[Review] The Bride Test - Helen Hoang

Summary: Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love. (Pub Date: May 07, 2019)

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

This seems to be in the same universe of another book, The Kiss Quotient, but I should start by saying I haven't read it. Which is a pity, because it seems consensus this wasn't as good.

The story is about how Esme is convinced to go to the United States for the summer and see if she hits things off with Khai, a person with autism who has been convinced he is incapable of loving.

The premise is funny and the beginning with all the details about Vietnamese culture was sure interesting. There were funny dialogues and the side characters were also lovely—I don't think the "main" side characters were from the previous book, by the way.

I don't know anyone with Khai's problems to evaluate but from the writer's biography I'm sure she's more than ready to deal with it in a realistic manner. Still, and this was before I knew about the author, I was very impressed by how Khai was constructed.

Yeah, the problem was development. Bringing so many different elements into the plot, I was sure the writer had more for us than what we are presented with. It's a romance, a bit more interesting than others, but it seems she gave us all that picked this apart from other books in the beginning and we were left with a lot of pages of the same old story.

I was disappointed and that made my read grow bitter as I went on. Aside from Khai's reactions, the book just got too predictable. Even their relationship was a bit bland, it never really made me cheer for them, even though I did love the two of them (and every other character in the book, to be honest).

I think this has value as a romance, if you want to read a romance book, this is my recommendation. But it could have been more memorable for all the work it has on its basis.

Rating: 3 out of 5.