From the author of The Bride Test comes a romance novel hailed as one of The Washington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2018 and one of Amazon’s Top 100 Books of 2018!“This is such a fun read and it’s also quite original and sexy and sensitive.”—Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author “Hoang’s writing bursts from the page.”—BuzzfeedA heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves … page.”—Buzzfeed
A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.
Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…
Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he’s making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…
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I loved this book so much! The strange thing is, I can’t put my finger on exactly why. I think it has more to do with how Stella and Michael’s relationship progression made me feel. Watching Stella start to crave Michael’s touch instead of being turned off by it. Seeing Michael start to fall for Stella even though he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. It just warmed my heart the entire time!u2063
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Michael’s family was amazing side characters and the way he took care of them, his mom especially, made me love him even more. I can’t wait to read more about this family!u2063
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So if you’re like me and you were putting this one off…don’t! Bump it to the top of your list right now!!u2063
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Oh…and don’t be fooled by the cover. This one packs some serious steam! u2063
The Kiss Quotient: . 7 5
“All the things that make you different make you perfect.”
Asian representation in literature? Yes please.
When her mother keeps pushing her to date and start a family, Stella Lane, successful and intelligent econometrician, decides to tackle her inexperience and battle with insecurity by taking lessons from a male escort–Michael Phan.
A truly unconventional story with beautiful writing. The prose in this book is refined, but easy-to-read and follow along with the thoughts. Normally, I am a huge fan of dual-POV books, but didn’t mind the third person perspective of this book at all. In fact, I think it added to some of those subtle nuances we would have missed had it been solely from the protagonists’ POVs. Not to mention, I live in the Bay Area so reading about the place I grew up in? WIN.
As a huge advocate for neurodevelopmental disabilities and someone who has spent years in college researching specifically autism, I cannot express in enough words how much it means to see this kind of representation in modern, contemporary literature. It’s so important to be inclusive and I think Helen Hoang does it well. The concepts of intimacy, social situations, and overstimulation are addressed well here.
Huge appreciation to Helen Hoang for also addressing money issues–health insurance or the lack thereof for far too many Americans who have to cut all kinds of corners just to make sure their loved ones can see another day.
The romance–Stella and Michael are one of the insta-love couples I really did like. The star for me in this relationship though, was Michael because of how caring, considerate, and thoughtful he was. He was so human–not the alpha male who would get offended by Stella’s directness. He’s so patient and loving and painfully handsome (and a family man who can cook!) that of course that you can’t help but not love him.
The catch–in some areas, I thought the story lulled with the amount of push-and-pull between Stella and Michael. They always seemed to be just missing one another–while one started the page, the other was at the end and at times that drove me mad because I wished they would just stop questioning one another and themselves.
Overall, this was a quick read that I really enjoyed and I’m looking forward to more!
I was first drawn to this book because of the autistic female heroine. I had never read such a book, particularly a romance. I was looking for a character to relate to. Stella got me into the story and then the sex drew me deeper (as all good sex does).
Seriously…a few chapters in this book moves into the steam in a very seductive, passionate way. I felt like I needed a cold shower. After my initial delight with all of the wonderful sexiness, the love story kept me reading until an entire afternoon had passed. Since I’m a slow reader and I have a superpower called hyper-focus, I sat down with the initial intention to read a few chapters and then go about my workday. Well, that didn’t happen. I read the entire book in one sitting. I blinked and suddenly it was six hours later. My brain doesn’t hyper-focus on just anything. That’s how much I loved this book.
One of the best romantic comedies I have ever read Caution may not be for everyone due to explicit sex scenes and language but very funny and sexy
It was different and very fun to read.
I loved, loved this story. It was original, refreshing and not your ordinary love story. If you are looking for a cookie cutter love story with gratuitous sex–this isn’t it. It wasn’t the man on the white horse saving the damsel in distress. It wasn’t the poor woman with autism who need to be taught how to love or how to have sex. It was so much more. Ms. Hoang did an incredible job making this not about a person with autism but about a love story in which one of the characters was challenged with autism and one of the characters wasn’t and one was asian and one of the characters wasn’t and one was highly successful in a demanding career and one of the characters was struggling financially and one of the characters… get the point? Bottom line–it was a love story with messy emotions and messy histories and messy misunderstandings and great sex. To sum it up for Stella–Bravo.
I put off reading this, to be honest, because I live with a person who is high function autistic and it bothers me to read depictions because they are never accurate and it chafes. This captures the personality and struggles and normalcy as accurately as I could imagine without being in the person’s head. Thank you. (less)
I loved this book! I was scrolling through my library app and this popped up and I got it for a back up in case I didn’t like the other book I borrowed and I’m so thankful because I ended up not liking the other one. I listened on a road trip to see a friend and I just wanted to keep on driving so I could keep listening. I loved the characters and the plot and the side characters. I am just getting into listening to books, thanks to the libby app, and I don’t know if I got more emotionally attached to this story because of that, but it was so so good.
