After the first read
The first time I read this book, I thought that it wasn’t as romance centered as “The Kiss Quotient”. After all, this book featured the struggles of a young immigrant single mother trying to make it in America and provide a better life for herself and her daughter while also trying to find companionship with a man she’s never met before. I was also so invested in reading about Kai and from Kai as he works through grieving the loss of someone close to him. His character was so precious to read from and I remembered his character as one who you can’t help but root for.
After the second (probably third) read
After completing my most recent reread of this book, I realized that it was far more romance centered than I remembered it being. “The Bride Test” still does follow a romantic plot line but the way Esme and Kai communicate with each other is quite different than how Stella and Michael did. Stella and Michael were more physical and far more open with each from the get go. “The Kiss Quotient” definitely had more steamy scenes. In their story, the non-romantic plot lines they were trying to overcome were far less extensive as the ones explored in “The Bride Test”. In Hoang’s second book, we’re exploring so many more character conflicts/areas where our characters are slowly trying to learn from and grow. Kai and Esme had a cultural boundary that made their non-physical communication a lot different than with Michael and Stella. Also, while Michael had been exposed to people on the spectrum through his cousin Kai, it appears that Esme never really had that same experience. So I really appreciated reading about how Esme got to learn Kai’s preferences and who he is. Doing so, I think that Hoang was able to provide a new perspective of people on the spectrum. loved reading how these two came together and how they learned to understand and work with each other.
This book, to no one’s surprise, brought me all the serotonin. The true winner of this book is Esme. Her character was written with so much love and depth that you can immediately tell that this character was stitched together with little pieces of Helen Hoang’s own life. If you go onto read the acknowledgements which I highly recommend you do with every book you read, but especially Helen’s, you’ll learn that this character is based off certain experiences her mother had as a new immigrant into a foreign country. I loved Esme from my first time reading this book, but reading it as a working woman now, I have so much more respect for her and her struggles. It made me really think back to how it must have been for my own mother to come to a new country and try to work to help support her family. Connections like this always make a book extra special.
The characters in this book have so much depth and personality to them but it’s undeniable that Esme’s journey as an immigrant and single mother is something so palpable and raw.
It would be unfair to not talk about Kai, our sweetheart, accountant assassin man. His character had just as much complexity as Esme’s. Throughout the book, we follow Kai as he deals with emotional trauma and processing it as someone who’s on the spectrum. It was so sad to see how certain people around him judge him so callously and coldly.
Helen Hoang is an artist and her writing is honestly a work of art because the way the tone, dialogue, and inner monologue changes between the two characters is harmonized so beautifully. Reading from Kai’s perspective and seeing how he interprets situations and the world as someone who’s autistic to reading from Esme’s perspective as someone who’s new to this world of different mannerisms and cultural expectations added such a nice complexity to the plot.
I’m not going to lie, I was a bit worried about reading this book after doing a 180 with “The Kiss Quotient”. I don’t know why I was because I thoroughly enjoyed this reread. I did pick up on certain things I didn’t notice before. “The Bride Test” felt a bit more fast paced than I remember. While it did dive into deeper topics, the transitions between scenes felt a lot faster and time seemed to flow a lot faster in this book. Not that this a bad thing but I didn’t notice it as much as I did before. Quan of course remained a constant and honestly, my love for him grew in this book. This book did such a great job setting up his character as a brother and as a person in general. The way he treated Kai, the way he knew to help his brother without overstepping ,felt so sweet and loving.
In conclusion, I loved this book just as much as I did the first hundred times I read it and reread it lol.
Which book is your favorite? “The Kiss Quotient” or “The Bride Test”? My copy of “The Heart Principle” has yet to come but be on the look out for my review on that! I’m so excited to read it. From all the reviews that have come out so far on the book, it looks like it’s going to be a book that’s going to make you feel like your heart has been run over by Quan’s motor cycle and honestly, I’m ready for it. I’ve got afresh tub of ice cream to cry into.
If you want to check out my review for “The Kiss Quotient”, feel free to check it out here!