The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang #BookReview

It’s high time for Stella Lane to settle down and find a husband – or so her mother tells her. This is no easy task for a wealthy, successful woman like Stella, who also happens to have Asperger’s. Analyzing data is easy; handling the awkwardness of one-on-one dates is hard. To overcome her lack of dating experience, Stella decides to hire a male escort to teach her how to be a good girlfriend.

Faced with mounting bills, Michael decides to use his good looks and charm to make extra cash on the side. He has a very firm no repeat customer policy, but he’s tempted to bend that rule when Stella approaches him with an unconventional proposal.

The more time they spend together, the harder Michael falls for this disarming woman with a beautiful mind, and Stella discovers that love defies logic.

 

This is one of those novels that I’ve seen everywhere and heard so much of that I was compelled to find out for myself what it was all about. I read some of the reviews beforehand but I either have a very selective memory or they didn’t really share what a good portion of the book was about. Okay, it could be that readers found it pretty evident that a novel about a gigolo is a novel involving sex, and it is, but I definitely didn’t realise how much bedsport would be involved. Either way, it sure wasn’t this that interested me in the novel. I love attraction and teasing but once they start to show off and there’s too much action and not enough steam, then I’m out. So yes in the end this made me cut off a star, I’m sorry not sorry.

What really made me want to read The Kiss Quotiënt was when I heard it was a novel about a woman with autism who hadn’t had a meaningful relationship yet nor any happy moments in bed. I wanted to get to know her. It was her autism that fascinated me and I wondered how she would look at the world from her perspective.

At the start of the novel Stella’s mother is urging her to find a partner and make work of her first grandchild. Enter male escort Michael who’s of course the most divine creature and loveliest lad on earth and who’ll help her to get her next date back wanting more.

I liked that the roles were reversed and even enjoyed knowing where the story was going. It’s not very surprising but I didn’t mind at all as I wanted a romantic story. What did stick out as a sore thumb however was that her autism was highlighted in her interactions with her parents, and with Michael’s family and friends, but between them there’s never any issue safe for an occasional unintended blip, meaning before he knows she has autism. Once he does, everything runs peachy perfect. A little too perfect for me though that a complete stranger understands her so well that her autism seems to almost disappear and it’s just a normal love story. I just don’t think it’s as simple as that.

I have to keep in mind though that this is not a psychological study and want it to be more than it is, it is a love story between two unlikely characters who happen to develop feelings for one another and the writer did make it an entertaining story. I loved the warm family feeling of Michael’s side, I loved the professions the characters were attributed and how they seem so perfect for them, Stella is an econometrist and Michael works in his family’s drycleaner and tailor’s shop, and even though the story isn’t really exceptional, it’s still sweet and lovely and I’m sure lots of readers will swoon over Michael. A perfect novel for some summery escapism.

I won a copy of this novel via a blogger’s giveaway. This is my honest opinion.

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