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A review by halthemonarch
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
5.0
Okay, so I guess I do like romance novels now. Hoang has turned me into a believer. Perhaps all of those feelings of discomfort and anxiety are some personal manifestations of my feelings towards intimacy. THAT being said, I can say objectively that I enjoyed this book about ten times more than the Kiss Quotient. I was really afraid that Khai would be just a masculine version of Stella, but he was his own unique character with his own ways of perceiving and dealing with things. Sure, one or more characters being extremely emotionally stunted halts the plot a couple of times, but that counted more as conflict to me because a lot of Michael and Stella’s insecurities were running parallel to each other. Khai’s and Esme’s issues were opposed, their problems made sense, and I was engaged the whole time.
The premise is straight out of an Asian drama: a toilet scrubbing country girl gets the opportunity to go to America and live with a handsome, autistic bachelor in the hopes of seducing him for love and a green card. He has a handsome brother and a large supportive family. The deal is that this country girl must spend the summer attending weddings with the handsome bachelor. Slowly, she falls in love with him and he opens up to her in ways that are so new and foreign to him he’s unable to identify it as love. He pushes her away and deals with his grief and guilt over a death in the family decade’s past. With that he realizes he has the ability to love, and the country girl meanwhile, took classes at the local adult school and graduated with top marks. Empowered, she shifts her dream from landing Khai to standing on her own two feet, getting an education, and making a positive impact on the world. Denied a scholarship but still with avenues open to her, the handsome bachelor’s handsome brother offers to marry Esme instead. In a last minute effort to stop the wedding, Khai races to the court with Esme’s birth father in tow. Everyone who mattered; Esme’s family, Khai and Quan’s family were there to witness Khai apologize and profess his love to Esme. Years later Esme has a temporary resident visa, via her citizen father, as she works for her PhD with her mother, grandmother, and daughter living with her and Khai, her then long-term fiancee.
See? Straight out of a drama, right?
As I say, Helen Hoang has opened my eyes to the merit of romance novels. I devoured this one in two days, and plan on reading Quan’s book immediately. The sex scenes weren’t *so* steamy which was more my speed. In the Kiss Quotient I felt those scenes try too hard to be sexy or dirty to actually get that point across. Khai was a virgin and Esme was pretty touch-starved so, I mean, it made sense that they’d be less bold and brazen than the math freak and the escort. I loved how none of the characters were white haha, and that Khai was atypical; that’s so important and Hoang writes with such bright liveliness that it really brings her characters to life.
I know Quan’s book will be a crazy ride. I loved him in the last two books; I have no doubt I’ll love him in his novel.
The premise is straight out of an Asian drama: a toilet scrubbing country girl gets the opportunity to go to America and live with a handsome, autistic bachelor in the hopes of seducing him for love and a green card. He has a handsome brother and a large supportive family. The deal is that this country girl must spend the summer attending weddings with the handsome bachelor. Slowly, she falls in love with him and he opens up to her in ways that are so new and foreign to him he’s unable to identify it as love. He pushes her away and deals with his grief and guilt over a death in the family decade’s past. With that he realizes he has the ability to love, and the country girl meanwhile, took classes at the local adult school and graduated with top marks. Empowered, she shifts her dream from landing Khai to standing on her own two feet, getting an education, and making a positive impact on the world. Denied a scholarship but still with avenues open to her, the handsome bachelor’s handsome brother offers to marry Esme instead. In a last minute effort to stop the wedding, Khai races to the court with Esme’s birth father in tow. Everyone who mattered; Esme’s family, Khai and Quan’s family were there to witness Khai apologize and profess his love to Esme. Years later Esme has a temporary resident visa, via her citizen father, as she works for her PhD with her mother, grandmother, and daughter living with her and Khai, her then long-term fiancee.
See? Straight out of a drama, right?
As I say, Helen Hoang has opened my eyes to the merit of romance novels. I devoured this one in two days, and plan on reading Quan’s book immediately. The sex scenes weren’t *so* steamy which was more my speed. In the Kiss Quotient I felt those scenes try too hard to be sexy or dirty to actually get that point across. Khai was a virgin and Esme was pretty touch-starved so, I mean, it made sense that they’d be less bold and brazen than the math freak and the escort. I loved how none of the characters were white haha, and that Khai was atypical; that’s so important and Hoang writes with such bright liveliness that it really brings her characters to life.
I know Quan’s book will be a crazy ride. I loved him in the last two books; I have no doubt I’ll love him in his novel.