The Bride Test
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.
Themes & atmosphere
Also by Helen Hoang
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What you might want to know about The Bride Test
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Khai Diep is autistic and convinced he can't fall in love. His mother flies to Vietnam and recruits Esme Tran, a young hotel cleaner with a daughter, to spend a summer in California meeting and marrying him.
The Bride Test is the second book in Helen Hoang's loose trilogy after The Kiss Quotient and before The Heart Principle. Each follows a different couple in connected families.
Yes. The Bride Test contains explicit on-page romance scenes, around 4 out of 5 on the spice scale. The romance is a slow burn between Esme, a Vietnamese woman, and Khai, an autistic Vietnamese-American man.
Yes. The Bride Test contains explicit on-page romance scenes, around 4 out of 5 on the spice scale. The romance is a slow burn between Esme, a Vietnamese woman, and Khai, an autistic Vietnamese-American man.
The Bride Test was written by Helen Hoang, published in 2019 by Muza.
The Bride Test is 328 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Bride Test takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Bride Test is a standalone novel by Helen Hoang, not part of a series.
The Bride Test is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.