by Helen Hoang
Jove Books, 2018, 317 pages, Romance
At thirty years old, Stella Lane has way less experience in the dating world than most. Her high-functioning autism means that she’d much rather work with spreadsheets and statistics than with people. After considering her options, Stella decides that all she needs is practice, so she hires escort Michael Phan to show her the ins and outs of romance. Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate Michael’s kisses, but crave all of the other things he's making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense, and the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic.
This book was a lot of fun, and I loved that it featured characters who aren’t in the mainstream. Not only does Stella have autism, but Michael is Korean American (Stella likes that he looks like her favorite K-Pop star). This was a great way to add depth to the characters, and makes it another great recent example of diverse characters being featured in literature. This book does have some pretty steamy scenes and uses some strong language. Those who love a good romance featuring realistic characters who deal with real-world issues will love how well-written and well-plotted this one is.
MB
1 comment:
This book falls pretty well into the chick lit category, so fans of Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot should enjoy this (as long as they don't mind some adult content). I was happy to see that there were some healthy relationship things happening between Stella and Michael, but occasionally it fell back into traditional relationship tropes like the guy being overprotective and both of them acting very jealous at times. I realize that with Stella's high-functioning autism she was supposed to come across as "quirky," but the way they both dealt with that - being clear about expectations, giving people a heads up about sticky social situations, being sensitive to the other person's feelings - seem like great tips for anyone in a relationship of any sort. I also appreciated that both characters are mostly fully developed people with interests and lives of their own before they come together.
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