Vietnamese-American Khai has autism, and believes that he is incapable of feeling love. When his matchmaking mother informs him that Esme, an uneducated janitor she met in Vietnam, will be staying with him for the summer and is meant to be his eventual wife, Khai resolves to make the best of things until he can send Esme home. However, their instant mutual attraction complicates matters.
For a book about a man who is certain he cannot feel, The Bride Test sure packs an emotional wallop. Esme's moments of recognition of her own worth—in a world that doesn't want to see it—and her journey to make a life in America is heart-achingly beautiful. I totally wept through the last quarter of this novel (so many feels!) and it was so worth it for a HEA [Happily Ever After] that is both surprising and perfect, and everything you want a romance novel to be.
With The Bride Test, Hoang has once again shown readers the importance of representation in literature, while also creating a sexy, compassionate story about the power of love and the enduring American Dream.
For a one-stop counter to all those trend pieces bemoaning the supposed 'death' of the rom-com, look to Helen Hoang ... Hoang’s books are tenderly personal ... Hoang is a sensitive writer, but also a very funny one ... There are so many good things about this book. The plotting is tight. The romance unfolds to irresistible, if familiar, beats. The set pieces range from perfectly comic...to erotic, the heat between the couple luxuriously realized on the page.
