Anexis Matos

Last year, I reviewed a terrible romance for Valentines Day on my channel. This year, I’m reviewing a good one.

Welcome to my special Valentines Day post! If you’re interested in the videos I made for Valentines Day week last year, here’s my Elena Armas playlist.

This post has a companion video which will be released later today on my channel. If you’d like to be the first to see it, subscribe below.

Happy Valentines Day! I hope you enjoy whatever today brings for you.

Synopsis

Stella Lane is a very intelligent woman who designs algorithms that predict customer purchases. This job has given her more money than she knows what to do with, but very little experience in dating. She decides she needs help from a professional, so she hires a male escort to check all the boxes in her lesson plan.

Michael Phan can’t afford to refuse Stella’s proposal. As they work together to check off every box in her lesson plan, their friendship and love grow.

Book Information

Genre: Romance
Category: Adult
Explicit violence: No
Explicit sex: Yes
Content warnings I noticed: Harassment, controlling behavior, and assault

This is the first book in a series, but it’s a standalone story.

Review

The prose is great. It’s accessible and easy to read.

The pacing is not my favorite. It’s too fast for my liking. I was highly entertained, but a slower pace would have made the character arcs much better.

Give me a minute to go on a very long rant on the themes. I think they’re amazing and I have a lot to talk about. I can’t condense it like I usually do.

This book is the ideal representation of disability. It follows the rule person first, disability second. Stella has Asperger’s which, from my understanding of the book, impacts the way she interprets people and the way she socialises. Don’t quote me on this, please. I’m no expert. It’s just my interpretation of what I read.

I’ve seen my share of disability representation on TV. Most of it is disappointing and delivers a negative message. I can only speak for certain on blindness representation, but there are some general stereotypes that I’ve seen. Usually, we get the struggle journey. Their disability is their entire life, personality, and identity. They’re dependent on someone else while being praised for being independent for doing the bare minimum. If there’s a cure for the disability, they’re encouraged to pursue it or they themselves pursue it because they want to have a life, personality, and identity. Throughout the entire story, the character is put on a pedestal and serves as an inspiration for other characters and story consumer.

When consuming stories like this, I offer a caveat that this is possible, giving writers the benefit of the doubt. For example, La Fuerza Del Destino, a telenovela from 2011, has a character who is blind. There are a lot of stereotypes used for this character, but the biggest one is the idea of touching faces in order to recognize people. As a person who is blind, I can assure you that this doesn’t work. However, this is a tactic that was taught to me as a child and it wasn’t until I got older that I realized this is a terrible idea. Besides the fact that it can make both parties uncomfortable, at least for me, there’s very little difference between a stranger’s face and the face of someone I know.

While this is possible, it’s important to understand that these are stereotypes. Unfortunately, people will use these to assume that they know how we as people with disabilities are. I’ve met people that use the fact that I’m blind as an excuse to tell me I can’t do something. Some of these people are family members. These statements are, of course, not true, not to mention stupid. However, they’re based on stereotypes.

Stories with this kind of representation is also inspiration porn. Inspiration porn is the objectification of people with disabilities in order to inspire people. The term was coined by Stella Young who gave a speech all about it. Listen to this lovely person explain it better than I can.

There are two models of disability, social and medical. The social model of disability suggests that we aren’t the problem, but society is. It suggests that it needs to change to accommodate everyone. Accommodations can include Braille signs and ramps. The medical model suggests that society doesn’t need to change to accommodate us, but we do. We need to do everything we can to fit into regular society. It also suggests that we’re broken, so everything possible must be done to fix us. My theory is that inspiration porn and ableism come from this belief. For more on that, refer to this post.

You Need to Change Your Way of Thinking

Finally, these kind of stories are ableist. Whether it’s intentional or not, they depict people with disabilities negatively. In their portrayals, people with disabilities have no life. No personality. No identity. By using disability first, person second, the message they send is that all people with disabilities are the same. This, of course, is not the case. If you’ve met one person with a disability, you’ve met one person with a disability.

Everything I mentioned above is why The Kiss Quotient is ideal disability representation. It doesn’t do any of this. Stella’s disability simply is. It’s not written to educate or inspire other characters or the reader. Nothing is explained. This is how it should be. If you want to learn about disability, consult nonfiction sources.

While Stella’s struggle isn’t told, it’s implied. The book explores her insecurities regarding her disability. It’s something I can personally relate to. I had issues with self-esteem thanks to my blindness.

