The Kiss Quotient Archives - The Litertarian

An evocative, unconventional romance if there ever was one!

The Kiss Quotient Helen Hoang Book Cover

Stella Lane is a high-functioning adult with Asperger’s Syndrome. Her ‘brand’ of autism helps her be a rockstar at her job as an econometrician, but her social life is not so easy – especially romantic relationships. Under pressure from her parents to find someone to settle down with, Stella decides she will hire someone to teach her how to behave, both in the bedroom & outside of it so she can win the affection of someone to have an ordinary relationship with. But how to accomplish this goal? Hire an escort, of course!

Michael Phan is the escort she chooses, and though his policy is to never sleep with the same client twice, after meeting Stella and realizing what she’s asking of him, he decides to make an exception – especially when she offers him a hefty sum for his services! Money is the only reason he got into escorting in the first place, so the dollar signs flashing before his eyes has him bending his own rules. The more money he gets, the more he can help his family & prove he is not the same as his despicable father.

As the two of them work through Stella’s issues, they realize that practice doesn’t feel so much like practice anymore, and that what is between them is anything but ordinary.

Obviously with the subject matter of the book, there is a lot of spice involved. When Stella makes up her mind about something – in this case, fucking – she pursues her goals with focused attention. At times I have to admit I felt a little uncomfortable with what was happening behind closed doors. Michael is hired to do a job, and all he’s doing is executing on those duties, and he does so with the upmost care and goes slowly when Stella needs it, but man, I just…is this something we want to read? The whole premise of the book is that there’s something wrong with Stella and she needs to please men in order to have a fulfilling life. These are conflicts worked through in the narrative, but it really rubbed me the wrong way.

With that said, a real relationship blooms between these characters and it is very sweet and genuine. Through the lessons Michael designs for Stella, they end up integrating into one another’s lives like any real relationship. Turns out he has lessons to learn from Stella, too.

If you like the fake dating trope or are looking for autism representation in a contemporary romance, this might be the one for you. For me, it just felt like the most extreme possible circumstances to accomplish a fake dating trope. While it is overall a decent romance, I had to suspend my disbelief too much to give it more than 3 stars.

Details

Title:: The Kiss Quotient
Author:: Helen Hoang
Genre:: Romance
Publisher:: Berkley
Length:: 323 pages
Audio Length:: 9h 36m
Audiobook Narrator:: Carly Robins
Audiobook Publisher:: Dreamscape Media
Published:: June 5th, 2018
The Litertarian Rating:: 3-Stars