The Kiss Quotient
Ratings334
Average rating3.8
Every now and then a book comes along to capture your imagination and heart. The Kiss Quotient is it!
Watching the romance develop between Stella and Michael is just delightful.
An autistic woman hires a male escort to help tutor her in sex. Their resultant relationship is oh so hot and sweet.
Absolutely loved it!!!!!
This was one of three books I got through Book of the Month this month - the other two were The Book of Essie (Review here) and When Katie Met Cassidy. (Review posted soon!) I'm reviewing this today instead of another Pride Month read because today, June 18th, is Autistic Pride Day! The Kiss Quotient both stars and is written by a woman on the autistic spectrum, so I thought today would be a fitting day to tell you about it!
So The Kiss Quotient is basically a gender-swapped Pretty Woman, as Hoang mentions in the Author's Note. Our heroine, Stella Lane, books an escort to teach her about sex. Stella is thirty years old, has only had sex a couple of times, never enjoyed it, and is worried about not being good at it and therefore not being able to get or keep a boyfriend. She's an incredibly successful econometrician, or someone who uses data and statistics to model and predict economic trends, in her case predicting what people will want to buy from clients. (She's the kind of person responsible for those “Amazon started marketing baby products to me before I even knew I was pregnant!” incidents.) So she has more money than she knows what to do with, and offers Michael, an escort, $50,000 a month to teach her about sex and relationships.
Because this is a romance, we know what's going to happen here. They fall in love with each other, but are sure that for the other one it's just a business arrangement.
I was NOT expecting this book to be as explicit as it is! I think because it is a Book of the Month, I wasn't expecting the standard trope of romance book with hot sex scenes. But that's what I got! I can't say I'm unhappy with that - god knows I like my guilty pleasure romance smut - but it was definitely unexpected. I'm not sure why it surprised me. The book's premise is all about Stella wanting to learn about sex; if that wasn't conducted on screen we'd lose a third of the book!
A sequel has already been announced, and it's about the other autistic character in the book, the hero's best friend's little brother, Khai, who we only see in one scene. Who I'd also like to know more about is the best friend, Quan! So I'm holding out hope for a third book.
One last thing that I found important - in the Author's Note, Hoang mentions her daughter was diagnosed with AS, and in reading about Autism, she realized she is also on the spectrum. This is something I've seen in three different books now. It's so common for women, especially, to go undiagnosed. They might be better at modelling allistic (non-autistic) behavior, or their special interests might be more “acceptable” to allistics, or sometimes they just get looked at as introverts when they're young instead of getting the help they might need. This is starting to change, as researchers and doctors are realizing Autism presents differently in women. But it seems autistic adult women are often discovering they're autistic through a diagnosis of their children. I found that interesting.
I did really enjoy this book. I think it's a great debut novel, and a great romance. I really like the recent trend of more diversity in lead characters in romance novels. Bring on the people of color! More disabled main characters! There's got to be a romance somewhere with a deaf heroine, right? More alternative sexualities and relationship structures! Everyone, everywhere, wants to be loved, and I want to read about it. The thing is, I'm sure these books exist, but they don't get the kind of publicity they need for people to know about them. We have to actually go looking for them. I feel like I've been better about that recently, but it's definitely a place where the publication industry could improve.
You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.
DNF at 19%
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I saw foreplay and decided i just can't read this book anymore. WTFF WAS THAT LESSON PLAN LMAO STOP THIS IS SO CRIGNESGIO. It's seriously not my cup of tea because i HATE erotica books with a burning passion and I was so dissapointed finding out this has that stuff gn.
It's not just the erotica that irked me. The way they interact with one another, it's just off putting. The parents are just horribly developed and absolutely nothing can change my mind. I tried to keep reading for the sake of plot but gosh i can't when every other page is just completely described smut with fantasies please i'm a fresh 17 year old and i cannot deal with this.
