Review: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang is a gender-bent take on Pretty Woman told by Stella Lane, a wealthy autistic woman who is very uncomfortable with sex and romance, and Michael Phan, a Vietnamese-Swedish escort who is solicited by Stella because she wants lessons and figures a professional is the best place to get them. From here, we go on a romantic, funny, and emotional journey as the two fall for each other and try to figure out if they can make their lives compatible.
I have had this book on my radar for years and finally bought it a week ago; I came home after having a not great day and sat down and read this book until almost 3 am when I decided to finish the book in the morning in favor be being able to sleep. I had a tremendously good time reading this book; it completely made the end of my day an absolute delight and has me wanting to run to my nearest bookstore to get Hoang's second book The Bride Test.
I had a few things I didn't adore in this book, but none of them were huge. I thought some of the marketing of the book leans into the high-function autistic folks aren't like those autistic folks, which isn't excellent. I mostly had a really excellent and engrossing time reading this book.
Hoang established her characters so well and quickly. Less than 20 pages into the book, we had a complete chapter from each point of view, and I adored each character, their voices were so strong, and I was genuinely interested in each of them so quickly.
Stella's story does revolve around how her autism is perceived by other people. She wants people to see her as normal because she has had experiences where people don't respect her boundaries or treat her like a child due to her autism. Michael's story follows his embarrassment at not living up to his father’s, or his own, dreams for his life as well as the shame he feels for being like his father who was terrible to his family.
The interactions between the pair were excellent. They were so respectful of each other and were very clear to treat the other person with dignity and be sensitive to the other’s emotions. It was really very sweet. I cried like six times, and many were because something was heart-wrenching, but just as often I teared up because something was incredibly sweet. Though this is a story where a woman hires an escort to get better at sex, obviously the story isn't just toothache-inducing fluff.
I really liked the way the story progressed. The relationship was a little quick, but the pacing of the book is just so well done that it didn't really bother me at all. I loved the emotional conflict going on within each character while and the balance the story took with external conflict. This book has many of the wonderful tropes that often come with a romance novel, a jealous ex-lover, an aggressive romantic rival, the climax of the story happening at a big fancy event, but they are all so fun and Hoang does an excellent job giving her story its own very strong voice. I am so excited to read more from her in the future.
I particularly loved the familial relationships Michael's story had. His bonds with the people around him really endear the reader to him. I am pretty excited that this trilogy continues on with stories about Kahi and Quan as the next two books.
I gave this book five stars and I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to have an excellent time reading a romcom! Especially if you are looking for ownvoices stories about neurodivergent or Asian American folks. This book made me so happy and I am so excited to continue on reading Helen Hoang books in the future. The future is hopefully within the hour.
