Helen Hoang is that shy person who never talks. Until she does. And then the worst things fly out of her mouth. She read her first romance novel in eighth grade and has been addicted ever since. In 2016, she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in line with what was previously known as Asperger's syndrome. Her journey inspired The Kiss Quotient. She currently lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two kids, and a pet fish. Visit her online at helenhoang.com, facebook.com/hhoangwrites, instagram.com/hhoangwrites, and twitter.com/hhoangwrites. You can find more of my reviews of Helen's works here.
Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but he doesn't experience big, important emotions like love and grief. Rather than believing he processes emotions differently due to being autistic, he concludes that he's defective and decides to avoid romantic relationships. So his mother, driven to desperation, takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect mail-order bride. As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity to marry an American arises, she leaps at it, thinking that it could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn't go as planned. Esme's lessons in love seem to be working...but only on herself. She's hopelessly smitten with a man who believes he can never return her affection. Esme must convince Khai that there is more than one way to love. And Khai must figure out the inner workings of his heart before Esme goes home and is an ocean away.
Hoang does incredibly work to write her characters with "insight and empathy" as The New York Times Book Review puts it. Her characters have genuinely relatable anxieties and outlooks on life. They want what is best for those around them, and are confused by their own problems and feelings. This is true for Khai and Esme, mostly, as the novel sticks close to their perspectives for its storytelling. Khai is on this journey of discovering whether or not he can love—or really, if he can believe in his capacity to love, while Esme is girlbossing her way through her time in America, trying to determine where and how she belongs in the world. Both of these characters make mistakes and aren't perfect, which only makes them more relatable. And even when they aren't relatable, we can still find ourselves in their journeys. A huge part of Esme's journey is her working her way through finding a place in America. Hoang, in the author's note, details the type of research she conducted in order to be able to write from this angle, while also explaining the inspiration for the idea. Knowing how Hoang was inspired and all of what she knew about the immigrant experience made Esme's story all the more powerful to read and comprehend. Esme faces so many obstacles when in America hoping to make her way—the green card stipulations, the college decision process, how to get her family to rejoin her are just a few—and she faces them with grace and compassion, and sadness and frustration. Hoang does right by Esme's character and her journey, and it is Esme's resilience in herself and in her journey that makes The Bride Test as wonderful a read as it is.
There were some inconsistencies in this novel that really bothered me! For example, the deadline of August 8th and 9th for Khai's and Esme's relationship was always explained by the fact that the wedding venue was booked for the 8th, and the flight is booked for the 9th if the wedding didn't happen. All good and fine, until we get to the wedding, and Quan makes a comment about how they got the venue by chance because they were looking last minute—something didn't add up, there! And a pivotal scene in the book happened on a Sunday because it begins with Khai thinking his Sunday routine was messed up—only to get to the next chapter, after that pivotal day, for it also to be Sunday again? There were smaller inconsistencies, too, ones that I remember flipping through the pages to try and rectify only to come up with no answers. I was surprised editors didn't catch them, as they seemed so obvious to me, and were usually pretty back-to-back. Even though these inconsistencies were small, they were compounded on top of other things that I noticed that culminated in the loss of a star for this novel for me.
The way this novel kept reminding me of a Shakespeare comedy was astounding, and I could never tell if it was intentional or not. The search for the father which is only resolved in the last few pages; the fact that Khai's mom had to go all the way to Vietnam to find a person she deems "wife material" enough for her son; the three men sitting around and chatting about sex; the little tricks and schemes Esme has to get Khai to fall in love with her; and just the last few chapters in general, all of which ends in this wedding scene moment with all the important characters clustered around one another, making confessions and changing the entire courses of their lives. I will say that The Bride Test was incredibly entertaining and easy to read—I flew through the pages! It was a delight to read, and I definitely laughed more than I expected to!
It was so nice to see the Michael and Stella cameo there at the end, but even better to have watched a whole new romance unfold in the same universe as The Kiss Quotient. If you're like me and don't want the Helen Hoang stories to end, then we're in luck—The Heart Principle follows Quan's story, with a new female lead. Stay tuned for my review!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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