Review: The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

THE BRIDE TEST 
Helen Hoang
Publication date: May 7, 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Berkley and Edelweiss



GOODREADS  *  AMAZON

S Y N O P S I S

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 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.

M Y   T H O U G H T S

I was convinced there was no way I would possibly enjoy The Bride Test as much as The Kiss Quotient. Silly me, because Helen Hoang proved she is no one hit wonder.

If you’ve read TKQ you’ll remember Michael’s cousin Khai. His autism means he processes emotions differently and after the loss of his best friend as a teenager, when he felt unable to truly grieve, he decided that also meant he was unable to love. Enter Khai’s mom who has decided if Khai isn’t going to find a wife on his own, she’ll just have to do it for him. She meets Esme while in Viet Nam and arranges for her to come to California. And so it begins.

There are so many differences between Esme and Khai – their education, their culture – but I loved that Esme simply accepted Khai as he was, without being aware of any labels. She was able to look past his social awkwardness, his quirks, and see how truly kind and compassionate he was. And I appreciated that they were both so brave – they took chances, pushed themselves, and made steps toward a possible future neither had envisioned.

She’d come to find him. No one ever looked for him. They all knew he wanted to be alone. Except is wasn’t always that way. Sometimes he was alone out of habit. Sometimes it took effort to distract himself from the growing emptiness inside. - Khai

Esme was so sweet and so determined to make this arrangement work. She had her own insecurities, about her immigrant status and her lack of education, but she was willing to work hard to overcome those challenges. Even though I sometimes felt like I didn’t know enough about her, I was still totally won over by her perseverance and her sense of self-worth.

She wasn’t rich, classy, or smart, but she wasn’t something you could use once and throw away. She had value. You couldn’t see it in the clothes she wore or the abbreviations after her name or hear it in the way she spoke, but she felt it, even if she didn’t entirely understand where it came from. It pounded in her chest, big and strong and bright. She deserved better than this. – Esme.

The moments between Khai and his brother Quan were some of my favorites. And when he was getting a little sex ed from Quan and Michael… oh my goodness, so hilarious and so priceless. Quan was always, always there for Khai and I loved their connection. Quan accepted him but also challenged him.

I don’t want to keep comparing The Bride Test to The Kiss Quotient (I know it’s not fair) but, like it or not, it’s going to happen. And while this one didn’t quite have the same charm as TKQ, it was still a total winner. I may have had a few quibbles (I wish I’d known Esme better, I wish she hadn’t kept her secret until the very end), but I was able to overlook those in the face of so much Helen Hoang goodness. There were moments that made me laugh, moments than were so sweet I thought my heart would burst, plus delicious sexytimes and characters that I was pulling for on every single page. Don’t miss this sweet and swoony romance!

4.5/5 STARS

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. This does not impact my opinion of the book or the content of this review. I received no compensation and my review is voluntary.