Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Kiss Quotient

I had a pretty good time reading this overall but I just don't think the book had too much impact on me outside of the autism representation.

The start was cute, then I got about halfway where it was mostly sex and little plot, then the plot returned just for it to be a third act breakup due to miscommunication...

I liked Stella's character and it was refreshing to see an autistic character and a woman in STEM at the centre of a romance. Michael's character just didn't feel right to me, I couldn't figure out if he was a nice guy or a "nice guy". I think the book was trying to play on the idea of if we are like our parents and how there are multiple sides to people but it felt jarring when he suddenly swapped from being a good dude to (in my opinion, unnecessarily) sexualising women. I just felt that, overall, the characters could've been a little more fleshed out.

The middle of the book didn't do much for me, as I'm not a huge smut fan, but you may enjoy this more if you do like smut and sex scenes. In saying this though, the book was not completely sex scenes as some reviews suggest, the storyline itself does basically revolve around sex, so consider if this is something you're interested in.

The end also felt a little rushed to me after the conflict, but I guess that's to be expected when the conflict revolves around miscommunication and all it takes is one conversation to resolve it. I'm also not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope so the conflict just frustrated me.

Overall, this wasn't a bad read but I don't think it impacted me too much. There are parts that are done well which I enjoyed and parts that could be done better or just weren't for me. This is definitely one to check out the blurb and see if it's for you, cause it's not going to be for everyone but I would still be interested in reading some of Helen Hoang's other work, even if just for the women in STEM.

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kyrakaw's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was really cute! I read this for a day and sacrificed some sleep because I could not put it down. It just grabbed my attention from the very beginning and did not let go. The MC and her love interest's chemistry were through the roof. It's my first time reading a book with a main character on the autism spectrum and I'm very glad the author treated her with sensitivity and was not disrespectful at all (at least I think). This is an adult romance book so there were some smut scenes, it was hot but surprisingly heartwarming to read. The third act made me deduct a .5 star but overall would definitely recommend it!

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jazzseeks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I am not a fan of contemporary romance usually but this is certainly the best one I've ever read. What I really loved was how relatable the Main Character was as a woman with Autism and how much <Michael loved her for the ways she was unique and not inspite of who she is>. I found the romance believable, funny, and deeply enjoyable. <Michaels family is lovely.> The only things I didn't like were how horrible a lot of the tertiary characters were such as the parents, the coworkers, the ex clients. Those parts were painful to get through and didn't always feel vital to the story or characters development. Also Helen Hoang is really pro-capitalist and I'm never into that though I enjoyed flipping the trope so that the Woman had the money.

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catholicwitch69's review against another edition

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hopeful informative lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I really didn’t hate this romance or the characters, but I also didn’t love it/them. I can appreciate the author’s rhetorical goals in depicting an autistic main character (especially reading her acknowledgments, it’s clear this is from personal experience) but I also think it was heavy-handed at certain points. I guess I just wish it was presented as another one of Stella’s many traits instead of this major obstacle that she and the people close to her have to overcome. But I did find her work and general neuroticism much more endearing and interesting than the romance.

What I really didn’t like about the romance was that both characters are so far up their own asses about not being good enough for the other. I can completely understand that thinking but it was a little annoying to constantly read about that. I also don’t understand how there was any miscommunication about what they wanted from each other when their behavior was so unbelievably clear about that. I’m not a fan of insta-love and that’s kind of what this felt like. I didn’t think the MMC was believable in his insatiable and immediate attraction to the FMC. It’s not that he was simply really attracted to her, but that he keeps remarking within 5 minutes of meeting her that she seems “made for him.” The whole book read like obsession, infatuation, and limerance instead of love.

Something else that bugged me is the “normalization” of sex work. Sex work is not normal. It’s an incredibly predatory and exploitative industry, evidenced by the MMC’s constant discomfort with it, but there’s no real criticism of the fact that he has to turn to sex work in order to pay for his

mom’s cancer treatments.

I get that it’s a romance but I don’t think these topics should be explored so flippantly and without regard to its real-life equivalents.

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bexi's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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jodierose14's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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