I absolutely, wholeheartedly adored The Kiss Quotient! It’s the first romance I’ve ever read with an autistic heroine (Stella has Asperger’s), and I’m always on the lookout for Asian representation in books (the hero Michael is half Vietnamese, and the author’s surname is Hoang), so this book caught my eye almost immediately as one I wanted to check out.

And I’m incredibly glad I did. From the first few pages where Stella stresses out about dating because she doesn’t enjoy touching, and she really doesn’t enjoy sex, I was intrigued at how Hoang would craft a romance around this. I also loved Stella as a heroine because she’s an econometrist is such a wonderfully nerdy profession I didn’t even know existed. Basically, she analyzes market trends, and there’s a great moment where love literally is a factor in her calculations. (Hoang somehow succeeds in making this not as cheesy as it sounds.)

Then we meet Michael. He works as a male escort to pay off his mother’s medical bills, and he also trains as a martial artist. He also has a day job and career dream that he put on hold to support his family, and I won’t reveal what it is here because the reveal in the book is just too beautifully done to spoil, but seriously, this guy just got me in all the feels. Stella decides to hire Michael to teach her how to have sex, so that she can handle actual relationships and, well, things take off from there.

I absolutely adored Stella and Michael and their love story. They both felt real, and they both had all these vulnerabilities that only the other person truly got. There were misunderstandings that drove them apart, but these never felt manufactured. Rather, they were rooted in insecurities that Hoang did a masterful job in setting up throughout, so that when things came to a head, we could understand why Stella and Michael reacted the way they did, even as we wanted nothing more than for them to move past their issues.

I also loved the secondary characters, particularly Michael’s family. His mom, grandmother and sisters all had such vivid personalities I felt like I was at the family dinner with them, and I could just picture the siblings growing up together. His cousin Quan is awesome with his tattooed, bad boy aura, and I’d personally love to see him star in a romance of his own. I also love how complex Michael’s mom’s feelings still are for the dad who abandoned the family, and I especially love the scene where she confronted Michael with a harsh, much-needed dose of reality about his hang-ups in pursuing a relationship with Stella.

The lovemaking scenes were off-the-charts hot. Part of it is Stella’s initial fear of being touched, and Michael’s incredible gentleness towards her, so that even when things got more intense, lovemaking still feels like the more accurate term than sex. Their first night together, even things like French kissing and opening the top button of her shirt set Stella off. The way Michael eased her into greater intimacy, while still very much respecting her boundaries, was beautifully done, and resulted in an incredibly sensual scene that was ultimately chaste, yet still somehow felt sexier than if they’d gone further. Consent is sexy, and this chapter shows just how sexy it can be.

Finally, I thought Hoang did a good job incorporating Stella’s autism into the story. Apart from her aversion to touch and her sensory sensitivities, Stella also occasionally messes up in social situations and sometimes needs to take a break from public spaces. What I love most is that Stella is never treated as an object of pity because of her autism. Despite her fears to the contrary, Michael’s only response to her autism never feels like pity but simply consideration, for example by toning down sensory stimuli or by giving her plenty of advance warning.

There’s a particularly powerful scene where she first meets Michael’s family, and, overwhelmed by the noise and all the new faces, she inadvertently says some very rude and inappropriate things. I cringed the entire time reading it, mostly feeling sorry for Michael and his mother, who kept trying to smooth things over, but the scene also made me realize how unaware Stella was of how her words were being perceived by others. It’s only later, when the night ends in tears and Stella’s had a moment to remove herself from the situation and reflect, that she realizes she messed up and feels terrible about it. She goes out of her way to apologize to Michael’s mom, and all is well, but this scene stuck with me, and I love how she and Michael are able to work through it.

Overall, this has earned its place as one of my favourite books of all time. I’m a huge fan of Hoang’s writing, and I’m now incredibly excited for The Bride Test to come out in 2019!

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Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Author Angel C. Aquino with her husband Roland at Nuvali, Laguna. Angel says, “A trail run in Nuvali, Laguna—the location for the zombie run that Diana and her friends joined in the book.”

In Love at First Run, Diana joins a running club to get closer to her office crush Paul, and there she meets running hottie and overall sweet guy Josh. In this blog post, author Angel C. Aquino talks about her inspiration and process.