An autistic gal and a sensitive guy … and some really steamy scenes. A great lose-yourself and make-you-smile book.
5/5 Stars
4/5 Steam Rating
My friend recommended this book to me a long time ago and I finally got around to reading it. Man… what took me so long?! I devoured this book! Move over book boyfriends, Michael is my new obsession! I could probably chat your ears off for hours about this book, but I’ll save you the headache and sum up my feeling quickly…
What I loved
• The writing was fabulous; it was set at a great pace and kept me absorbed in the story
• Told from the POV of Stella & Michael- giving great insight to the characters, while still being easy to follow
• Great character representation- Michael is biracial (Caucasian & Vietnamese) & Stella is on the autism spectrum
• Steamy and delicious
• A gender-swapped Pretty Woman storyline
• Michael was an alpha with a sweet side; he was compassionate, hardworking, understanding, supportive, and protective, all while also dealing with his own insecurities. He always put his loved ones before himself.
• I adored Stella and everything she represented. She beautiful, brilliant, successful, and socially awkward.
What I didn’t like:
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I was internally gushing as I finished this story and then I read the author’s notes… This story is written by someone on the autism spectrum! While I love reading books that have character representation that we don’t often see, it means even more when it’s written by someone with first hand experience. This is the first book of hers that I’ve read but I have a feeling that she’ll be one of my new auto-buy authors!!
While overall the book was a fun little romcom, as someone on the spectrum, its portrayal in this book is offensive. Apparently the right lover can screw your neurodivergence right out of you. That being said, the characters were compelling and the relationship is cute.
OMG! This book was absolutely charming from the first word until the last! I absolutely LOVED it!
This book was so refreshing, cute and lighthearted. Just what I needed after reading a lot of intense fantasy. I loved the representation in this book, especially that the female MC was autistic and that the male MC was mixed-raced.
The plot was quite unique but filled with cliches at the same time. They weren’t obnoxious though. Their relationship was super cute. And I absolutely loved it.
Couldn’t put this book down and might need to read it a second time. Absolutely loved it!
Fun!
I read this book after seeing it recommended on a reading list. I doubted whether a male “escort” character would be sympathetic and likeable, but Ms. Hoang pulled it off! This book also contained interesting glimpses of Vietnamese-American culture. I anticipate enjoying more of this author’s work.
This book was not what I expected at all!!! The writing in this book was amazing, and for those of you that listen to audiobooks, the narrator of this audiobook was perfect! Within the first few minutes of listening to this book, I found myself loving Stella and the character she portrayed. Helen Hoang has a way of writing and describing her characters that has you loving them in minutes and also wanting to learn more about them. I also loved Michael; from his mysterious background, escort service views, and his boy next door characteristics, it was all wrapped up into one likable man. I really enjoyed the story of Stella and Michael and what it means to find love when it feels like the odds are against you. I am not sure what I expected from this story, but it was not what I read (listened to)! Helen Hoang had me laughing throughout at the interesting situations Stella found herself in and how she got through each of them. This book also had a more serious tone and gave me a glimpse into the world of autism and the struggles one faces, but also the successes one experiences. I absolutely loved this book and will be picking up more by Helen Hoang.
A truely remarkable book.
Great charechters.
Great chemestry.
Great plot.
Intriguing and addicting right from the beginning!
Stella, an econometrician, has Autism. It makes her great at her job but not so great at interpersonal relationships, especially with men. The thought of a man kissing her makes her skin crawl. Her mother has just told her she wants grandchildren. She knows there is something wrong with her so she does what any logical problem-solving economist would do. Stella hires Michael Phan a male escort to help her with her issues with members of the opposite sex.
This was such an original and delightful story. Stella is like someone we all know. She just wants to be normal. Michael is the perfect person to help her. He has issues of his own, however.
I loved this story. It’s the first one I’ve read from Helen Hoang. Her character development is well done. Michael is just as deep and interesting as Stella. I found myself rooting for these two, although, in the beginning, I had my doubts as to how these two would get past all their obstacles.
I loved how the author developed Michael’s mother, grandmother, all his sisters, and his cousin. Hoang brought them into the story in such a real way. In learning about them you understood the motivation behind Michael’s actions. It was totally steamy and sensitive and had all the feels of a great love story. I highly recommend this HEA. It’s part of Hoang’s Kiss Quotient series but is a standalone. ,
I still can’t get over how cute this book is. I don’t even have words for how much I love the story and the characters. Stella and Michael are my favourite book couple ever!
I just loved everything about this book. The characters were so real and I learned so much about one person’s experience being autistic. A perfect romance!