Review: The Kiss Quotient

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I saw a great review of this book which tickled my fancy so I got myself a copy.

At heart this is a reverse Pretty Woman romance. Stella Lane is a high-functioning woman with Asperger's. She has a fantastic job analysing sales trends for a major online retailer and she can fake interactions with other people but she finds it difficult and stressful. Her mother is desperate for grandchildren and keeps threatening to set Stella up with one of her friends' sons. When a co-worker tells her she is uptight and maybe if she had more sex she would enjoy it more she decides to take his advice literally and hires herself a male escort.

Michael Phan is a half-Vietnamese, half-Swedish fashion designer/ tailor/ martial arts instructor/ part-time escort. He had to give up his dream job in New York when his mother got sick and now he is stuck working several jobs to support his mother, grandmother and sisters. He is sick of pretending to fancy rich women who treat him like a sex-toy and have no interest in him as a person. He thinks Stella will be just another of these women until he sees the young, prim, librarian-looking woman waiting for him. When a wonderful 'date' falls apart when Michael tries to take the date to the next level Stella realises she doesn't need sex practice, she needs dating practice and hires Michael to act as her pseudo boyfriend to teach her how to behave whilst dating.

I really enjoyed reading this book, not least because of the novel characters and the sensitive and consistent portrayal of autism. I was fascinated to read the author's note at the end of the book that explains why she wrote the book.

Both Stella and Michael were relatable, engaging characters, although both of them thought that they were unloveable to an almost ridiculous degree, and I really enjoyed seeing into their lives and watching their romance. I see there is a second book due out next year and I will definitely keep my eye out for that one.

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