5*
In this equally charming and sexy successor to The Kiss Quotient, Hoang again features a lead character with Asperger’s Syndrome whose funny internal thoughts keep readers laughing. As the book opens, we are re-introduced to Khai (the cousin of Michael from the first book) at a wake for his 16-year-old cousin Andy, his best (only) friend who died in a motorcycle accident. Autism makes it difficult for him to show emotion (including crying) or tolerate touching, so he’s accused of not caring. All his young brain registers is that, if he can’t grieve, then he can’t love either. Ten years later, he’s so firmly convinced of this that his interfering mother finally takes matters into her own hands to ensure that he gets married and gives her grandchildren. She heads to Vietnam and devises a bride test to find a woman worthy of her son who won’t just want him for his money. There she meets My (Esme), a single mother who was abandoned by her daughter’s father when she got pregnant (just as her own American father abandoned her mother), and promptly offers her a chance to spend a summer in American getting to know Khai and hopefully convincing him that she is a woman he’d want to marry.
Despite the wacky way they are thrown together, the relationship between Esme and Khai is beautiful and full of humor, and they both blossom with the care and concern they show each other. Although Khai struggles with the disruption Esme brings to his well-ordered life, she is committed to being indispensable to him so that she’ll be able to remain in the U.S. and have her family join her. When Khai helps Esme look for the father she’s never known, their bond strengthens, but he continues to believe he is unloveable despite his actions to the contrary. Will Esme eventually pass the bride’s test and be the woman who gets through to Khai or will she end up back in Vietnam after the summer? Pick up this wonderful book and find out! Readers who have fallen in love with The Kiss Quotient may have a third book to look forward to…perhaps with Khai’s older brother Quan? Here’s hoping!
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
Despite the wacky way they are thrown together, the relationship between Esme and Khai is beautiful and full of humor, and they both blossom with the care and concern they show each other. Although Khai struggles with the disruption Esme brings to his well-ordered life, she is committed to being indispensable to him so that she’ll be able to remain in the U.S. and have her family join her. When Khai helps Esme look for the father she’s never known, their bond strengthens, but he continues to believe he is unloveable despite his actions to the contrary. Will Esme eventually pass the bride’s test and be the woman who gets through to Khai or will she end up back in Vietnam after the summer? Pick up this wonderful book and find out! Readers who have fallen in love with The Kiss Quotient may have a third book to look forward to…perhaps with Khai’s older brother Quan? Here’s hoping!
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
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