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Sanditon is over, and I’m delighted to soon be ready to binge season one of Bridgerton, but only after I read Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I, and hopefully with time before our Virtual Book Club conversation on Friday, June 10th at 7:30pm CST.  Will you join us?  If so, please RSVP here to let us know you’ll be joining Heart.Wants.Books. and friends.  Reading isn’t required, and neither is viewing, but spoilers may happen if you don’t!  

Readers, I don’t think I can express how excited I was to finally get Ashley to read one of my 2019 favorites, The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.  It was only made better by me getting to reread it, and us binge reading the entire trilogy!  I learned my lesson late last year, and I set aside the reading time to go back to the beginning, and it did make my experience better!  I first read The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test in 2019, then reread them both prior to reading The Heart Principle this month.  

There was a time when I aspired to review all the books I read on Goodreads.  Today, I’m grateful The Kiss Quotient was one of those, because I know that Sarah J. Maas is the reason this reached my radar (and we know my memory is not great)!  She suggested it on the Today Show, and just as I will read anything she writes, I’ll read almost anything she suggests (she also suggested The Bourbon Kings by JR Ward, which we cosign).  Some readers may clutch their pearls at this description, but stay with me…going into this novel, I knew it was about an autistic woman trying to navigate romantic relationships by hiring an escort, but it’s so much more! Yes, it reads like a romance novel (because it is), but it’s also about compassion for self and others, coping, and learning to be your true, best self. It’s a really thorough story about becoming a better version of yourself, for both of our main characters. The characters are multi-dimensional, we understand the motivations and the backstories, and best of all, the relationship feels possible and not just contrived.  This novel is an open door romance, which I understand isn’t for everyone, but the story is really well done. I’d suggest readers consider skimming the bedroom scenes for relevant dialogue if they’re interested in the rest.  If you’re on the fence about reading this because of those scenes, please DM us if we can help assuage your concerns!  

Each subsequent novel in this trilogy is once more with feeling and really holds up!  The Bride Test also includes a main character on the autism spectrum, and themes of romantic relationships, immigrant communities, complex family dynamics, and being true to yourself, after you figure out who that person is. It’s a sweet, direct, open-door romance with a dose of family saga with amazing characters who demonstrate such depth and growth throughout the summer the bulk of this novel covers.  We don’t have an escort, but we do have a sort of mail order bride, and it really works in context.  (Yes, a modern romance series that includes main characters who are an escort and a mail order bride….just trust me if the rest feels like it could be for you!)  

I had very high hopes for The Heart Principle and even mentioned to Ashley that I was excited as to the details of the next book.  The beginning didn’t have the bang I wanted (because the aforementioned escort and mail order bride are a big bang to me), but Anna is struggling professionally, and then is told by her boyfriend that he wants an open relationship before they become engaged and I found it (not a spoiler for anyone but me if it’s in the marketing copy!).  Sweet, strong Quan finds his match in seeking a one night stand and stumbling across Anna who’s trying to get back at her boyfriend and be open herself.  I did remember that Quan was one of the main characters in this novel, and since we met him in The Kiss Quotient I was SO. READY. to get to know him more!  I do think this novel needs a couple of trigger warnings for medical situations.  Included are characters who are emotionally recovering from cancer after being medically cleared, and a character who has a severe stroke and the struggles that come with determining if and how to care for a loved one whose prognosis does not include recovery.  As much as I think this book is amazing, please don’t read it if the medical pieces are going to cause you additional stress.  

In case it isn’t clear, I’m giving each book in The Kiss Quotient trilogy five emphatic stars.  The characters are dimensional, the writing is whitty and descriptive, and there is so much depth to the text.  Helen Hoang is on my season pass list of authors, and has been since The Bride Test.  If she’s writing, I’m here for it.  

What’s a book that was so much more than you expected and even delivered on a reread?

~Nikki 

The Kiss Quotient trilogy is the best selling romance series by Helen Hoang. 2018’s The Kiss Quotient, 2019’s The Bride Test, and 2021’s The Heart Principle are all set in the San Francisco Bay area and follow a trio of male friends and the women they fall in love with. A lifelong romance reader, Hoang lives in San Diego with her husband, two children, and pet fish. Hoang used her own story, of being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder as an adult in 2016 as the inspiration for The Kiss Quotient. Each of the couples in the trilogy contains one person on the spectrum, but their diagnosis and the way they present to the outside world are only part of their characters, not their entire personality. Additionally, five of six main characters identify as Asian or Asian American. So not only does Hoang provide a diverse set of characters as regards their neurodivergency, but only one of the main characters is white. And I find that immensely refreshing.

Nikki did an amazing job covering the main plot points of the novels above, and I’m immensely grateful for that, because now I can discuss how I waited 2 years after buying The Kiss Quotient to actually read it. I had purchased it in January 2020 during a kindle sale on Nikki’s recommendation, but finally wedged it onto the Fini list just this past January, like a birthday gift to myself because I loved it. And that’s when I suggested that we cover the entire trilogy during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month in May. (Yes, we did know that we were doing to celebrate diversity in this way even back in 2021. We play the long game, people, the long game.) Luckily, we both already had The Heart Principle on hold through our digital libraries (she made me recommend it to our libraries before the book was published and I am not remotely sorry I listened having not yet read the first in the trilogy), and miracle of miracles The Bride Test had a kindle sale in February! We were set to read and re-read at our own pace in preparation for this post. I should have also re-read The Kiss Quotient before diving into The Bride Test this month, but I didn’t. I really could have used the reminder of the character names and the other major plot points. I thought my memory would hold after 5 months but it did not. I greatly appreciate my book buddy for doing a thorough re-read before this post.

I also want to thank my book buddy for giving me the trigger warning that she just gave you, our readers, about medical issues in book three. She had already started reading The Heart Principle when I came to her with a boat load of family and friend medical drama that includes multiple cancer diagnoses, both new and worsening, on top of having just lost a friend’s dad after years of dialysis and recent strokes. I have never really been one to need or heed trigger warnings, but had I gone into The Heart Principle without having read the marketing copy (which is probably what I would have done because who needs to do that when you know the genre and author) I might have had to take a step back from it for a couple of days or struggled through the themes and not enjoyed the relational parts of the book rather than having been prepared for the onslaught of emotions coming from my own current experience. In short, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the final book in a fabulous trilogy without heeding that warning.

I, like Nikki, am giving The Kiss Quotient Trilogy an emphatic five star review for delicious writing, relatable characters, a cohesive story based on the friendship and family relationships of three men rather than the female main characters, diversity of national and cultural identity, and inclusion of neurodivergent main characters. Wow. When I write all of that out it seems like the entire trilogy should pack a heavier emotional burden than it does. But, maybe that’s the genre itself, that romance because of its required Happily Ever After, ties the story up into a neat package even if the plot contains unexpectedly heavy themes.

What book or books did you hold off on reading even though your book buddy knew you would LOVE it?

~Ashley

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