The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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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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The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

As the temperature rises, and joins the humidity in making it feel as though summer is here, even though it won’t peak until August, I’m so very grateful that our book club doesn’t require a particular dress code, like the ton’s.  It will be way more fun to discuss Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I with the benefit of air conditioning and pajamas modern clothing.  You do not need to faire votre toilette to join in the conversation on Friday, June 10th at 7:30pm CST, but you do need to RSVP here to let us know you’ll be joining Heart.Wants.Books. and friends.

While this month’s first and last titles have been on our radar for a while, last week’s and this week’s are titles we purposefully searched out.  In selecting our titles, we wanted only titles by authors who are Asian American and Pacific Islander, and we wanted different cultures to be represented.  As part of this, we wanted to include a native Hawaiian author because Moana and Lilo inspire us and we felt it important to include that representation in our reading this month.  We should not have been surprised at the lack of native Hawaiian authors accessible to us in our library systems, but I at least was.  Darling readers, I recommended SO. MANY. BOOKS. To my local electronic library because the selection was abysmal.  We searched for lists and authors and truly struggled to find a Kindle book that met our reading tastes (which are fairly wide) and allowed us a window into the life of a native Hawaiian.  We did find some options though, partially thanks to our Kindle Unlimited subscriptions, and are thoroughly pleased with the results.  Read on to see what we think of this week’s title that we searched and searched for, and I do not mean the pages of my holds, this was intense y’all, ridiculously so.

Mysteries of Honolulu by Robert Lopaka Kapanui is a collection of short stories, including both factual and fictional inspiration of mysterious happenings on the islands of Hawai‘i.  These stories are compact, yet complete, carefully crafted, and picturesque.  I’m actually torn as to whether I think this title is best suited to summer, with the descriptions of beaches, oceans, and lush vegetation, or fall for the supernatural happenings, but truly, a cool summer night around a small fire might be the perfect way to go, and you could definitely read this thin collection in one sitting by said fire, if you want to.  (I didn’t, I savored it over a few days and really liked it!)

Kapanui includes a group of characters who seem so real, despite the few pages a reader spends with most, and saves his most fun story for last.  Each character and scene felt so well developed that I had a clear visual in my head, but the movie I want to see is really the final story, which makes up nearly 40% of the 111 pages.  Mysteries of Honolulu includes stories of ghosts, shadow warriors, odd happenings, deities, and loads of insights into Hawaiian culture and customs.  I’m giving this title four solid stars for a fun collection of short stories that are incredibly well written, engaging, and also culturally enlightening.  I doubt I’ll read it again, but I’m very interested in his second volume which was released this spring.  Perhaps that’s the one I’ll save for hanging out by a fire!  

What’s one title you’ve enjoyed that seems to belong to a particular season?

~Nikki 

Lopaka Kapanui’s family’s legends, history, customs, and protocol were passed down the traditional Hawaiian way, from “mouth to ear,” or mo’olelo. It was not just the stories themselves that he learned at the knees of his mother and Aunty, but that he has the responsibility as the recipient of these stories to pass them down to the next generation of his family. In 1994 Kapanui met his mentor on a ghost tour, historian and author Glen Grant. In the years up until Grant’s death in 2003, Kapanui absorbed Grant’s exacting research ethic, cross checking every story and fact to the best of his abilities. Kapanui created his own ghost tour business after Grant’s passing, calling it Ghosts of Old Honolulu, then renaming it Mysteries of Honolulu, and finally transitioning to its current iteration in Mysteries of Hawai’i, expanding his storytelling and tours beyond Oahu and onto neighboring islands. Because of his writing, storytelling, and cultural impact to his island home, the Hawaiian State Legislature publicly honored him for his contributions in March 2020. In addition to all of these storytelling pursuits, Kapanui is an actor, kumu hula, cultural practitioner, former professional wrestler, husband, father, and grandpa.

If I didn’t already want to travel to Hawai’i (I mean, who doesn’t!) these short, somewhat spooky tales in Mysteries of Honolulu would have given me the desire. I definitely want the opportunity to experience Kapanui’s storytelling in person on one of his ghost tours for sure. I already love a good ghost tour, it’s more about the historical facts and nighttime walk-about a city that gets me going more so than the supernatural tales, so the fact that these stories are inspired by or used on a tour is icing on the cake. Not surprisingly, I didn’t have any highlights in this book as it is a short 111 page collection of stories, so I don’t have much to discuss. My one critique is that I would have appreciated a good footnoted translation of some of the Hawaiian language bits as I struggled through that dialogue or the use of random words. I could not figure out most of them from context clues and it often left me a little frustrated. Ya girl has got the romance languages figured out with cognate use, but native Hawaiian…not even a little bit. Thanks to movies my Hawaiian words are aloha, mahalo, ohana, hula, and kahuna. That’s rather abysmal, truth be told.

Mysteries of Honolulu gets 4 stars from me.  I am so glad I read it. I’m so glad Nikki and I took the time to search out a native Hawaiian author telling tales of native Hawaiian culture and history, even if some of the characters are of a supernatural bent. Plus, I learned why Hawaiian children are taught to respect the items of others and to never touch someone’s things without the express permission of the owner. Like Nikki, my favorite story was the final one, and she’s right when saying it would make an excellent movie – I hope Kapanui works on his screen play soon! I, too, am looking forward to reading his second book, Mysteries of Hawai’i: Na Mo’olelo Lapu, a collection of stories of true hauntings in Hawai’i, and the raising of chicken skin all over my body while I read.

~Ashley

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