Esme Tran is a poor single mixed-race mother living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, cleaning toilets for a living and sharing a tiny apartment with her mother, grandmother and daughter. One day cleaning a toilet in a fancy hotel she strikes up a conversation with one of the ladies using the bathroom which results in a fairy-tale offer - come to the US and meet the woman's son and hopefully get married. Esme jumps at the chance of a better future for her daughter and the opportunity to possibly find her American father, Phil.

Khai Diep has problems expressing emotions the way others do, especially after the tragic death of his best friend a decade ago. A tax genius he nevertheless exasperates his traditional mother who desperately wants him to marry a good Vietnamese woman and have lots of lovely grandchildren. Khai doesn't have the heart to tell his mother than he can't love anyone - he just doesn't have the capability but forced by his domineering mother to play host to Esme for several months, and to squire her to three family weddings, he comes to find this strange woman oddly fascinating.

I really liked Helen Hoang's previous novel, The Kiss Quotient but this book just didn't resonate with me in the same way, maybe because Esme and Khai both, in different ways, found it hard to understand their environments and were too similar in that respect? Also I didn't really click with either character, not in the way I empathised with Stella Lane in the last book.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, a bit like Crazy Rich Asians meets The Kiss Quotient but didn't have that extra wow factor of the first book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The story of Esme an Khai.

She has come to America at the request of his mother as a trial - his mother thinks it is time Khai got married and set out to find him a wife. Esme just wants a better life for her young child, and hopes to find her own Father while she is in America.

Can she get Khai to open up and give her a chance?

The premise of The Bride Test was engaging and the plot developed at a good pace, but the story itself fell a little short for me and I just can’t quite put my finger on what was missing... Maybe it lacked depth... I don’t know... I did like it - in fact, I preferred it to The Kiss Quotient (the first book in the series) - but I didn’t love it.

Anyhow, I did enjoy the characters; Esme’s optimism and perseverance were especially endearing. And Khai had his own brand of awkward, sweet and kind of adorable - in a very manly way, of course.

Although I don’t think I’ll be carrying on with the series, fans of The Kiss Quotient will absolutely love The Bride Test and I’ve no doubt it will be an extremely popular read.

***ARC generously provided by Atlantic Books, via NetGally, in exchange for an honest review***

#TheBrideTest #NetGalley

I was super excited for this book because The kiss quotient was one of my best reads of last year but unfortunately I think that The bride test did not leave up to that standard.

This book was okay, nothing more and nothing less.
I liked how the author included in the narrative the representation of a character who has autism with sensory issues and also how the majority of the characters where Vietnamese. Helen Hoang did a wonderful job with these aspects. The autism was well described and I actually got to learn a lot, which is always a good thing.

Did I like the Khai and Esme? Well, yes and no. I think at first Esme was very objectified and did not seem to have a mind of her own. She didn’t show any interests and only talked/thought about Kai. Thankfully things started to change in the second half of the book. She was more in control, she made decisions and she took initiatives. It was good to see her behave as a strong woman.
Khai had a lot to go through, especially considering the guilt he put on himself for the death of his cousin Andy. I think his journey to self-awareness was well described. But the thing I did not like about him was the way he constantly thought about Esme, especially in the first half of the book. He always found himself talking about her physical appearance and it did bother me a little bit.
At first the chemistry between the two of them was definitely non-existent which I can accept only because they literally were two strangers living in the same house. Then things got a little better but definitely nothing worth swooning over.

From what I can understand there’s a third book in the works. Even though this is the second in a series you can totally read it as a standalone since the characters from the first book only have a small cameo in this one. I think I know who the next book is going to be about and I think I’ll probably check it out.

I’ll be honest here, and I think this is something that resounds with other reviews, that this book is not quite as spectacular as The Kiss Quotient. For something that was so revelatory, something so different to emerge in this genre, it would have taken quite a miracle to topple it. But this doesn’t mean this book is any less beautiful, romantic and heartfelt. The Bride Test is excellent and to read it made me incredibly happy.

The novel follows Esme, a Vietnamese woman who is offered the chance to spend the summer in California at the end of which she will marry an autistic man named Khai. She doesn’t speak much English and has little knowledge of the culture, but she finds her way through hard-work, determination and a sudden burst of romance that develops between the two of them. Though the novel follows a very formulaic, tried-and-tested plot, it adds a new spin to a story we’ve seen a hundred times, and that’s what makes it so endearing.

I think the best word to describe this book is intimate. At every moment, you feel as though you know the central characters deeply. The switching between narratives and thoughts is excellent- though I did dislike the way Esme tended to jump to immediate conclusions about situations. She acknowledges later on in the book that even after Khai said he was autistic; she didn’t ask him to explain further. Perhaps that’s just a part of the character, I’m not sure. It was a little frustrating that they refused to communicate on several issues, particularly when it was hardest for him. It seemed as though Hoang simply included these assumptions to create more drama, to increase the tension between them.

This book narrowly avoids the sophomore slump that several of my favourite writers have fallen into, but there are still issues. This book is joyful and sexy and funny with a core of what romantic love truly means to different people. But it’s also frustratingly base and has a tendency to fall into the rom-com clichés we’ve come to recognize as standard. I don’t know.

Something about this wasn’t quite as amazing as The Kiss Quotient. But I know that the only way is up and I hope that Hoang will continue to write as brilliantly as she already does.

This is a sweet story with enjoyable and interesting characters. This would make a fantastic light summery read.

I enjoyed The Kiss Quotient by the same author so I was looking forward to this. While I wasn't as blown away by this book, I still needed to get to the end to finish it. This book is more serious than the first but it just seems like a more mature style as the author grows the story.