I'm not a huge reader of contemporary romance, but this book really did it for me! I liked the fact that the main male character was on the spectrum, and the author neither makes it all his character is about, or shies away from the consequences of his difference on his relationships and his day to day life. I also liked the main female lead - she was plucky and willing to do what it takes, while also having self respect and a strong character. The plot was less interesting to me, but the characters really make it work.

This was delightful. I loved Esme and Khai, and I loved the way Hoang wrote the obstacles and how she wrote them getting past the obstacles. I think Hoang took a big leap in writing ability too. The prose is better than in her first book. Can't wait to recommend this one to romance fans.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the digital ARC.

Another great read from Ms. Hoang. I really enjoy her character development. The story moves forward in unpredictable way. Her sex scenes are amazingly well written.

I did not think I'd like this book, bur I enjoyed it quite a bit. The characters were much more realistic in this book, than the first book. The ending is rushed. But, overall, it was a good story.

I was excited about this book after reading "The Kiss Quotient" and me excitement was totally warranted. The characters felt very realistic and relatable. The story is about Esme Trang, a single mother and maid in Vietnam who is persuaded to come to California by a mother who wants her to marry her son, Khai. Khai has been reluctant to open himself up to love, his autism has made him believe that he is incapable of feeling, and he didn't want to burden anyone with his inability to love. He was not happy when his mother showed up with a bride for him, but agreed to try it for the summer. As Esme and Khai try to learn to live together and relate to each other, they become closer. The conflicts are realistic and both characters are allowed to make mistakes. The secondary characters, especially Khai's brother, are well realized. Many books with an autistic main character tend to be message books, it was refreshing to read a story where Khai's autism was part of his character, but not the only thing about him.

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<p>Esme was always looking for a way over, around or through the obstacles in front of her. I couldn't help but admire her strength and perseverance will simultaneously being proud of her willingness to leave herself open to be hurt after everything she had experienced in her life. Even when everything happening was out of her control and life kept snatching her dreams away from her she kept pushing through.</p>
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<p>Sweet sweet Kai. My heart broke for him so many times in this book. Realizing that the fact he processed emotions differently make him feel like he didn't have feelings was devastating. Knowing that he had unconsciously pulled back from every relationship in his life both to protect himself and the people he cared about made me want to wrap him in giant hug. I am not an expert on autism so I can't say whether the portrayal was accurate. I can however say it felt like it was handled well as the reader. I appreciated that Khai was presented as having all the same emotional and physical desires as all of the other romance heroes we read do. Khai was everything anyone could want out of a hero.</p>
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<p>The only thing I struggled with was how long Esme kept Jade a secret. It bothered me just like the secret baby trope did because it felt wrong. Don't get me wrong, I completely understood why she felt like she had to make that decision but I wished she had been honest sooner.</p>
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<p>Fans of the Kiss Quotient will certainly enjoy the Bride Test. I felt it was a much stronger storyline and the characters were more developed. For those that haven't read Kiss Quotient, the Bride Test could be read as a standalone book easily. </p>
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Helen Hoang has stolen my heart again. The Bride Test is full of heart and hope, examining life and love with Autism as well as the immigrant experience while also telling a sweet love story. It’s the perfect follow up to The Kiss Quotient.

More serious, less smutty, equally sweet, compared to The Kiss Quotient.

So, mail-order bride scenario in romance is not exactly my idea of a good time. (And neither was a male escort one in The Kiss Quotient). But what Helen Hoang undoubtedly has a talent for is creating characters that are kind and empathetic.

Esme is recruited by Khai’s mom to seduce and marry him, so that he finally can have someone to be with. He is on the spectrum, and isn’t good at relationships, for obvious reasons. Now, this can go wrong in many ways, but Khai’s mom is super nice and truly believes Esme is the best match for her son. Esme isn’t exactly a seductress, but a goofy girl with a big heart (and some mistakes in her past). And Khai believes himself incapable of feeling emotions.

