to sell me on a connection that I absolutely didn't buy, and the whole thing felt very... disingenuous? I can't quite put my finger on it. I'm giving it two stars because it's actually pretty readable, it's just that I thought it lacked nuance (which her first book had in spades).

Thanks to Netgalley for this digital ARC!
I waffled between 3.5 and 4 stars for this book because there was something about the first half that wasn't quite grabbing me. The trope of arranged marriage doesn't always sit right with me but at least Helen Hoang made it more interesting than I expected.
If you're a fan of The Kiss Quotient then you'll really like this one. It has the same kind of feel. I must say that it's refreshing to have an autistic character be a love interest even when they struggle to understand what love means for themselves. Khai will make you frustrated but laugh at the same time. You root for him throughout the book to figure out his own feelings and then groan when he screws it up each time. They say to write from experience and Helen Hoang is definitely doing that with both of her characters. Esme is a great character who grows immensely throughout the story. There's a point where she decides to make big changes for herself because she's what's most important. They definitely both have flaws and it takes a while to unwrap each one to see why they're good for each other. The supporting characters have good depth to them and I really liked Quan. He was a great big brother to Khai. There are definitely some issues and weak points to this story and it's not as good as The Kiss Quotient but I believe this will be another hit for the author.

I read this book before the Kiss Quotient because I had heard mixed reviews on it. With that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed The Bride Test. It was unlike anything i’ve ever read before. I enjoyed Helen Hoang’s writing and the smut scenes were pretty good. It was more of a slow burn romance and I wasn’t mad about it.

I was one of many that were wowed by Helen Hoang's debut "The Kiss Quotient." I'm so happy that she decided to stay in this world by giving Khai his story. If you're looking for a cute, timely, and fun contemporary romance look no further!

Thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for this copy to review.

I love Helena Hunting and her diverse characters and storylines! The Kiss Quotient is still my number one but this was a great second book for Hoang. She touches on life as an immigrant as well as life with ASD so well. The romance is steamy and I can't wait to see what she does next!!

This is such a wonderful story. I loved the interaction between all of the characters. The look into the Asian culture was eye opening. I will definitely be looking for more of Helen Hoang's books.

Wow did I love this book! It is just as good as the authors first book. I loved the story line, the characters and of course the love story. I highly recommend this book!

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the eARC of this book!

I was so exited to see what Helen Hoang would do after the <i>Kiss Quotient</i>, which I absolutely loved. The <i>Bride Test</i> is the story of Khai, Michael's cousin from <i>Kiss</i>, a Vietnamese-American tech CEO, who is autistic and believes he can't love, and Esme, a Vietnamese woman brought to California by Khai's mother on the off-chance that she'll want to marry Khai and that she'll be able to find her American father.

This was a lovely story. Esme/My is a great romance heroine. She is kind and loving, but her ambition, intelligence, and bravery really shine through. As other reviewers have noted, Helen Hoang's author's note is a must-read for more insight into her decisions about this character. I liked Khai too, and I was interested to see a different vision of what being autistic looks like than we saw in Hoang's first book, but I think you can tell that this time, Esme is the character Hoang needed to write.

This book fits in well with Hoang's first, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes <i>Kiss Quotient</i> or other contemporary romances like Jasmine Guillory's books. I hope Helen is planning Quan's story next - whatever it is, I will absolutely read it.

I'm so glad Helen Hoang decided to share her writing and bless us with both The Kiss Quotient and now The Bride Test. I'm not sure which book I enjoyed more!

I'm glad I took the time to read the acknowledgments at the end of the book because the insight about Helen's inspiration made this story about ten times more moving and important. I hadn't thought about it until it was pointed out to me (cringe), but the romance world doesn't have nearly enough stories about women who are less than perfect. Sure, there are stories where women have perceived flaws, but they're always trivial - and usually end up being proven wrong but their love interest! Esme was "flawed" in the book world - she barely speaks English, she's a level of poor that's not represented often, and she's uneducated. Not a combo I've seen in many heroines before. And as a reader, I loved her. She was relatable, determined, engaging, and seemed like so much fun. If someone deserved to be depressed or concerned about her life, it was Esme and instead she was always smiling, always happy, and so, so deserving of love.

I already can't wait to read this book again. Esme and Khai's story is one that I hope gets a lot of attention (and I'm sure it will). Helen Hoang has firmly cemented herself as one of my favorite authors. I devour her books and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!