1. What inspired you to write a romance about running?

My husband Roland and I are both avid runners. We’ve been joining races for many years now and there are always a lot of couples running together. I’ve also heard of instances when the guy proposed to the girl at the finish line! The running world is crazy and colourful and I thought it would be the perfect backdrop for a romance novel.

I also ran my first full marathon with Roland in 2015. A few months later, I wrote the first draft of my book when I joined a #RomanceClass workshop. While the story was inspired by different running experiences over the years, looking back at this blog entry I wrote made me realize that my experience in that marathon actually inspired some of Diana’s experiences too!

2. Diana does a lot of different types of runs in this book (zombie run, mountain trail, urban races). As a runner yourself, which type of race do you like best and why? 0108

I love trail runs the most. I used to go camping and mountaineering when I was younger. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s exhausting to hike for days while carrying a heavy backpack. Trail running allows me to enjoy nature, breathe in the fresh air, and explore the mountains without worrying about carrying a heavy load or thinking about where to pee. Haha!

3. There are some wonderfully vivid descriptions of the joys of running in the book. For example, Diana talks about the feeling of stretching her muscles after working at a computer all week, and about the breathtaking view at the top of the mountain. What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had as a runner?

Oh, there are so many! Each race is definitely unique and special. But I think the most memorable would be when we joined the Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon in California. We ran amidst a backdrop of beautiful vineyards—and we could have unlimited wine at the finish line!

4. There are some really yummy meals described in this book, and it seems like running really works up an appetite! What’s your favourite post-run meal?

I love a good Filipino breakfast after a run: beef tapa or tocino, eggs, and garlic rice!

5. What surprised you the most, if anything, while writing this book?

I realized that writing a book is a lot like joining a race—you need lots of discipline and endurance during the whole writing and editing process. There are a lot of stumbling blocks along the way, but once you reach the finish line, it’s all worth it!

The Romance of Running Photo Album

Check out some of Angel and her husband Roland’s running memories below!

At the Healdsburg Half Marathon—the best race ever with lots of wine along the racecourse and at the finish line!

We did our first half marathon in Singapore in 2008. We’ve obviously gained weight since then but it just goes to show that with the proper training, anyone of any age, weight, or gender can run! Haha!

We’ve joined several races that pass through Manila’s Skyway—the location for Diana’s first half marathon!

With my hubby at the finish line of our first marathon in Nuvali, Laguna

Love at First Run is available in print in the Philippines and on Amazon Kindle internationally.

To learn more about the author, visit www.angelcaquino.com

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Thank you to the author for an electronic advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure: The author is a friend, and I’m super proud of her for writing a novel, but all views expressed on this blog are my honest opinions.

About a year and a half after Anna Johnson’s parents committed suicide, Anna receives a note — “Suicide? Think again.” — that makes her wonder if her parents had actually been murdered instead. Let Me Lie has an intriguing premise, and I like how Mackintosh portrays Anna’s grief, how she had to work at getting over her parents’ deaths and how receiving the anonymous note reopened all these old wounds.

I especially like how Mackintosh really fleshes out the detective character Murray. Rather than just a straightforward mystery solver, Murray is actually retired from his detective role. His actual job is to man the police station desk, and he should’ve given Anna’s case over to active detectives. But because he misses his detective job and he worries about other detectives dismissing Anna’s theory of murder, he decides to investigate it himself, on an unofficial basis. There’s also a great subplot about his relationship with his wife, who is being treated in a psychiatric facility, and who he clearly loves deeply. There’s a point where he dreams of taking his wife on a really long road trip, and it was the most heartbreaking passage.

Anna’s story was also intriguing, and also had its own emotional heft. The second half was definitely a lot faster paced with lots of twists and reveals. A lot of it I didn’t see coming, and it was fun just to sit back and enjoy the ride. There was one particular character I was super suspicious about throughout most of the book, and it turned out that one of the major baddies was someone I completely forgot about. (Not that they weren’t a major character, just that they were lost to me among a jumble of other characters, and I was so focused on my suspect.)

Tip: Do not look at the Author’s Note before at least the first big reveal. The first sentence, about the author’s inspiration for the story, is a pretty major spoiler. I accidentally saw the Author’s Note while I was still fairly early on in the book, and I’m only glad there were more twists and reveals after that.

Overall, Let Me Lie is a fun read. It starts off as an emotional domestic drama / grip lit, then turns into a fast paced series of twists that reveal hidden darkness in unexpected characters.

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Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.