Series: The Kiss Quotient

The Wednesday Post (1)

Posted January 2, 2019 by Rowena in Features | 12 Comments

So I’ve been playing around with things that I want to do on this blog and I’ve been wanting to do a mid-week check in so that I can chat about the books that I’m reading that week. What’s working for me and what’s not but I also want to keep a running lists of books that I cannot wait to get my greedy little hands on. I decided that I’m going to do a mashup of the Can’t Wait Wednesday and WWW Wednesday posts here on my blog and I’m going to call it The Wednesday Post.

Can’t Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tessa over at Wishful Endings and it was based on Waiting on Wednesday that was hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme that is hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It’s a meme that let’s you chat about what you’re reading and planning to read this week.

WWW Wednesday

What did you recently finish reading?

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne

In the last couple of weeks, my reading mojo has been non-existent so I’m trying to get myself out of that reading slump and this is the book that I picked up to jump start my 2019 reading. I finished it in no time so I’m hopeful that my reading for 2019 will be fantastic. This was another fabulous read by Sally Thorne and she has cemented herself on my auto-buy list. Great, great stuff!

What are you currently reading?

Governess Gone Rogue (Dear Lady Truelove #3) by Laura Lee Guhrke

I’m tackling books from my review pile and this book is up. I’m enjoying the book so far and this series is really shaping up to be a fun one. I enjoy Laura Lee Guhrke’s writing and I’m happy to report that this book is just as good as her others.

What do you think you’ll read next?

One and Only (Bridesmaids Behaving Badly #1) by Jenny Holiday

I have the third book in this series for review and it comes out in a few weeks so I need to get my ass in gear and get this read so that I can be ready for Three Little Words. I’ve been hearing such wonderful things about this series so I’m looking forward to digging in.

Can’t Wait Wednesday
The Wednesday Post (1)The Bride Test
by Helen Hoang
Series: The Kiss Quotient #2
Also in this series: The Kiss Quotient
Published by Penguin, Berkley on May 7, 2019
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 320
Add It: Goodreads

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.

We are a matter of months away from Helen Hoang’s next release The Bride Test and I’m super excited about that. Last year’s The Kiss Quotient was my favorite book of the entire year and Hoang’s writing style spoke to me so I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with Kwan’s book. If you remember TKQ, Kwan is Michael Phan’s (swoon) cousin and he’s going to be another interesting character, I just know it. I cannot freaking wait for this one. It’s like at the top of my wishlist.

So, what are you reading this week? Anything good? Anything that you want to rant about?
Are you looking forward to The Bride Test? What other books are you looking forward to releasing this year?

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Review: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Posted July 6, 2018 by Rowena in Reviews | 8 Comments

Review: The Kiss Quotient by Helen HoangThe Kiss Quotient
by Helen Hoang
Series: The Kiss Quotient #1
Published by Penguin, Berkley on June 5, 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Point of View:Alternating Third Person
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Add It: Goodreads
five-stars

A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases--a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice--with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan--from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic...

It took me a really long time to read The Kiss Quotient and when I finally did, I wanted to kick myself in the tits because it was the most complete romance that I’ve read in a long time. Sure, I read and gave some 5 stars already this year but those books weren’t complete stories. Burn for Me was amazing and I adored it to pieces but the beginning was a little slow and there was so much information that it took me a while to figure things out but that wasn’t the case with The Kiss Quotient. Right from the very beginning, I was hooked.

There were a lot of things that I wasn’t prepared for when we meet Stella Lane. She’s a high functioning autistic heroine and that’s a huge part of her and a big part of the story. The author does a great job of making the reader understand what a person with Aspergers goes through and lives with every day. She doesn’t bring it up and then brush it under the rug. The reader lives through Stella’s days and in her thoughts and I couldn’t help but connect with her. There was never any middle ground with her, she was either indifferent or obsessed and I found that understanding these things about Stella helped me to care about her a lot deeper than I thought I would.

“All the things that make you different make you perfect.”

My book boyfriend for this week goes straight to Michael Phan because he was everything that I hoped for and everything that I wish for in real life. I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t prepared to like a male escort hero as much as I did for reasons I don’t even know but Helen Hoang gave Michael a story that anybody would come to love.

There’s a lot to love about Michael. He had dreams and he aspirations that he had to put on hold so that he could pick up the broken pieces of his family that his father left behind. He became the head of his family and took that position very seriously. He did whatever needed to be done to make sure that everyone he loved was safe, protected and well cared for. He put himself last at every turn and when Stella came into his life, he tried to do the same with her.

I loved seeing Michael fall in love with Stella because it was slow and it was sure. He understood Stella a lot more than anyone else did and he loved every single thing about her. He was patient with her and he was careful with her and he just won me over at every turn.

Here’s who I pictured as Michael Phan and I already know that it’s perfect because it’s mentioned in the book that he was a dead ringer for Daniel Henney and…*swoon*

Overall, this was an amazing story about a high functioning autistic heroine and the male escort that fell in love with her. This Pretty Woman storyline worked its magic on me and I have every confidence that it will do the same to you. Give it a try, I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Final Grade

5 out of 5

Buy the Book

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The Kiss Quotient Series

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five-stars

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