From the USA Today bestselling author of The Kiss Quotient comes a romantic novel about love that crosses international borders and all boundaries of the heart…Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows … defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.
As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.
With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.
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What a really fun book. I love how the main female character is a Vietnamese girl who comes to the US. (Albeit, I had to take this with a grain of salt because I think it’d be hard to leave behind a child, if only temporary.)
The romance between Esme and Khai is stellar. Sometimes it was a little too steamy for this reader, but I thought that Hoang did a great job playing on their emotions and developing the relationship.
I also liked how they both had struggles to overcome in this book. However, I did find the ending rushed and spun really fast.
A wonderful romance story with original characters with a great splash of Vietnamese culture.
In real life, I don’t like to cry. There’s one exception: I love books that make me cry. I wasn’t expecting to weep when I began reading THE BRIDE TEST, but I was expecting a terrific book. I loved Helen Hoang’s first book, THE KISS QUOTIENT, so I knew I’d like THE BRIDE TEST. Holy cow, I was wrong. I didn’t just like the book. I loved and adored this book!!!!!!! Firstly, it’s got an arranged marriage theme. I’m a sucker for that sort of thing, but I’m also a sucker for incredible characters who make your heart twist with emotion. The hero and heroine gave me all the feels. This book was sexy, surprising, and I cried three times because the characters are so human and so real and so heartbreaking in a good way.
This is definitely a book that I will read again and again, because I know I’ll pick up neat stuff that I missed in previous reads. One thing will remain the same. Every time I read this book, I will cry happy tears. Please let me know if you felt the same way after you read this gem.
I enjoyed this book almost as much as Kiss Quotient. It’s touching and funny and a fun break from heavier topics.
Entertaining. Liked the character development
If you are wanting a quick, fun & surprisingly sexy read then grab this book! A perfect Summer/Beach read with the perfect touch of humor & dash of sizzle to keep the reader happy. If you liked The Kiss Quotient then you will enjoy this one, however, I still think Kiss is one of my faves. Enjoy!
I devoured this book in 4 hours. I told myself I was going to save it, because I knew it would be so good, but I absolutely could not help myself. The description didn’t sound like what I normally read: an autistic businessman whose mom imports him a mail order bride from Vietnam in hopes of finding him a life partner so he won’t be alone since he’s so shy. But the characters were so vivid, vulnerable and heartbreaking (and the scenes of them together so funny and sweet!) that I was addicted to every word, could barely blink, and hated basically everything once it was over and I couldn’t read more. This author is an incredible talent!
Okay, so I loved the Kiss Quotient and my expectations for the second book were high. But the author did not disappoint! Another interesting concept that challenges the usual run of the mill romance novels. We have Esme, a young vietnamese mother who agrees to come to America and see if she likes Khai, in the hopes of getting a better life for her family. She is a bit of an inspiration, and you get an good insight into her life with her daughter, mother and grandmother, and how she is constantly living in poverty but working for a better life.
Khai is none to keen on the potential bride his mother brought back from Vietnam. He goes through the motions because he doesn’t want to upset his mother, but the reality of living with Esme pushes his limits. He has Autism, and having a woman in his house, tempting him, throws his world into disorder.
The slow burn is great – and before you realise it, the tension turns sexual and romantic and you start turning pages quickly, to find out how they come together. Their inexperience with sex and romance is an interesting one, and makes the relationship feel really honest. Both their mother’s are good side characters, showing the difference of attitudes between the generations.
Again, really well written, with parts that will make you laugh, and cry.
“Girl loves boy loves girl”
When was the last time you were CONSUMED by a book? When the story was so overwhelmingly raw and beautiful and passionate? This story was EVERYTHING, you guys.
E V E R Y T H I N G!
And I can’t stop thinking about it!
Esme Tran lived in the slums of Vietnam. She worked hard to provide for her daughter, mother, and grandmother. She wanted more for her family and more for herself. So when presented with the opportunity to go to America, she knew she couldn’t turn it down. Even if her job was to convince a man to marry her, a man who was convinced he couldn’t love.
Hoang beautifully captured Esme’s pride and strength, and resounding drive. Drive to be more, drive to provide for her family and drive to rise from the circumstances she was in – at no fault of her own, she was there simply because she was born. I loved that even though she wanted so much to become a US citizen, she wasn’t willing to trade her pride, she wasn’t willing to trade her self-respect. She knew what she wanted, where she wanted to go, and she was determined to get there, in a way that would make her proud of herself, and prove to her daughter that you could be whatever you wanted to be.
Khai’s mother and sisters were all the women he thought he needed in his life. They constantly mothered him and made sure he was taken care of. He liked being alone. He liked his life. His days were scheduled down to the seconds and that provided comfort. He knew his mother wanted him to find a girl and get married, but Khai knew marriage wasn’t for him, people marry when they are in love, and Khai didn’t love.
