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. 

I do not even know how to disribe this book. I enjoyed that it was about an autistic person. I however did not enjoy the sex. There was way too mych

This book started out so well and was on the way to being a solid four-star read, but alas, did not work for me in the end. I enjoyed the autistic representation (written by an autistic author), Michael’s family and the portrayal of Vietnamese culture, and Stella. I loved her — she’s such a complex and unique character and had a great character arc. Hated the rest, lol. Stella and Michael’s attraction seemed almost purely physical; I wanted to see a stronger emotional connection, more substance. I was uncomfortable with the way that sex work and sex workers were portrayed at several points. I don’t think the topic of sexual assault was handled very well or really unpacked properly by Stella. Michael says his mother dying would ‘free’ him, framing sick/disabled people as burdens on their family (granted I have no experience with the American healthcare system but surely that’s the real issue here). 

Mostly, though, it was Michael who ruined the book for me. He’s pushy, domineering, overly possessive, and can’t take no for an answer. He literally stalks Stella and follows her home, repeatedly goes after her and presses his romantic attentions on her after she turns him down and tells him to leave her alone MULTIPLE TIMES. That’s not sexy; it’s creepy and scary. Yet when another man won’t take no for an answer, he’s angry even though it’s a very similar kind of behaviour as his own. One is portrayed as wrong and the other OK purely based on who is perpetrating the behaviour. Make it make sense. Not only that but after being sexually assaulted which is obviously very upsetting for Stella, does he offer her support or comfort? No, he feels the need to ‘mark her as his’ as if she’s his property. She initially tells him no to kissing after such a traumatic event and is clearly uncomfortable with it but does he respect that? Of course not, he forces her into it anyway and then fucks her because HE needs it! Fuck Stella’s needs, I guess. 

Of course, he knew she didn’t really want him to leave her alone because he knows better. Same with the sex scenes: he overrides her own wishes (that she states to him clearly) and pushes her into doing things she dislikes and feels uncomfortable with because he apparently knows better than her about her own body. He tells her to dress and do her hair how he likes it rather than how she prefers. She can’t even eat what she wants without him trying to control it. He knows she has a hard time in loud/social situations and she tells him she’d rather go home because she’s tired, but he forces her to go to his large, boisterous family’s house anyway. He’s just forever violating her boundaries even (and especially) when she says she’s uncomfortable with doing something. Yeah, he says all the right things about respecting her consent, but his actions and thoughts don’t line up so it just feels manipulative and patronising. He may be teaching her how to be in a relationship but it’s certainly not a healthy one. The controlling behaviour, questionable consent, and complete disregard for Stella’s agency really put me off and made me feel uneasy. 

There were also a few things that bothered me in terms of writing. Michael is described as looking like a specific celebrity, which is not only a lazy way to describe someone but just something I despise, especially in romance. Much of Michael’s inner monologue comes off as immature with dude-bro style casual misogyny (e.g. ‘the only reason a woman should wear a pencil skirt is to show off her ass’). The book is laden with bizarre lines such as ‘a natural talent for fucking’ (LMAO) and ‘she had the kind of nipples men and babies dreamed about’ (what??). The dirty talk was... not good. 

I can’t believe this book got recommended to me as having a kind, gentle hero and good consent. I am genuinely baffled. If that is what you want then this book is not it.