I feel like The Bride Test is a weightier, more serious work. Hoang draws on her parents’ immigrant past, adding a big dose of realism to this romance, but not exactly going all the way there, it is a smutty romance after all. Esme and Khai’s personal journeys are more real too, and so are their problems.

I liked The Bride Test a lot, and inhaled it in a matter of hours. I didn’t like it quite as much as The Kiss Quotient, because apparently I like fantasy scenarios more than real ones. And I clearly prefer a lot of smut too. Esme and Khai’s relationship is a steamy one , but I would have preferred it... even more so. The book has the sexiest haircut scene though. It’s amazing how arousing a conversation about boundaries and sensory sensitivity can be! @.@ And when Khai and Quan and Michael are in a different scene together, it’s a total riot! You are in for a treat.

Now, more wait for the next Helen Hoang romance. I don't know what it is yet, but I hope it’s Quan’s turn.

At its core The Bride Test is the story of a successful autistic Vietnamese-American CEO and the immigrant bride his mother has moved into his home without his permission.

That synopsis was enough to sell me, but if you need more, this is story about loneliness, feeling out of place, choosing love despite difficult circumstances, and really good sexual chemistry. Khai and Esme have a love story you don't want to miss.

This was a great second novel from Helen Hoang. I think I enjoyed it even more than her debut book, The Kiss Quotient. I can't wait to read what she comes up with next.

I loved The Kiss Quotient. It was my favorite book of 2018, and I read a fair number of books each year, the vast majority of them romance. But I'm also wary of sophomore efforts when the first is such a smash.

No need to worry here. The Bride Test is every bit as heartfelt and swoony and sexy as TKQ.

Khai is autistic, and convinced that he doesn't have the emotional capacity to love, or grieve, or feel anything deeply. He's not going to saddle someone else with that burden, so he is determined not to let any woman close enough to form feelings for him. It wouldn't be fair if he can't return them.

Esme doesn't seem to belong anywhere. Not in Vietnam, where she is set apart with her mixed-race heritage, unwed mother status, and poor economic standing. And not in California, where she goes--by invitation of Khai's mother--to live as Khai's fiancee as she tries to make him fall in love with her. She understands English but doesn't speak it well, and Khai is a tough nut to crack. But Esme needs the opportunity to make a better life for herself and her family, especially her daughter, and this is her shot.

I loved that Khai's family--his brother and his mother, particularly--understand him so well. Often, when you read about neurodiverse characters, the people closest to them don't seem to understand them. Here, his family seems to understand him (and what he's capable of) better than he knows himself.

Esme's determination to make a better life, to make the most of this opportunity she's been given, however things turn out, really made me cheer for her. She never gave up, no matter how heartbroken she might feel.

And the sexy bits? Very sexy, but also written so that they revealed so much about Khai and Esme. Every scene moved the story forward, uncovered another bit about the characters.

This book had me laughing, crying, and sighing with satisfaction. I'll be rereading this book many times, I'm sure

Helen Hoang has written another excellent book. She has managed to create two characters unlike traditional romance characters, one autistic, and the other a poor, ESL, immigrant. Kiep's journey in particular is an excellent arc as he goes from claiming to have no feelings to beginning to understand that he does and what they mean.

****SPOILER****
My only issue with the story was the handling of Esme's child at the end, as it felt like an afterthought for Kiep to find out.

The sophomore follow-up to the Kissing Quotient was everything I had hoped for and SO MUCH MORE! The characters were complex but thoroughly relateable. I cannot say enough good about The Bride Test. Officially on my Keeper Shelf for life!

Writing: 3/4 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 3/5

An erotically charged, utterly non-traditional, romance novel. Diệp Khăi is a successful, Vietnamese-American accountant, with his own business in Sunnyvale. He was also diagnosed with Autism and decided long ago that his “Stone Heart” and “inability to feel emotions” disqualified him from having romantic relationships. His grandchildren-desiring mother (Cô Nga), however, is not willing to give up. Unbeknownst to Khăi, she travels to Việtnam to find him a bride.

