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.
The Bride Test is about Khai, Michael's cousin in The Kiss Quotient. He is Vietnamese-American, autistic, and believes himself to be incapable of the emotions that matter. Like grief. Or love. His overbearing but lovable mother decides to take action and find him a wife from Vietnam.
That's where Esme Tran comes in. After getting pregnant young, she now desperately tries to support her daughter in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City. She's mixed race, and has long wanted to go to America to find her father. When Cô Nga offers to pay for her visa and trip to California in exchange for her trying to seduce Khai, she takes the opportunity.
Khai and Esme are fully-fleshed out and adorable characters. Khai is geeky and obsessive, but as we would expect from an ownvoices author, it does not come across in a faux-quirky way. His struggles and passion for his few interests are so genuine. Quân is also a real source of hilarity in this book; the dynamic between him and Khai makes for some very entertaining parts.
This is a story about loss and love, yet also healing and becoming the person you want to be, no matter the circumstances. We get to see both Khai and Esme dealing with their own traumas, and healing separately, but we also get to see them building something really beautiful together; a future where they can be accepted and happy.