[Book Review] The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice — with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan — from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

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When I decided February would be the month I read a handful of romance books, and this was one I knew had to be on my TBR list. From the good reviews, winning a the Goodreads award for romance, and the fact that it recently got a movie deal I was pretty excited to read this one. And overall I am really glad I did. 

"Michael was mint chocolate chip for her. She could try other flavors, but he'd always be her favorite."

The characters were definitely one of the best part of this book for me. I really loved Stella and Michael's relationship. I think the way they meet, despite being a super adult situation, is kind of wholesome. Stella wanting to learn how to have sex, how to be in a relationship when it comes to not only the one-on-one aspect of relationships but also the social aspect. Stella's willingness to learn and be pretty open with something that could be potentially embarrassing was really sweet. I also loved how Michael never made Stella feel silly for wanting to learn basically from a stranger. The whole thing was really cute. I think their more professional relationship developed gradually and naturally considering the unique position they put themselves in. 

When it comes to the rep in this book, the biggest one is that Stella has autism, Asperger's specifically. I do not have autism and I don't know anyone close enough to me for me to be incredibly experienced with it. So when I lightly skimmed some reviews after finishing the book I wanted to know what the general thoughts were when it came to the autism representation. From what I found by skimming a good dozen or more reviews was that the representation seems to be handled well. That could be because the book is own voices, meaning Helen Hoang also is autistic which makes it more authentic. Also, Michael is biracial, he's half Vietnamese and half Swedish. His mother's side is Vietnamese and I absolutely loved all of the scenes with his family. They were the absolute best part of the story and we didn't get enough of them. More on that later. 

"The hero didn't even have to win. All he had to do to get the girl was fight for her. If he lost, she'd kiss him better." 

This is an adult romance book, so I expected sex scenes, but personally, there are too many for me. I think some of them could have been cut to give more substance to the story. The story is borderline erotica and it wasn't really what I had signed up to read. I am not against having sex scenes in a romance book, but it's a romance book not a erotica book, so I expect a little more plot and a little less sex. The sex scenes themselves weren't bad and had both their good and bad moments. The good moments being: I loved the explicit consent being displayed each time. Nods. Affirmations. Asking for permission. I love seeing that in sex scenes especially since a lot of the romance books I've read blur the lines of consent too often.The sex itself was pretty typical of what you'd expect out of a steamy romance. I did like that a lot of the scenes were about foreplay, touching, soft moments of intimacy. I know the more not great romance books I've read in the past focused on only penetration and "rough sex" that seems, boring? I guess. I am not sure how to describe it. But I liked the way Helen Hoang writes her sex scenes for the most part. But there were some issues I had with the scenes, most of the issues are boiled down to being really cringe-y. It was mostly the words used to describe body parts during the scenes. Stella kept referring to her vagina as her "sex" which got...weird. Michael referred to her nipples as candy. It was a bit random and came out of nowhere, but once I saw it I couldn't unsee it and the sexy scenes became laughable. 

Other than the awkward language with the sex, one of the other things I wasn't a fan of was the conflict. I hate the trope where conflict is caused by lack of communication. Miscommunication is one of my least favorite tropes because I am a fan of adults acting like adults, so I did get frustrated more than I expected to. If they just took a moment to sit down and talk instead of constantly having sex they wouldn't have had any problems and they would have saved each other some time. On the note of constantly having sex, they were ridiculous at times. Like I mentioned earlier, I am a big fan of Michael's family. I love when stories pull in healthy family relationships. Michael's family was warm, welcoming, and sweet. I loved his bickering with his sisters, how much he loved his mom, and the way Stella met his grandmother. I also really loved Michael's relationship with his cousin Quan and would have loved more time between them. It's all so heartwarming and sweet. I loved the way they grew to love Stella despite their rocky start into meeting each other. And on the flip side, I love how much Stella's parents loved her. I know we don't get to see them as much as Michael's family but there's a scene in particular where Stella's mom really steps in and is there for her and I got emotional. It was sweet. 

"When you love someone, you fight for them in every way you know how."

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's my second romance of the month and I liked this one more than the first (The Hating Game) so we are getting somewhere. Honestly the problems I had for this one were way better than the ones in The Hating Game. Sure, this one was cringe-y and there were more sex scenes than I would have preferred but nothing was problematic. So honestly, I call this a win in my book. And I would definitely recommend it. 

Thanks for reading!