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…
more
Loved it! Such a sweet story
While I’ll probably come back and post a longer review ( just don’t have time right now), I do want to say this book was a joy to read from the first page to the last. When I went in, I was already “warned” about how steamy this book was ( makes me want a book more IMO, but anyway), so the sex scenes were not a shock to me. But it’s very interesting to see how someone with Asperger’s syndrome would have a sexual relationship, and it drives home the fact that everyone needs love and has love to give.
This book wasn’t for me.
Helen Hoang is my new favorite author! I have loved both of her books that I have read. Hoang knows how to weave a fantastic love story about characters who are realistically flawed.
I will admit that I was a bit hesitant to start reading The Kiss Quotient. I read The Bride Test first (gasp!) and loved everything about it, so I’m not sure why I hesitated so long to pick this book up. I’m glad I finally picked up The Kiss Quotiet, because I really enjoyed Michael and Stella’s story.
Both Michael and Stella were such likable characters. Michael because of his depth of love for his family and the great lengths he goes to keep them happy. I loved being inside of Stella’s head and her heart. Her vulnerabilities were so relatable, but I loved watching her blossom as the book progressed.
The love story between Michael and Stella was definitely unconventional but so so sweet and of course steamy! The last quarter of the book was breaking my heart and I couldn’t stop reading it and at the same time I wanted to savor every last word.
Helen Hoang is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine! I can’t wait to read the next book that she writes.
Not a prude but this book was racy. Sometimes, sex doesn’t have to be gratuitous.
I loved this fresh take on Pretty Woman, complete with a gender swap – the hero is the escort. Also a spin on the “love lessons” trope, with plenty of humour, fantastic characterization (especially the heroine), and a wonderful romantic flavour. Best of all, I finally know how to describe my aversion to eating lamb. I’ve always told people it tastes furry. Now I know the word I’m looking for is “woolly”. Thank you for a wonderful read, Helen Hoang.
This plot is totally different from any book that I have ever read. Our heroine is a succesful young woman from a wealthy background, with understanding parents, an excellent education, obsessed with mathematics and…oh yes, she is Autistic. She has never had a “boyfriend.” She has tried. But, in listening to the women gossip she decides that she is not good in bed. Therefore, she sets out to pay a male escort to teach her how to be good in bed. Therein lies the plot. The man she hires is taken aback at her plight and decides that this is not something he is willing to do; however, when she explains her plight. . .he is forced to reconsider. And the plot is underway. Her first “lesson” is a disaster for both of them but it is entertaining in how she elects to proceed and the delimma into which the young man and ultimately his family find themselves. There are hilarious scenes as well as bittersweet scenes. You will become informed regarding some of the real life situations which plague autistic people. At times you root for her and at times you want her to go back to what she was. But, you will stay with it until the resolution which is AMAZING. I will caution you that it is sexually explicit in many places, but if you can get past that, it is an interesting read.
Quirky, nerdy, charming offbeat romance. I will read more stories in this series.
I very much enjoyed the characters in this book. It’s great to have a book with a happy ending spotlighting a person on the Autism spectrum.
That being said, it was a tad racy at times.
I bought it for the mathematical references. Math nerds can have romance too!!
I love this book so much, I’ve read it twice. Great, engaging characters, wonderful storytelling, and so good I couldn’t put it down, either time. If you want something better than ordinary, this is the book for you.
How did I miss this book for so long? I listened to this one on audio and almost kept driving because it was so good. Stella is an econometrician and has Aspergers which means she is exacting and obsessive and, yeah, needs to things just so. When a coworker tells her she will never be able to date she takes that to heart and after a disaster-ridden sexual experience Stella decides the only way she is going to get better at it is to find an expert and learn. That is how she meets Michael Phan. He is an escort one night a week and the rest of the time he works for his family’s laundry business and suppresses his own fashion designer sense and puts his all into his family. Now he has Stella and she intrigues him. These two are phenomenal together. This was such a special story, watching these two learn to maneuver each other and Stella learn to blossom and Micheal bring her there. I definitely recommend it and I’m very happy to see there is more to this series!
Just fun. What we occasionally need in this time of uncertainty and stress.
This book left me with all the gooey happy feels.
Labels on groups of things can be helpful, however labels on ourselves can be so limiting for how we see ourselves as well as how others see us. Each took initiative at differnent times, it wasn’t always one person driving the story, and that was really good. A wonderful story – thank you dear author Helen!
I enjoyed reading this book but felt it didn’t live up to all the hype
A terrific modern take on the happily ever after romance novel. Truly delightful and wonderfully original.
Let me list all the things I Loved about this book. Above everything the item I loved most about this book are the characters. First, how the author approached Stella’s autism was phenomenal. I personally do not have the disorder but do know individuals with it, and the author captured all aspects of the disorder without being condescending, and it was just perfect. I also have to say when characters move you to deep emotions, love, hate, or anger, you know they are amazing characters and that is exactly what I experienced with this book. I found myself wanting to jump through the pages to smack some of them, to knock some sense into them or to enact revenge. The second thing has to be the romance, it will leave you wishing you could find someone as gentle and caring as Michael, how in tuned he was with Stella, constantly making sure she was okay and knowing the instant she wasn’t. Why oh why can real mean be like the ones in our novels?!?!
This book I can not recommend enough, everything is perfect, these are just my favorite parts.
Audible Review
Overall 3 out of 5 stars
Performance 4 out of 5 stars
Story 3 out of 5 stars
Didn’t quite live up to the hype.
The Kiss Quotient really didn’t live up to all the hype surrounding it, at least for me. It had a lot of potential- there were some really sweet parts, and both Stella and Michael were endearing characters, I really liked them both, and there were some definite heart-tugging moments. And I appreciate that this is an #ownvoices story. But the graphic and, what I felt was gratuitious at times, sex just took me out of the story. I ended up skipping over those scenes, after they finally had sex the first time.
Look, I’m no prude by any stretch of the imagination, you can just take a look at my list of read books to see that! But when you (I) go into a story expecting a sweet, cute, dare I say chick-lit style tale, to then have nipple sucking and clitoris (as Stella would say) licking all up in your face, it’s kind of jarring to say the least. I understand Ms. Hoang wanting to show Stella’s “growth” as a sexual woman, but I could have done with less. I would have liked this book so much more if the sex hadn’t been such a prominent part. Less really is more at times.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…this is one of *those* reviews, complaining about all the sex!
Carly Robins was great at Stella- she portrayed her vulnerability perfectly. The rest of the narration I’d say was just okay- when she was narrating Michael’s character she didn’t really do a male voice for the unspoken parts, just when he was speaking, which was distracting at times because I’d think we were back to Stella. Overall I did enjoy the narration, I just would have liked the males to have been a little more distinct.
I don’t know, maybe I listened to this at the wrong time, and a different time I would have loved it, like so many of my other book friends did. Or maybe if I had read it instead of listened to it??? But as it was, it was a sad let down, because I had such high hopes for it.
***Borrowed through the AE package.
The Kiss Quotient is Fifty Shades of Grey almost meets The Rosie Project. I was drawn to Helen Hoang’s story of Stella, a girl with Asberger’s who struggles with relationships and hires a male “escort” to teach her to catch and please a man. Although the characters have some depth and the plot has some appealing moments, The Kiss Quotient lacks the humor and poignancy of The Rosie Project and 600 Hours of Edward. These books provide characters that are more rounded and put them in situations that better depict how their lives are affected by Asberger’s. Hoang focuses on Stella’s sexual awakening, and many scenes take place in the bedroom ( and the bathroom, and against walls, etc.). Of course, some readers may find this appealing.