Khai’s world was turned upside when Esme showed up on his doorstep. His mother’s attempt at an arranged marriage was surely going to be a failure, right? He just needed to convince everyone he was not capable of feeling, of loving, and send Esme back to Vietnam.
I cried tears for Khai. It was hard watching him struggle and view himself as a failure. Ever since childhood, he knew he was different — but different in a bad way. He didn’t think he could love, he thought he had a heart of stone. GAH, my heart hurt so much reading how he viewed himself. Those passages were difficult for me to read. But thankfully, Helen Hoang took us on his journey of personal growth. She exquisitely showed him learning to accept that he was more than how others viewed him and that he was capable of emotion and happiness.
Esme and Quan were so good for Khai, they helped him understand his feelings, they helped him see his worth.
Esme accepted him for who he was. She loved him and despite their differences, she willingly gave him what he needed.
“When she got to number eight, she grabbed Khai’s far arm and wrapped it around her middle so he was hugging her, and he smiled.
He liked this, the snuggling, her smiles, the fact that she helped him to be there for her. He hadn’t known she needed to be hugged, and it was immensely freeing that instead of getting angry with him or sad, she communicated and showed him what to do.”
Quan was Khai’s sounding board, his voice of reason and the one Khai went to for advice. Quan challenged him at every turn. He refused to allow Khai to believe he was anything but good and not just capable of love, but deserving of it, too!
“I told her I don’t love her back”
“That’s bullshit,” Quan exploded. “What the f*ck?”
“I said it because it’s true,” he said.
“You’re crazy in love with her. Just look at you,” Quan said, waving his hands at Khai like it was obvious.
“I. Am. Not,’ Khai bit out.
“The f*ck you’re not. You’re an all-or-nothing guy, so we knew the first girl to catch your attention would be the one. Esme is your ‘one’ Khai.”
THE BRIDE TEST was stunning and beautiful and endearing. It held so much emotion and passion within its pages. This will be a book I reread often.
Helen Hoang is not a one-hit-wonder! I adored her debut, ‘The Kiss Quotient’, it was one of my favorite books last year and there’s no doubt, THE BRIDE TEST will make the list this year!
I was provided a review copy by Berkley, via First To Read; this did not influence my opinion of the book nor my review.
Diep Khai didn’t want anyone messing his well-structured life. He loved wearing black and for him, that didn’t make him look lonely. When his mom told him he was going to get married to a beautiful Vietnamese woman named My, everything changed, he wasn’t prepared for this kind of change. He was different from the rest. He was special. He was unique. He had no feelings. And he was perfectly okay with it.
Until he met this girl “My” also known as Esme Tran, the woman that his mother hired to be his fiancee and company for all the weddings that they had to attend in their family events. He had rules to follow to make this work. But Esme was making everything hard for him to concentrate, to focus, to work, to be him. A mail-order-bride from his mom’s hometown was intent to making their arrangement work and Khai was finding it hard to abide by his rules.
Esme Tran was gorgeous, talented, naive and responsible. Going to America to fulfill her lifelong dream of having/building a better life for her family and maybe find the missing link to her being. She was there to be a good fiance – seduce the man, love him later.
Well, it was easier said than done.
This was absolutely a delight to read, also eye-opening for me who’s currently dealing with anxiety and stress and worrying about my youngest who’s more or less like the protagonist, Khai. The Bride Test isn’t just about finding love through unconventional methods, but also accepting people with their special ways, needs and talents. Khai’s anxiety and autism played a big part in this story, but I found him really inspiring and compelling. Esme experiencing life in the America had me smiling, too. Her struggles and determination won my heart. Both characters are flawed, but they were so much realistic and genuine to me.
I loved Hoang’s first book The Kiss Quotient and this is my second favorite of hers. I love love love this story immensely!
This is my first Helen Hoang book so I had no expectations. I heard about The Kiss Quotient — it was big on the book blogging community — but I haven’t had time to read it yet. But when I got an ARC for the second book, I couldn’t miss the opportunity.
Right from the beginning, I was hooked. It even made me stay up late until 4 AM even though I had work in the morning. It was that good.
WHAT I LOVED:
• Focus on autism. When I read the blurb, I was really looking forward to understanding more about it. I even searched the symptoms and sure enough, they were there. However, as someone who has zero to little knowledge about it, I really wish it was explained further.
• The humor. There were conversations that were so ridiculous, you just can’t help but laugh.
• The heroine, Esme. I definitely appreciate diverse characters, especially when they’re Asian. It makes me feel represented. Esme is not your usual heroine. Although she came to America to possibly marry a guy to help her family, it is not who she solely was in the story. She is fierce and determined. Most importantly, she knows her worth.