I'm still mentally recovering from that teacher fantasy, that irked me so much i just couldn't. I don't know how this book is a goodreaders winner but that's just my opinion lol.
I liked the element of representation in this book, not having your usual white main characters was actually like a breath of fresh air. The depiction of Asperger's Syndrome through Stella and her interaction with her environment was quite interesting and i've definitely gained a slightly better understanding towards it. I really enjoyed areas where Stella elaborates on her job and her passion for her career, it was just really fascinating and my favorite part of the book. Rest all just sucked. (as far as i've read lol)
I liked the dynamic? the relationship between them and their differences was very interesting. That's all. I hated everything else.
I finally made time to read this and I'm so glad I did! It's a wow from me. I devoured it! I found that the characters really came to life for me. Michael and his family are so vivid in my mind. The female perspective of being a person living with autism was so enlightening and I found myself strongly relating to this author and Stella. Read the Author's Note!
I loved the gender swapped Pretty Woman angle. This is actually the second of this kind of story that I've read in the last month (Major love to Cara McKenna's Curio! I loved Didier but that story leaned more heavily erotica—not a complaint just FYI 😘. There's still a ton of steam between Michael and Stella) Anyway, it's always refreshing to see a woman in a romance as in love with her career as her love interest. And in a technical field! Love love love!
I also was thrilled to have a half Vietnamese Hero! It's secondary to everything but I loved the cultural touchstones this brought to the story. It really made it a unique romance. I can't say I've read anything quite like The Kiss Quotient and it left me with a sappy smile on my face at multiple points. I highly recommend it!
It started off so good and I loved it but then.... yeah. Just went downhill from there.
I really wanted to love this book. It has great representation and the premise is amazing, but the story and writing fell flat for me. I also really appreciated that Stella was the nerdy math person and Michael was the escort. The role reversal was great to read. I loved the characters but did enjoy the plot as much as I thought I would and there were times I was cringing as I read scenes between the love interests.
The characters were witty and real. It was easy to connect with them and feel like you truly knew them. However, there were a lot of moments where I was uncomfortable reading the characters together. This may have been somewhat intentional by the author, but it didn't work for me. I can see why everyone loves this book, but it just was not for me. I want to love the characters and the story and not be uncomfortable reading about the characters together.
CAWPILE Breakdown:
Characters: 9
Atmosphere: 3
Writing: 2
Plot: 6
Intrigue: 5
Logic: 3
Enjoyment: 4
This is one of those rare books I like the male MC more than the female one. And not just because he looks like Daniel Henney. It was sweet though, good for them.
(4.5, rounding up)
Took a trope I'm not a big fan of and made it into a great, enjoyable summer read. Love the diverse cast (though I can't speak to accuracy of representation, this is #ownvoices) and that Stella doesn't need to be “fixed” or change who she is to get to her HEA. I was rooting for these two all the way through.
Four stars for being one of the best romance novels I've ever read. Actually, can't think of a better at the moment. I read this for the 2019 Read Harder Challenge: A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse. This is both. Loved the female protagonist, who is rich, brilliant, and has Asperger's Syndrome.
1.75/2 stars
The only reason I'm rounding up is because of the representation in this book. The only plus.
But urghhhh, I hated everything else in this book, from the cringey dialogue, to possessive and pushy characters (cough Michael *cough) , to the way that I felt like it implied that people find happiness from being in relationships and giving grandbabies to their parents, to some of the worst (&cringeyest) smut scenes I've ever read to the fact it was almost like the book was trying to suggest (as other reviews have pointed out) that it's possible to fuck away autism. Ummm... No thank you.
This book really impressed me. I loved finally reading a contemporary romance that's just... Different. Being able to see things from the perspective of an autistic character was really interesting and fresh, and makes me wish there were more stories with such diverse casts of characters. I will definitely read more by this author.
So after seeing early reviews comparing this book to The Hating Game, it became one of my most anticipated reads of 2018. I'm happy to say that it was quite an enjoyable read.