One more important theme this book touches on is disability disclosure. Michael doesn’t find out about Stella’s Asperger’s until about halfway through the story. She doesn’t reveal it in order not to be treated differently. A relatable reason. Considering the way disability is generally treated by people, her reason makes sense.

In my experience, disability disclosure is discussed for professional settings. Disability resource offices for college or university and anything related to jobs are the big ones. I’ve never had a discussion about disclosing in your personal life, but I think this is an important conversation. Just like you don’t owe anyone your sexuality or gender, you don’t owe anyone your disability. I appreciate that this book brings up something so important and validates Stella’s reason for not disclosing her disability.

By the way, in professional settings, disclosing your disability is up to you. Legally, they can’t ask you what your disability is. Disclosing your disability is a very personal thing, so make sure you’re comfortable when you do. Adapt based on your needs and do what’s best for you.

The characters are amazing. I love them so much. I love them individually and together. They have so much chemistry.

I love family dynamics in any book. Stella and Michael’s family dynamics are on my top favorites.

The romance is amazing. I finally found an author who does instalove right besides Laini Taylor! I’m so happy! Well, they did instalove right in this romance. It works so well here because the characters have great chemistry in every scene. I was able to suspend my disbelief because it felt realistic for them. When I can’s suspend my disbelief, it usually means the events don’t feel realistic to the story I’m reading.

As great as the romance is, I read two reviews that raise very valid concerns that I’d like to address. I was aware of one of them, but it somehow flew over my head.

In many moments in the story, Michael is very possessive. This, as far as I can tell, is the most problematic part of the romance. It’s irritating because, other than that, he’s a great love interest. It’s a problematic depiction of masculinity because it’s toxic.

Something brought up lightly is the fact that Michael doesn’t realize Stella is autistic. The reason they brought it up is because he has a family member with autism. This is not a good marker to judge what someone else’s disability is. Like blindness, autism is a spectrum. Also, while Stella and his family member may have similar patterns, it’s not a good enough reason to assume. The reviewer suggests a stereotypical reason why he should have realized Stella’s disability. This is a very black and white understanding of things.

The same reviewer also suggests that Stella’s autism is used as a plot device to push conflict in the romance. I don’t believe this is the case. There are many challenges brought on by disability, both in and out of our personal lives. The conflicts in the romance regarding autism make sense because, while Stella’s disability does not define her, it’s still a part of her. It will continue to present challenges.

Another reviewer mentioned that they don’t like how Stella’s symptoms get fucked away by Michael. This, I believe, does not happen. I’d argue that she feels comfortable enough with him to engage in something that has been a negative experience. He gives her the space to voice what she wants and is attentive enough to realize what she needs to make her feel safe during sex. Her symptoms don’t go away. They can’t go away, but being comfortable around someone can make things easier. This, at least, is the case for me, so I was able to relate on some level.

The final thing is the ending. At least one reviewer mentioned that things were wrapped up too neatly. That’s my issue with most of the romance novels I read, but it’s a convention of the genre, so it’s expected. The ending of a romance is meant to be a happily ever after or a happy for now. The author chose a happily ever after.

The reason the reviewer mentioned they weren’t happy with this ending was because there are many themes not explored regarding Stella’s autism and how it affects her life. I don’t know about you, but, as someone with a disability, I don’t want to read about how it impacts people’s lives. I live with a disability. I don’t need to read about the challenges.

It’s great when romance explores complex themes and topics. I prefer those most of the time. I have to disagree with the reviewer here. Hoang does explore the challenges posed by Stella’s disability, but they do so as she lives her daily life. As I previously mentioned, her disability simply exists. It’s part of her. In that way, the exploration feels natural.

While a happy for now is my preference, this happily ever after is adorable. I love this couple, so I was happy to see them happy. Another reason I personally love this ending is because I don’t get to see characters with disabilities experiencing joy often in the stories I consume. While it’s important to read stories portraying challenges, it’s also important to portray their joy. For this, romance is ideal.

Romance is a genre that, at its heart, tells stories of love, joy, and hope. While I have my issues with romance, I can’t deny that. There’s something extremely joyful about picking up a romance story and knowing that I’ll be reading something that is unapologetically happy. This is what makes the romance genre unique.

I want to see more stories with characters who are disabled in all genres. However, I don’t want to see their struggles all the time. We already have and will continue to have those stories. It’s time for more happy stories.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great story. I loved every moment of the reading experience. It’s very beautiful. I rated it four stars.