• The hero, Khai. He is such a sweet, sweet guy. He might be different from what society dictates is normal but he cares in his own way. He shows up when it matters.
The romance. Everyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for love stories. This was such a swoon-fest.
WHAT I WISHED IT HAD:
•More moments after the conflict. This is just a personal preference but I don’t like it when the book ends immediately after the conflict is resolved. Yes, this has an epilogue but can you let a girl enjoy some happiness a little longer?
I read some reviews that were a bit disappointed because The Kiss Quotient set the bar too high. Lucky for me, I read this first. This is only the beginning for us, Helen.
I’m now a huge fan of Helen Hoang. This was a terrific contemporary romance! The characters were drawn out so well, and the emotion was top notch. Highly entertaining!
I got this book as soon as I finished the Kiss Quotient because I liked the author’s writing style and wanted to see what would happen with Khai. I like his story, it’s not as engaging as Kiss but it is entertaining and the protagonists are interesting. I appreciate that Hoang writes about both the autistic and immigrant perspectives which are not frequently shown in romance novels. She did a good job and I now have some idea of some of the emotions and rationale of persons in those situations. I do understand that every experience is different and this is just one take on how it is dealt with but it did reveal some of what happens. Overall a good book and I would recommend it for persons who want more than a cookie cutter contemporary romance.
I loved The Kiss Quotient, and loved The Bride Test too, even though they have very different tones. This contemporary romance is about Esme (born My), who moves to California from Vietnam after Khai’s mother convinces her she’s the perfect wife for her son. Esme is a single mother who dreams of a better life for her family, while autistic and independent Khai is not on board with situation at all. He tries to ignore Esme, even though she’s living in his house. He’s convinced he can’t feel emotions, but he still lets Esme into his life, little by little, and into his bed. Soon he gets used to Esme, while she is finding herself falling in love with him, despite his prickliness. Esme is a powerful character who navigates a new country, new language, new customs and a man who is challenging to get to know, but she does in ways nobody else has. Their relationship is tender and unusual, and Hoang does an excellent job letting the reader into each of their worlds, separately and together.
I read THE BRIDE TEST by Helen Hoang in two days, because there was nothing that could pull me away from such a beautiful book. In this sweet story with a lot of substance, autistic Khai believes he is incapable of feeling the big emotions in life (grief, love, joy, etc.), and as such, he’s been content to live a mostly solitary existence. Enter Esme, a mixed-race young woman from Vietnam, whom Khai’s mother has brought to America in the hopes that Esme and Khai will get married. Initially Esme sees Khai’s mother’s proposal as an opportunity to help out her own family and create a better life for them all, but when she begins to have real feelings for Khai, she comes to understand her true worth for the very first time. For his part, Khai is drawn to Esme, too, but it will take a deep journey into the center of his heart to understand how his emotions—the ones he’s sure he doesn’t have—really work. I loved Khai and Esme so much, both as a burgeoning couple and as individual characters. Their journeys are rich and wholly satisfying, and Esme in particular is a strong, memorable heroine whose story can serve as an inspiration to us all. This warm, witty book—which is both powerful and empowering—was such a joy to read, and I recommend it with a full heart.
Simply wonderful! This was the perfect follow up to the amazing debut novel, The Kiss Quotient. I loved seeing Helen Hoang’s writing primarily from a male’s perspective and adored Khai’s character!
There were so many ups and downs during this romance novel, I felt like it kept me on the edge of my seat and desperate to see the happily ever after that I so desperately wanted for Khai and Esme. How they were brought together was completely unconventional and somewhat dated given modern day marriage and romance, but the honest connection they shared and growing desire for one another was undeniable.
I appreciated the unique perspective the author brought to this novel and her ability to find humor in otherwise uncomfortable and unknown situations for these characters.
Khai Diêp has convinced himself, ever since the death of his beloved cousin Andy, that he has a stone heart. Unable to process emotion in the neurotypical was due to being autistic, Khai unconsciously pushes others to arms length. He has set up a contented lifestyle that pleases him and has stubbornly held it in place for years.
But Khai’s mother is not satisfied with Khai’s life. She has taken it upon herself to force his hand by bringing home a woman for him from Viêt Nam.
What takes place next is a study in family dynamics, cultural complexities, self determination, realization and strength.
As a mother of an autistic son, I was lightly apprehensive, as I always am, about reading about an autistic character. Even characters written by some autistic people or authors with autistic family members and friends can be problematic. Often these characters come across stereotypical and one dimensional. They are often written from a neurotypical person’s researched point-of-view, with hollywood clichés and statistical signs and symptoms sprinkled throughout. But I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of character Hoang gave to Khai. She portrayed Khai as a deep, caring, flawed personality who just so happens to see life from an autistic perspective. He wasn’t portrayed as autistic and then human. She even managed to make his interaction with family and friends less about neurotypical persons dealing with the fallout of having a family member on the spectrum and more about his family dealing with him as Khai without explaining away his every flaw and reaction as a result of his autism.
