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A review by vagrantheather
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I like a book that manipulates my emotions, which makes romance well suited. And The Kiss Quotient does that! But it does everything else kinda poorly. The intro nearly made me DNF. Her (awful, self centered, invalidating) parents want grandbabies, her lecherous coworker is a walking HR violation, and she decides to Google escort services on her WORK COMPUTER. It read as though the author and editor were both like, meh who cares about this, let's get to the hot stuff.
Often I felt the book didn't trust the reader to put clues together; it spelled everything out clearly then followed up to make sure we really, truly, fully got it. The "signs of autism" felt pointedly exaggerated, then the character herself would point them out and be like, see? That's my autism. Right there. See it? And like, I get that the author is advocating for greater awareness, so maybe it was intentional, but I really would have appreciated a more subtle approach and more nuance (acknowledgement that all autism doesn't look the same).
Having Stella's autism just disappear around Michael felt contrived. He's so hot she can't help being... Normal? How many times have you been told, "everything will be fine if you just relax" and felt frustrated & hopeless because you have TRIED that and it doesn't work? "Just relax" doesn't fix what's broken and it felt insincere that Stella's progress toward self acceptance essentially stemmed from trusting someone to make her react "normal." There was plenty that I did think was well done - the constant self doubt, locking up, regressing, and desire to change the focus away from her - but it felt belittling that all of her trouble with intimacy went away basically in full from simply letting go. Several times her internal dialogue is about how she doesn't care about things that would otherwise bother her, because Michael was there and that's all that mattered. Hellooooo men don't fix you. You don't stop being terribly mortified at PDA because you like the person who's pawing at you. Or, idk, maybe some people do, but it feels uncharacteristic that Stella would have worked so hard to develop rules for social situations, like no heavy petting in the work parking lot, then be like "well okie doke I don't care as long as it's ✨with him✨.
It's a romance, not literature, so I can't really complain that the other characters had no depth. But I kinda want to. I would've appreciated for the second love interest to be a decent person. I would've preferred if Michael's jilted ex wasn't a caricature of entitled rich women with no redeeming qualities. The sisters were barely separate people. I was disappointed that the dad didn't feature where I expected him to (spoilers: at the charity event, on the arm of some other rich bitch).
In large part the writing felt clunky and unrefined. Not bad. Just unrefined.
As a simple personal gripe that is not a criticism of the book, but a preference of content: I hate that Stella has a great body. She is a computer person. She spends 7 days a week at her office. She has strict personal routines from which she doesn't deviate. We KNOW she doesn't work out and not once does she cook for herself. But she is still perfectly petite with a great figure, and numerous times calls out how small she is vs Michael. I got real sick of reading how tiny and fragile she is.
Often I felt the book didn't trust the reader to put clues together; it spelled everything out clearly then followed up to make sure we really, truly, fully got it. The "signs of autism" felt pointedly exaggerated, then the character herself would point them out and be like, see? That's my autism. Right there. See it? And like, I get that the author is advocating for greater awareness, so maybe it was intentional, but I really would have appreciated a more subtle approach and more nuance (acknowledgement that all autism doesn't look the same).
Having Stella's autism just disappear around Michael felt contrived. He's so hot she can't help being... Normal? How many times have you been told, "everything will be fine if you just relax" and felt frustrated & hopeless because you have TRIED that and it doesn't work? "Just relax" doesn't fix what's broken and it felt insincere that Stella's progress toward self acceptance essentially stemmed from trusting someone to make her react "normal." There was plenty that I did think was well done - the constant self doubt, locking up, regressing, and desire to change the focus away from her - but it felt belittling that all of her trouble with intimacy went away basically in full from simply letting go. Several times her internal dialogue is about how she doesn't care about things that would otherwise bother her, because Michael was there and that's all that mattered. Hellooooo men don't fix you. You don't stop being terribly mortified at PDA because you like the person who's pawing at you. Or, idk, maybe some people do, but it feels uncharacteristic that Stella would have worked so hard to develop rules for social situations, like no heavy petting in the work parking lot, then be like "well okie doke I don't care as long as it's ✨with him✨.
It's a romance, not literature, so I can't really complain that the other characters had no depth. But I kinda want to. I would've appreciated for the second love interest to be a decent person. I would've preferred if Michael's jilted ex wasn't a caricature of entitled rich women with no redeeming qualities. The sisters were barely separate people. I was disappointed that the dad didn't feature where I expected him to (spoilers: at the charity event, on the arm of some other rich bitch).
In large part the writing felt clunky and unrefined. Not bad. Just unrefined.
As a simple personal gripe that is not a criticism of the book, but a preference of content: I hate that Stella has a great body. She is a computer person. She spends 7 days a week at her office. She has strict personal routines from which she doesn't deviate. We KNOW she doesn't work out and not once does she cook for herself. But she is still perfectly petite with a great figure, and numerous times calls out how small she is vs Michael. I got real sick of reading how tiny and fragile she is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Terminal illness