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!

I didn't think I could love Khai & Esme's story as much as Michael & Stella's, but I did! I'm officially fangirling hard over Helen Hoang! This was a story that I easily was swept away by. I completely lost track of time and obligations. That is what made this a phenomenal read for me.




I don’t know why but I really love when the romance doesn’t come so easy for the main characters. When a character faces challenges that most people don’t, it makes the journey infinitely more interesting. Khai is Michael’s (from “The Kiss Quotient) cousin. He too, has Asperger’s as Stella did from book one, but I would say they aren’t on the same spectrum. Khai’s mother goes off to Vietnam to find her son a bride. She worries that he will be alone for the rest of his life unless she steps in to play cupid for him. She meets Esme, by chance, and is so impressed by her that she offers her an all expense paid trip to San Francisco, where she will spend a couple of months trying to get close to Khai, which will hopefully end up with a wedding.



While Khai and Esme may have come from two different worlds, they really do end up being true soulmates. Khai is set in his ways. Likes his routines. He doesn’t think he needs a woman. Khai doesn’t believe he has a heart, and this stems from tragic losses from his past. He’s internalized a lot of his pain and having Asperger’s, doesn’t make it easy for him to understand his feelings.



Esme comes from very impoverished conditions. She works as a hotel maid in Vietnam, to help support her family. Meeting Khai’s mother and being offered a trip to San Francisco was almost too good to be true to Esme, but she has an honest soul and marrying someone just to get a green card to be able to stay in the U.S., was not something she could ever go through with. Her plan was to find her American father, who left Vietnam before she was born and gain citizenship that way. But, when she sees Khai for the first time, there is no denying her heart was beating for him. Poor Esme battles with insecurities. She thinks being poor and not having a college education, make her an unsuitable match for Khai.



Their relationship starts off awkward but eventually strong attraction takes hold and Esme is falling hard for Khai, but he truly believes he is incapable of loving anyone else, and so the angst ensues.



I loved the relationship between Khai and his older brother Quan, who was always there for his brother. He took it upon himself to help Khai maneuver through some challenges that he was not equipped to handle on his own.



You can’t help but root for this couple to find a way to overcome their challenges and end up in a happily ever after that they truly deserved. I was so sad when I got to the end of the story because I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to these wonderful characters.


Here are my overall ratings:

Hero: 5
Heroine: 5
Plot: 5
Angst: 5
Steam: 4
Chemistry Between Hero & Heroine: 5

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!