The love story between Khai and Esme is also done in a way that hardly focuses on his autism. It’s discussed but Khai is never excused from his blunders in dealing with Esme because of his differences. And she is never made into a neurotypical savior for loving a man on the spectrum. She sees Khai as who he is and the love and trust is built up between two flawed but loving souls.
Quite frankly my favorite love story I’ve encountered this year, I highly recommend this story to everyone who loved a classic boy meets girl, fall in love, conquers all odds, happily ever after, romantic junkie’s dream.
This is a sweet, contemporary romance about a young woman from Viet Nam, Esme, who is chosen to be a bride for an American man. The American man, Khai, is autistic, and doesn’t like being touched. He also isn’t able to show his emotions due to his father abandoning him when Khai was a young child, and his cousin, Andy, dying in a motorcycle crash when they were both teens. Now, Khai meets Esme, and he is taken by her charming ways. However, he can’t seem to let his defenses down to admit that he is in love with her.
Esme and Khai do have a wonderful, caring relationship, but Khai can’t bring himself to admit it. This hurts Esme and she refuses to be with him. Also, Esme hasn’t been completely honest with Khai, lying to him about her education, her job, and not mentioning that she has a daughter in Viet Nam.
Everyone around them is pulling for Khai and Esme, but will Khai’s lack of emotion, and Esme’s desire to be loved kill their relationship needs and conditions?
I enjoyed this 2nd novel of Helen Hoang’s, and I also enjoyed that Stella and Michael from The Kiss Quotient made a brief appearance in the book. I liked how Ms. Hoang highlighted the struggles with emotion and sensory challenges of the autistic man. I also liked how Ms. Hoang portrayed Esme, the immigrant woman who longed for a better life, and was willing to work hard to improve her life. I look forward to the next installment.
The author’s note at the end of the novel was very touching.
#TheBrideTest #HelenHoang
I absolutely love The Kiss Quotient, and this one is no different! Loved the sweet romance! Can we please have a new book about Quan next??
My poor husband. While I read this book, I burst out laughing so many times that I’m sure he wondered what was wrong with me. Khai, the autistic hero, and Esme, the Vietnamese cleaning woman, have a lot of obstacles to overcome before they can make sense of their feelings. Hilarious, and at times heartbreaking, this book is a great second verse for Helen Hoang. I especially loved reading the back matter where she describes how Esme was such a compelling character to write that the determined young cleaning woman made the author completely reimagine what this love story would be about.
I don’t have a lot of real-life friends who read romance. It’s a damn shame, I know. But I try, people. I believe, with all my romance-adoring heart, that romance is a powerful, transformative medium and I tell this to any unfortunate (super lucky?) soul who wanders across my path. So, on that note, if you’re not already reading romance, please consider The Bride Test by Helen Hoang.
The Bride Test is about Khai, a man with autism who believes he is broken and incapable of love, and Esme, a working-class single mother from Vietnam who is offered the opportunity to make a better life for herself and her family in the US. Helen Hoang, who is herself on the autism spectrum, writes their love story with compassion, sensitivity and grace. Without spoiling this book, I’d like to share some of the reasons I found this book to be so beautiful and compelling.
First, there’s Esme. In Esme we have a voice for too many people in the world who are almost always overlooked if not outright mistreated. Poor. Uneducated. Immigrant. Foreign. Other. But what Esme learns, and ultimately tries to show us, is that human dignity and value is innate. It’s ours by birthright. It is intrinsic to each one of us. Citizenship? Race? Class? Gender? Education level? None of those are what gives us our worth. None of those are what makes us worthy of joy and love. In the author’s note of this book, Hoang writes about how Esme perhaps isn’t the romance heroine we all expect to see and why she thought it was so valuable to bring this character to life…and she also shares her own mother’s incredible immigrant experience.
And then there is the brilliant way that Hoang uses the language differences between Khai and Esme to mirror the communication challenges that can happen between neurotypical people and people with autism. Esme, who understands spoken English, speaks to Khai in Vietnamese. Khai, who understands spoken Vietnamese, often speaks to Esme in English. As their relationship develops, in order to to something as simple as talking to each other, they both are in a constant state of code-switching. And yet…it works. They connect. They fall in love. I thought this was such a poignant metaphor for the way that two people whose respective brains process the world in very differently ways can still relate and love.
Last but certainly not least? This book is hot. So, so hot. And, most impressive to me, the sexual relationship in this book becomes what it becomes because of communication. Because they talk to each other and they listen to each other.
This is a romance that I am proud for my daughters to see sitting on my bookshelves. So, once more, if you’re not already reading romance, please (PLEASE) check out The Bride Test.