While there, she also hoped to locate her father, a man she never met but who went to Cal Berkeley.Įsme doesn’t expect to fall for Khai, but she does. Taking the more American sounding name Esmeralda Tran (“Esme” for short), Mỹ left for California. Mỹ’s mother was all for this trip: it could be a chance to make a better future for Mỹ and Jade. Mỹ accepted, leaving behind her five-year-old daughter Jade in the care of her mother and grandmother. At the very least, you’ll go to all our family weddings and have some food and fun.” But Mỹ was the only one who met Khai’s mother’s criteria, and Cô Nga offered Mỹ a trip to California for six months plus expenses to see if she and Khai “fit.” She told Mỹ, “If you don’t, no problem, you go home. Thus Mỹ is the first name.) Mỹ wasn’t taking the “bride test” rather, she was working as a cleaner in the bathroom of the hotel. (Vietnamese names put the family name first followed by the middle and given names.

Instead, she settled on 23-year-old Tran Ngoc Mỹ. Cô Nga staged a “bride test” at a fancy hotel, but wasn’t satisfied with any of the entrants. Khai’s mother, Cô Nga, decided to take matters into her own hands, and traveled to Viet Nam to find someone suitable for Khai. He is overwhelmed by insecurities from knowing he is “on the spectrum,” and doesn’t think it would be fair to impose himself on someone else. He is 26 and very handsome, but has never had a girlfriend. Khai is also on the autism spectrum, and has trouble expressing or even recognizing emotions. This book, related to the first, is about Khai Diep, Michael’s cousin. In Hoang’s previous book, The Kiss Quotient, Stella Lane, a 30-year old attractive and smart woman with Asperger’s living in Palo Alto, California, ends up in a relationship with Michael Phan, a half-Vietnamese, half-Swedish escort who looks a Korean martial arts movie star from her favorite film genre.

The bride test khai