the bride test by helen hoang

This book is one of the cutest contemporaries I’ve read.

This book is about a half-white and half-Vietnamese girl named Esme (This is her American name) with a daughter who lives in a very small home in Vietnam with her mother and grandmother and she works as a custodian at a hotel I believe. She’s presented with an opportunity to attempt to swoon a mother’s son and get him to marry her in America and she takes that opportunity and the story takes off from there.

Now as someone who had a sibling with autism, Asperger syndrome specifically just like Khai, I am pleased and really enjoyed this book. I’m so glad that this book didn’t romanticized his condition or insult his condition. There’s so much similarities between my sister and Khai, from the keeping things orderly, being good at math, the accounting, and just having a different way of communication.

Even though is was a short book, the pacing of the book was not rushed at all but in my opinion, I think the romance was just a bit rushed in Esme’s end but I’m not complaining. I really loved Esme in this book and how she was so determined to get her green card and start a life of her own without her dad or a marriage. I loved loved loved those scene.

There were also so many scenes that were just hilarious and most of those scenes were with Khai and his brother Quan. There interactions are so funny and seeing Quan trying to explain the simple act of sex with him and referring him all the books was so funny like poor Khai but at the same time you can’t help but just go awww too.

In conclusion I really enjoyed this book. If you want a quick romance with authentic Vietnamese characters and culture then this is your book!

I rate this book five stars!

Thank you for reading!

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.

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