Stella is high-functioning autistic. She's very self-aware and knows that she isn't the greatest when it comes to romance so she hires a male escort, Michael, for the purpose of learning how to be better at sex and relationships. Of course the relationship between Stella and Michael turns from business into something more or else this wouldn't be considered a romance novel. It was really fun to read how they navigated through their “arrangement”. I appreciated how patient Michael was with Stella and how she took steps outside of her comfort zone for him as well. Michael's family was also pretty great and I'd love a Quan book.
4.5 - this was so so so cute!! Stella is written perfectly and her acceptance of who she is including her autism made me so happy
I adored elements of this book.
The style✅
The themes✅
The character development✅
However, I was not expecting the book to be so graphic. I don't consider myself to be a sensitive, straight-laced reader. But I skipped pages, finding the love-making details did not add, but distract from the story's core.
“How did one not obsess over something wonderful? How did one like something a reasonable amount?”
The overall story was enjoyable and sweet even despite being predictable and having some of my least liked tropes: insta-love and miscommunication. Let me elaborate.
Firstly, the representation was great, Stella and Micheal made a cute couple and I liked how the gender norms were reversed here, Sella was the rich one working in a STEM field and Michael was the artist struggling with paying the bills.
But they were gaga over each other way too soon, I wasn't even midway through the book when they were thinking about falling in love. No. You guys just fell in lust. And there was too much of the devil's tango if you know what I mean. At first, it was fine, definitely better than that Sarah J. Mass cringefest (I think I actually saw her promote this book somewhere haha), however I thought this would be more of a chick-lit romance with “some” steam and there was definitely more than “some”.
It's refreshing to see a protagonist from the spectrum in this scenario because it's important to acknowledge that someone with this disorder can be just as much of a sexual being as anyone, but, for me, this was explored a little too much and it overshadowed the story and it got really repetitive fast. At one point they were touching ever other page and I was rolling my eyes thinking Can you guys not do this right now please? Your family is in the next room. By that point I was ready for the story to wrap up.
The ending was not by favorite either. I can't stand when people don't use their words and assume what you're thinking and make a choice for you. Please, no. Tell me how you feel and we'll take it from here. And they did exactly that, they assumed how the other felt and it got messy. But there's a happy end, don't worry.
Ve lo giuro, avrei voluto amare questo libro con tutto il cuore, ma ci sono troppe cose che mi fanno storcere il naso. Non è il mio cup of tea, ma leggetelo perché potrebbe essere il vostro!
edit: considerando che l'ho finito quasi alle 11 di sera, avevo bisogno di metabolizzare. si dice che la notte porti consiglio, e infatti è così. dormendoci su, ho realizzato che pur non essendo il mio cup of tea, è una storia carina e il personaggio di stella mi è piaciucchiato. quindi, alzo il rating
3.5✨ my full thoughts can be found in my latest reading vlog about hyped romances
I loved this book so much! Now I truly understand the hype around it - it definitely deserves it! Such a beautiful, heartwarming story that everyone needs to read. And the smut is great as well ;)
I honestly really loved how this book approached dating while on the spectrum, being on the autism spectrum is definitely a underrepresented group when it comes to novel and media, and I think this novel portrayed it well, while not having one dimensional characters.
The Kiss Quotient is a book that I would recommend to people who love a nice romance. This book is ultimately very smutty as it is a New Adult book and its premise is about a woman who needs some ‘experience' in dating. However, it is much more than simply a sexy read. This book explores autism in a very delicate and well managed way, probably since the author herself is autistic. I think it is great that it is encorparated nicely into the story line without it becoming the main focus as mental illnesses often tend to do in novels. Moreover, I liked the ethnic background of the main male character and that he wasn't just white, as whilst there is no problem with that, it was nice to see some diverse representation and a different cultural aspect that adds to the story as well. Overall, I would describe this book as a regular sexy read with tons more depth!