A review by prairiephlox
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

4.0

Not as much of a revelation as Kiss Quotient, which was my whole heart and knocked me on my heels, but still fantastic. Esme/My was such an amazing character, the beautiful weaving of Vietnamese culture and diaspora, but the Happily Ever After came hard and too fast. After being there with Esme and Khai through so much internal strife, I felt the ending really needed to be drawn out longer. I needed more time to experience their happiness than a few pages, more time for Esme to meet her father, for Khai to realize the hard work she'd been putting in, for them to talk and have a moment to grow together. The epilogue helped and was beautiful, but the preceding chapter needed a longer moment to land in my opinion.

Still, I hope that Hoang continues to write in this series as I will buy every single one. I see so many similarities between my husband and I to Khai and Stella. Its prompted so many discussions with each other that neither of us knew we needed to have. Its such a moving journey to see autistic characters written with love and understanding in her own voice, and it means so much.