#The kiss quotient how to

Consent is sexy, and this chapter shows just how sexy it can be.įinally, I thought Hoang did a good job incorporating Stella’s autism into the story. The way Michael eased her into greater intimacy, while still very much respecting her boundaries, was beautifully done, and resulted in an incredibly sensual scene that was ultimately chaste, yet still somehow felt sexier than if they’d gone further. Their first night together, even things like French kissing and opening the top button of her shirt set Stella off. Part of it is Stella’s initial fear of being touched, and Michael’s incredible gentleness towards her, so that even when things got more intense, lovemaking still feels like the more accurate term than sex. The lovemaking scenes were off-the-charts hot. I also love how complex Michael’s mom’s feelings still are for the dad who abandoned the family, and I especially love the scene where she confronted Michael with a harsh, much-needed dose of reality about his hang-ups in pursuing a relationship with Stella.

His cousin Quan is awesome with his tattooed, bad boy aura, and I’d personally love to see him star in a romance of his own. His mom, grandmother and sisters all had such vivid personalities I felt like I was at the family dinner with them, and I could just picture the siblings growing up together. I also loved the secondary characters, particularly Michael’s family. Rather, they were rooted in insecurities that Hoang did a masterful job in setting up throughout, so that when things came to a head, we could understand why Stella and Michael reacted the way they did, even as we wanted nothing more than for them to move past their issues. There were misunderstandings that drove them apart, but these never felt manufactured. They both felt real, and they both had all these vulnerabilities that only the other person truly got. I absolutely adored Stella and Michael and their love story.

#The kiss quotient how to

He also has a day job and career dream that he put on hold to support his family, and I won’t reveal what it is here because the reveal in the book is just too beautifully done to spoil, but seriously, this guy just got me in all the feels. Stella decides to hire Michael to teach her how to have sex, so that she can handle actual relationships and, well, things take off from there. He works as a male escort to pay off his mother’s medical bills, and he also trains as a martial artist. (Hoang somehow succeeds in making this not as cheesy as it sounds.) Basically, she analyzes market trends, and there’s a great moment where love literally is a factor in her calculations. I also loved Stella as a heroine because she’s an econometrist is such a wonderfully nerdy profession I didn’t even know existed. From the first few pages where Stella stresses out about dating because she doesn’t enjoy touching, and she really doesn’t enjoy sex, I was intrigued at how Hoang would craft a romance around this. Heart-tugging, sexy and utterly joyful - The Kiss Quotient is a book for anyone who has been in love, or in lust.I absolutely, wholeheartedly adored The Kiss Quotient! It’s the first romance I’ve ever read with an autistic heroine (Stella has Asperger’s), and I’m always on the lookout for Asian representation in books (the hero Michael is half Vietnamese, and the author’s surname is Hoang), so this book caught my eye almost immediately as one I wanted to check out.Īnd I’m incredibly glad I did. 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. 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. To overcome her lack of dating experience, Stella decides to hire a male escort to teach her how to be a good girlfriend.įaced with mounting bills, Michael decides to use his good looks and charm to make extra cash on the side. Analyzing data is easy handling the awkwardness of one-on-one dates is hard. This is no easy task for a wealthy, successful woman like Stella, who also happens to have Asperger's. It's high time for Stella Lane to settle down and find a husband - or so her mother tells her. Goodread 's Romance Book of the Year, 2018Ĭosmopolitan's 33 Books to Get Excited About in 2018Ī 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.