Review also found on my blog.


Asian Readathon: read a book by an asian author, read a book written by an intersectional asian author


content warnings: ableism, misogyny, racism, explicit sexual content, unwanted kiss, sexual harassment, panic attacks, loved one with cancer
representation: autistic protagonist, biracial main and side characters (Vietnamese-Swedish), vietnamese side characters, autistic vietnamese side character

“I don't want just a night or a week or a month with you. I want you all the time. I like you better than calculus, and math is the only thing that unites the universe.”

The hype is real guys, the hype is real. I've owned this book for nearly a year and for some reason just never read it, until the Asian Readathon finally gave me the perfect excuse to borrow the audiobook from my library. I read this in a couple days and absolutely fell in love with it.

The Kiss Quotient follows Stella Lang, a successful thirty year-old who loves her job and has more money than she knows what to do with but has completely failed in the romance department. Thinking that it's because of her discomfort with physical intimacy she decides that the best way to deal with her issues is to hire an escort who can teach her how to become more comfortable with sex. What she wasn't expecting was to develop feelings for the man she hires.

I'm so glad I picked this up! There are so many fantastic things about this, but I'm just going to highlight a few of them.

1. Stella and Michael's relationship. Helen Hoang managed to find the perfect blend of cute and sexy in a way that I didn't think was possible. I thought that their relationship developed very naturally, from the awkwardness of their first encounter to the moment they realise they're in love with one another.

2. Michael's family. He has five sisters, all of varying ages, several cousins, one who's his best friend, a grandma, a mum with cancer, plus a piece of shit for a dad. His dad left the family years before, leaving them in tatters, and forcing Michael to give up his dreams to help his mum. I love Michael's relationship with his mum, sisters and grandma. They're incredibly close, and I loved seeing Stella get close to them as her and Michael's relationship develops.

3. The sex scenes. If a book has steamy scenes then they'd better be good, and Helen Hoang delivers. Stella is initially incredibly uncomfortable with even just hugging or kissing, let alone having sex, and the build-up to them having sex is amazing. Michael is so respectful and understanding of boundaries, and there's such a massive emphasis on consent and only doing what she feels comfortable with. The dirty talk was also fricking fantastic, if I do say so myself.

There's a lot more to love about this book: the fast-paced plot, the representation, the good writing, how well-written Stella's character is. This book is a fantastic debut, a fantastic romance, a fantastic audiobook, just fantastic in every way.