The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang — My Review

A story as sweet as its main character…

Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient was a breath of fresh air for me. I loved the whole Pretty Woman in reverse story line.

If you’re looking for a cute fake dating story that isn’t like the rest, then you’ll want to read Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient.

The story follows ecnometrician, Stella Lane, a 30-year-old autistic woman who sets out to learn how to become good at sex so that she can placate her meddling mother and find a suitable partner to share a life with.

The only problem is…she’s had very little experience with men. And her experiences with the only three men she’s been with haven’t been the greatest.

When a guy from her office (who secretly likes her) encourages her to get good at sex, she goes online to find a male escort to teach her. They must be experts, right? (At least, that’s her reasoning.)

It’s adorably charming to view the world through her eyes and see how someone might be struggling on a daily basis to do things that others do with ease (and take for granted).

For Stella, being in social situations isn’t ideal. In fact, she hates it. She gets overstimulated and could have a panic attack.

But when she hires Michael Phan to be her escort, she has no idea how much her entire world is about to change.

When Michael meets Stella, he’s initially intrigued. But when she proposes her plan to learn how to get good at sex for a fee on a somewhat long-term basis, he immediately turns her down (and she says she’ll have to find someone else from the agency — he doesn’t like to get too close to his clients).

But then he feels bad, thinking that any other guy from the agency might take advantage of someone like her. Someone so innocent and naive.

So, he comes back and agrees to do it. And, in true romantic comedy fashion, they start to fall in love and the lines between sex and love begin to blur.

It takes them a while to actually have sex, but that doesn’t stop it from being extremely steamy. He talks dirty to her and she realizes she likes it, despite her shyness and her inability to say words like “pussy.”

It’s interesting watching him open her up in ways she probably might not have if she hadn’t met him.

Stella soon decides that she needs relationship practice rather than just learning how to become good at sex.

And the fake dating commences.

They start by going out on dates. He takes her to an ice cream place where they kiss in public and Stella begins to unravel at the gentle way Michael handles her. She starts to actually like being touched, thanks to Michael’s willingness to take things slow and work with her and her “issues” (which are trouble with loud noises, sensitivity to smells, and not liking being touched, to name a few.)

Stella happens upon Michael’s family’s dry cleaning business one day and sees Michael’s real life — well, part of it, anyway.

He works as a tailor for the other side of the family business.

Upon finding this out, Stella likes that she knows a little more about him. She realizes that she wants to know more about him.

The miscommunication trope is hard at work in this story, with them each thinking the other doesn’t really like the other. Stella thinks Michael’s just doing his job and Michael thinks Stella is just practicing for the next guy, the guy she’s going to end up with.

It gets annoying after a while, but the story is still interesting nonetheless. Towards the end, I kind of wanted them to hurry up and wrap it up.

Maybe because I’m burned out on the fake dating/miscommunication trope after reading Abby Jimenez’ series (which I still loved!).

You just want them to be together already!

But it probably wouldn’t be as good of a story, right?

Anyway, the book ends on a nice note. I liked that Michael finally got to do what he loved — design clothes. And obviously, they get an HEA.

Going from a girl that hates to be touched to a woman that can’t get enough of it from Michael, we get to see Stella’s amazing transformation.

Not only that, but we get to see Michael’s sweetness in the delicate way he cares for her. He’s never treated a client the way he does Stella, but that’s probably because none of them have affected them in the way that she does.

Overall, I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Definitely diving into my next Helen Hoang read (The Bride Test) sometime very soon.