The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient, #1)

by Helen Hoang

[EBookObsessed]

The Kiss Quotient is an exquisite treat. Stella and Michael melted my romance-loving heart. I was heartbroken that the story had to end. I didn’t want to let them go.

Usually storylines of that “one true mate made just for you” are saved for paranormal romance, and while there was no mystical cataclysm which took place when they met, there is no question that Michael and Stella were made for one another.

I receive many emails from publishers telling me that this latest story rocked their world and it is impossible to try each and every one of them. Yet something drew me to this story and I am so glad I gave it a try. There is no question that The Kiss Quotient melted my heart. The most surprising part was that the book description led me to think that this would be in the category of erotica — geeky girl hires escort to teach her how to be good in bed — but I am so very happy that I was wrong. And while I wouldn’t catagorize it as erotica, it was very sexy and oh so delicious. I love an author who can make a kiss euphoric all by itself.

Occasionally, I have a hard time walking away from a book. Everything about this story is so wonderful that I just don’t want to let it go. Not only have I had a hard time walking away from Michael and Stella, but I have to admit that I really haven’t done it yet. I have read it three or four times…okay, maybe five, since I first downloaded it. It is still sitting in my carousel on my Kindle and then I received a paperback copy the other day and just wanted to see if there were any changes from my digital ARC copy and sat and read it over again (okay, make it six times).

This is also a book that I want to tell everyone about. I want to stop strangers on the street. If I had extra copies, I would be passing them out wherever I went. But yet, this is also a story I don’t want to tell anyone about. There is a big part of me that wants to keep Michael and Stella all to myself. They are mine, mine, mine and I don’t want to share them.

Stella Lane is a nerdy math geek, but there is so much more to her social awkwardness than just not understanding social etiquette. Stella has Asperger syndrome. She has issues with sights and sound and touch. Stella freezes on casual contact, let alone the intimate contact of lovers. Stella wants love just like every other woman but how to get it when every sexual encounter becomes a disaster. So she decides to hire an escort and selects Michael Larson.

Michael is amazed to see Stella sitting in the restaurant waiting for him. His usual customers are older women looking for a night of entertainment, not exquisite young women. He believes that Stella just lacks confidence but when she truly freezes up when he tries to initiate sex, he, at first, fears she has suffered sexual trauma. He knows that there are deeper issues and he wants to help her.

Michael has learned from experience not to see a client more than once. Some have become too clingy in the past. But from their first kiss, both are addicted and Michael agrees to meet Stella again for more lessons. When those lessons aren’t getting them any further along, Stella asks Michael to give her 30 days of a practice relationship to teach her how to be a couple. She hopes that if she can get someone to love her they would be willing to work past her sexual stumbling blocks.

Michael knows this is a very bad idea because his attraction to Stella is already too great, and what he doesn’t know is that Stella is hoping the man Michael can teach her how to seduce is him. The problem is that neither Michael nor Stella believe themselves worthy of the love they want so desperately.

The only sad part of this story was that we couldn’t keep Michael and Stella out of their heads. They made magic together and both desperately wanted their relationship to be real but Stella believed Michael wouldn’t want her if he knew she was autistic (he knew) and Michael couldn’t believe that Stella could overlook that the fact that he was a whore who sold his body to strangers (she didn’t care). These two were madly in love and only their own inferiority issues kept them from the HEA they both wanted.

I’m sitting here trying to write a review and all I want to do is go read it all over again. I know that this isn’t the last time I will be spending my night with Michael and Stella and I am looking forward to seeing what the author will bring us in her next story.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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