Esme Tran (Việtnamese name — Trán Ngọc Mỹ) cleans bathrooms in a nice hotel in Hơ Chi Minh city. While resting between disappointing bride interviews in the ladies’ lounge, Nga finds what she is looking for in the attractive, diligent, and polite Esme. Esme has a few secrets of her own — she has a five-year old fatherless daughter, and longs to find her own father — an American named “Phil” who went to UC Berkeley over 20 years ago. Esme accepts Nga’s offer — a job and a visa for the summer and a chance to convince the reluctant Khăi that he wants to marry her.

Well-written, with alternating chapters offering alternating character insights in addition to steamy prose. In an interview, the author revealed her own recent Autism diagnosis and the evolution of the Esme character based on her own mother’s immigration to U.S. As a side note, I enjoyed all the Vietnamese names written in the full alphabet and made the (somewhat difficult) effort to include them here. It’s a beautiful looking language which I admit to knowing nothing about. If you’re interested, scan the Wikipedia article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_alphabet.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 7th, 2019.

The Kiss Quotient was my favorite book of 2018. When I saw that Helen Hoang had unseated Colleen Hoover, queen goddess of romance, as the number one goodreads choice award for romance I was shocked. But it was deserved. The Kiss Quotient is the romance book we all deserve.
So I was very nervous for the sophomore book. Would it have the dreaded sophomore slump? Could it live up to the hype.
The answer is yes! Yes! Yes!
I think I might like The Bride Test even more than The Kiss Quotient. Is that blasphemous?
This book follows Khai and Esme. Khai is Michael's cousin from the first book.
Esme is from Vietnam and has been asked to come to America by Khai's mom. Khai's mom wants her to spend the summer with her son to see if the two of them match and get married.
The romance that follows is sweet and slow burn. I appreciated this so much because it gives time for character development and also for them to get to know each other.
Fans of Helen Hoang will not be disappointed. It may be the best romance novel of 2019.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful and romantic story of an immigrant coming to America for a better life. Hoang's author note actually brought me to tears and made me appreciate the story in a new way. I will always look forward to a story written by Helen Hoang.

Helen Hoang has done it again! The Kiss Quotient blew me away last year and was easily one of my favorite books of 2018. I’ve been anticipating her sophomore novel since it got announced last year. Now I’m happy to report that after flying through The Bride Test in just a few hours I loved it just as much as her debut💕 I wish her all the success because her books are PHENOMENAL!

This wasn't as good as The Kiss Quotient but it was still a decent book. Kind of sweet but lacking the heat of her first book.

This book was fantastic! The Characters (especially Esme and Khai) I felt like were more developed than Helen Hoang's debut novel. My only gripe, and it wasn't even gripey enough to knock it down a full star, was that we didn't have that much development of the sister. I loved Quan as a character too though and how he was always trying to help out Khai even when Khai didn't want it.

Also, I loved how Esme was not a perfect person, she had her own flaws too, but Khai loved her through them anyway. I don't think I would have been as okay with one specific scene as Khai was.

I could not put this book down! Just like her first book Helen Hoang manages to delight her readers with a mix of romance and comedy. Her work is so unique that she will always have me coming back for more.

I was hesitant at first, the idea of the heroine reducing herself to essentially a mail ordered bride. I really enjoy a strong heroine and it didn't seem like that would be possible in this setting, but boy was I wrong. Emse is fantastic, her growth over the course of this book is really something to look up to.

And Khai... oh my goodness Khai... He's POV had me in tears I couldn't stop laughing. Definitely one of the best romantic leads I have ever read.

This checked all my boxes plus more:
-Believable characters who grew over the course of the book
-Steamy romance scenes that weren't over the top or unrealistic
-A fantastic immigrant story at a time when we really need to hear positive stories like that
-A main character with autism who was much more than his condition

My super minor complaint would be that I wanted more of a detailed epilogue!