Summer 2020
The Bride Test
by Helen Hoang
Vietnamese American engineer Khai Diep is convinced his ability to feel emotions is dysfunctional. His family criticized the way he expressed himself when a cousin he was close to died, and he’s never been in love. At best, all he can manage is a mild irritation when people move his things or touch his skin the wrong way.
Khai has autism, so his mother knows he’s wrong: He’s not defective; he just processes emotions differently. So she returns to her hometown in Vietnam to do for Khai what he refuses to do for himself—find him a wife.
Single mom Esme Tran is a hotel cleaning woman in Ho Chi Minh City, desperately trying to make ends meet. When Mrs. Diep offers Esme cash and a free plane ticket if she’ll just come to America and do her best to convince Khai to marry her, Esme can’t refuse.
The plan backfires in more ways than one, however. While Khai makes room for Esme in his home and actually seems to enjoy her company, he refuses to believe he can ever return her (pretend) affection. But Esme’s pretense soon gives way to genuine friendship—and then something more. Her fake feelings become all too real when she finds herself falling for Khai.
Written by Helen Hoang, a Vietnamese American author who discovered as an adult that she had mild autism herself, The Bride Test is a sweetly charming story of two people who discover there’s than one way to love.
Note that this book is a bit steamier than the ones I’ve recommended in previous issues, but two students who read it for their final project in my Romance Fiction class last semester also gave it a big thumbs up for its inclusive, compelling storyline and deep characterization.
—Tracy Fernandez Rysavy, Driftwood Advisor