Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
I really love Helen Hoang books.
The Bride Test is a companion novel to The Kiss Quotient (you see some of the characters from that book, but it is not necessary to read that book first to understand this one) following a minor character from that book, Khai, as he finds love. Khai's mother goes to Vietnam to find a woman to come back to California and marry him, she convinced single mom My, or Esme, to come to live in California for three months to decide if she is going to marry Khai.
I really loved this book; the way Helen Hoang writes is just incredibly engrossing. I have been pulled in deep to both of her novels and read them both in essentially one sitting each. While I was reading The Bride Test I was worried that I wasn't going to be as emotionally connected to this story as I had to The Kiss Quotient but I ended up being just as invested in Kahi and Esme's story. I laughed multiple times; I cried just as often as I had in the first book. Also of note, Hoang writes awkward situations incredibly well. In this book, there is one scene in particular that I literally covered my eyes and read through my fingers. She is so masterful at making the reader feel.
Khai's story is a journey of healing from emotional trauma that others do not recognize because of his autism. I really liked the way the reader sees Khai's trauma affecting his life, and over the course of the book, other people are also realizing what is happening and helping him cope with that childhood trauma. I also liked the way Hoang writes Khai's experience as an autistic person having differences and similarities with Stella's experience. It was so heartwrenching to see people ignoring the signs of grief because they are assumed to stem from autism. When we see the people in Khai's life who really see him, namely his brother Quan, it is wonderful.
Esme's story through this book is her wanting to better her life for her family, but also for herself. She has been treated poorly in the past and really demands that she have relationships that treat her with dignity and love. I loved that her journey focused on love but also on her desire to be educated and to show herself how intelligent she is. She deals a lot with self-doubt and being treated very poorly in her story, and her emotional journey is really one of fighting to gain the life she wants, even if that life is independent to finding love.
I really enjoyed the cameos from Stella and Michael; it was lovely to see our old friends in their joint life further down the line. I am also incredibly excited for The Heart Principal in September because of all the Quan page time. The reader sees the problems that Quan will be dealing with in his book, and I am so excited for his story.
The author's note in this book is particularly lovely. Hoang tells us that this book gave them the opportunity to really deeply talk to her mother about her experience as an immigrant to reflect Esme's story well.
I gave this book five stars. I recommend this book just as much as I recommend the first; Hoang writes romcom's in such an engrossing and wonderful way. I am obsessed and so excited to continue following Hoang's career so I can keep being delighted by her work.
