Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Bride Test

It's been a long time since I read the first novel, The Kiss Quotient. Overall, I thought this was a cute romance. Personally, I find the miscommunication trope extremely frustrating. I understand that Khai is autistic, and it took him a long time to recognize what he was feeling as love.

It doesn't make sense that Esme/My didn't look up "autistic" when he told her he was autistic before she cut his hair. She didn't know what it meant until Quan told her. Also, why didn't she ask why Khai wasn't in love with her when they "broke up"? That would've cleared so much up. I also didn't like the scene where Khai drives Esme home after the 10-year anniversary of Andy's death, and he goes inside. Then he tries to have sex with her to distract her into saying "yes" to his proposal. Weaponizing sex like that gave me the ick. I do like the pieces of Vietnamese culture put into the storyline. I also appreciate that Esme decided to move into her own place, go to school, get her GED, and apply for a college scholarship after Khai said he didn't love her, and she walked away from the marriage proposal. I enjoyed the Author's Note where Helen Hoang said she originally had Khai falling in love with an American when she first started writing the book. Then she talked to her mom, learned more about her mom's story as an immigrant from Vietnam then changed the storyline.

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eligru's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful 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

4.0

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chi__'s review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad slow-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

3.75

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hayleyvem's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.0

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meeklovestoread's review

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funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really liked "The Kiss Quotient" by this author and it's been a long while since I've read it so I decided to give her other books in the series a shot. Sadly, this book just didn't do it for me. It wasn't terrible persay, I'd still recommend it to people but it wasn't my favorite. There are almost equal amounts of things that I liked and disliked in this book. I liked the Vietnamese culture being integrated into this book as well as the realities of moving to a new country, being an immigrant, not understanding this current new place that you occupy, the struggles of accumulating into an unfamiliar place, and the autism rep of course. Also, I love Quan! He was the highlight of this book. And the conversation Quan, Khai, and Michael (from the Kiss Quotient) had about safe sex, orgasms, first times, etc. It was very informative. I feel like it was a very important chapter considering most romance books just dive into the sex and don't discuss the mechanics. I wish more books would do that.

However, it seems like my dislikes outweigh my likes about this book. Okay, this book is supposed to be a romance between the two characters but in my opinion, there wasn't much chemistry between them. The connection was more sexual than anything else. It would be nice if they had endearing conversations where they got to know each other.

For the later half of the book, we see that both Khai and Esme miss each other and long for one another, but we really don't see why. From Esme's perspective, she's not really aware of what autism is so if we're just thinking from her perspective for the most part Khai has treated her horribly. Yes, he can be nice at times and he has shown that he cares for her, but he never takes time to get to KNOW her. I know his intention isn't to hurt her, however, that's what he does constantly in this book. He doesn't fight for her unless he's being told to and that isn't romantic to me. And when we are in Khai's perspective, besides their sexual attraction, we as the reader, don't really understand why he misses her.

Also, I know Khai's autistic (which is fine; it's actually the main reason I read Helen Hoang's books cuz of the representation), but I feel like the autism wasn't expanded on as much as I would've liked it to. From the minimal knowledge that I have, I know that autism is spectrum so not everyone is the same and there are also people called "high functioning" and "low functioning". We know, he has sensory issues and feels that due to his autism, he's not able to convey his feelings and feel "the right things", in turn, he feels like he's unable to love anyone, especially in a romantic way. Which I get, but I wish we got more insight into which part of the spectrum he's on because I feel like the author was using his autism as a reason, but also an excuse for being continuously rude behavior toward Esme.

I understand Khai's insecurities about his ability (or inability according to him) to love. Still, I don't think his insecurities should excuse his inefficient communication skills and subtle emotional immaturity. Like I understand that he's autistic and that he isn't the best at social cues, but my gosh it really got on my nerves how rude he was towards Esme when she was just trying. I feel like if he really liked her he'd be more considerate of her feelings and express why he is the way he is to her so she can understand instead of continuously breaking her heart because he's too insecure to admit that he cares for someone.

Also, I know if it's just me but in terms of the romance, it felt like the side characters were the ones leading it on. Like there would be instances where Khai and Esme aren't speaking for whatever reason and it's up to the side characters to bring them back together. Khai seems to be an actions rather words type of guy which is fine, but it would be nice if he went out of his way to fight for his feelings for Esme more instead of just accepting the fact that he just "can't love". Without these nuances, he just seemed like such a flat character. I wasn't really rooting for them. At times, I wish Esme would just stop fighting for him cuz in my opinion he wasn't worth it. He needed to deal with himself and his insecurities before he started dating. And I wish his family recognized that especially his mother because she's the one that goaded him into his false marriage to begin with (which was lowkey manipulative might I add).

Overall this book was just okay. Like it wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible.

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teatunesandtales's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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helfire124's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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rickireadss's review against another edition

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4.25

this was so good!! esme&khai hold my entire heart istg. i put this off for so long because i tried to read my physical copy a few months ago and couldn't get past the prologue bc i was afraid the book would have me SOBBING - i am pleased to announce that it did not have me crying my eyes out, but there were definitely moments of tearing up. this was so wholesome, funny, and swoony. i wanted to just hug both esme and khai for their pasts, but i loved that they ended up together, because to me, they fit with each other perfectly. i do think the ending was a little rushed/didn't tie everything up for me, but overall, it was fantastic and i definitely recommend this series!!

⚠️: grief, ableism, death of family member, car accident, classism, abandonment

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