Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Helen Hoang - The Kiss Quotient

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...


Comment: Everyone who has been tuned to the world of romance books has probably heard of this title, which was a huge success last year and won some prizes along the way. It also featured in many reader's best of lists. I got my copy several months ago but I've been procrastinating because I had other things to read in the meantime and also because with all the hype, I feared a little bit it might not be as good as so many other readers claimed. 
In the end, I enjoyed it as much as it was promised but yes, I also hoped for even more wow factor...

In this book we follow the lives of Stella and Michael when a specific situation brings them together. 
Stella is a young woman who is very successful in her job despite her social limitations and her autism. However, between her parents' pressure to find someone and have a family and her own awareness of what she can't do well (her impression), she decides to contract a sex escort to help her with intimacy so that she can do better with an eventual partner.
Michael is a man who has let go of his dreams because his family is struggling and he does what he can to help them, especially after what his father did, which still makes him a little mad. In order to pay bills from his mother's treatments, he has become an escort to rich women. He is used to the feeling of being looked down even though he is asked for his looks and skills. He doesn't think he will ever really enjoy being with a client but Stella is both funny and weird and things flow. 
But can they both maintain this as the business contract they expected at first?

One of the details that has surprised people the most and according to several reviews the main reason why this was such a successful story is the fact it portrays a solid, balanced romance story featuring a main character with autism. I can't swear because memory plays tricks on you but this isn't certainly the first romance with this theme/situation. I knew it it from the start so that special factor was not one I considered to be important.

The really different aspect is how Stella is portrayed and deals with the new situations in her life. The fun part is how the the author would show this part of Stella but not limiting her to the stories we would hear about people with some disorder or other not being good enough romance protagonists. So, in this regard, I think the author accomplished the task and made it all more about Stella and her difficulties but not her limitations. I cared about Stella but not because she has autism; I liked her because she was quirky and weird like anyone else can be and she still showed she could find love.
It should be mentioned the author explained this face of Stella is just one of several that could have been used to create a character with autism. This means not all autistic people act or behave or react the same to the different stimuli/situations.

Stella was a fascinating character, with some of the characteristics a non expert reader on autism would expect: shy, not looking people in the eye, focused or obsessed with things, routines, weird knowledge not always said in the best way, etc. 
But it was so sweet to also have a caring and heroine-like behavior from her. Stella is, first of all, a woman and it was great to also see her knowing her own worth as female and notion of her intelligence and abilities. Romantically speaking, she was cute too, with all her insecurities that pretty much any so-called "normal" woman can also have.

Michael is also interesting because he has a fascinating origin combination: mother from Vietnam and father from Sweden. But his looks are only part of who he is and his best feature is, despite his random thoughts of being just like his no good father, his dedication for those he cares about, especially his mother. So, a guy who likes his mother enough to become a prostitute to help her has to be a great hero potential!
I enjoyed the alternative POV chapters because it's great to have the perspectives of both protagonists and this way we got to slowly learn a little more about Michael too and what he wants.

I think this was a very romantic story but there were some scenes I didn't feel were as emotional as they could have been. The angst moments weren't many but when happened I feel they weren't well executed for the most part either. There was still some distance between the story and the tone so sometimes I felt the lack of depth in some situations. This is not a perfect story but balancing the strong points and the not so good ones, I still believe this was a well achieved book. 
I have confidence that, as her writing skills improve, so the books in general, which means this is certainly an author to kep the eye on.
Grade: 8/10

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