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A review by catholicwitch69
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
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 hismom’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.
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment and Cancer