As any romance fan knows, a joyful resolution is one of the signature traits of the genre. No matter how much turmoil and drama characters endure throughout the narrative, they will get to their happy ending. This assurance has always held special meaning for Helen Hoang. “I am an emotionally reserved person....There are several reasons for that, but one of them is self-preservation,” she explains via email. “I can’t be devastated if I’m never invested, but, on the flip side, I miss out on a lot that way, too. Romance novels allow me to let my guard down and experience a full range of emotions, from first kiss to heartbreak to, as promised, happily-ever-after.”

Hoang was at work on a romance of her own—her debut—when she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. In past interviews, she has described how she gave her heroine Stella Lane many of her own behaviors and characteristics—aspects of herself that she had long tried to hide. Creating Stella and exploring her emotional evolution through writing The Kiss Quotient was a journey of discovery for Hoang. “Even as I wrote the book, I knew that it was changing things for me. Through Stella, I discovered so much about myself and autism spectrum disorder. At the same time, I was completely intoxicated by the love story unfolding between [Stella and Michael].” Readers, it turns out, were just as enthralled as she was. The Kiss Quotient was named Amazon’s Best Romance of 2018, Best Romance in Goodreads’ Readers’ Choice Awards, and it was a tremendous bestseller.

She continues to explore relationships through a neurodiverse lens in her second novel, The Bride Test. This time, Hoang follows the emotional evolution of her hero, Khai Diep. Readers who made The Kiss Quotient a hit will be glad to know that Michael’s hot cousin Quan reappears in The Bride Test—Khai is Quan’s brother—and he’ll get his turn as romantic lead in the as-yet-untitled novel Hoang is busy crafting right now. She describes her third book as “a sort of gender-reversed Sabrina.”

 Hoang is writing at the intersection of two important trends in contemporary book culture. Readers are increasingly demanding diversity—diverse characters and diverse authors. The conversation about diversity has become especially robust in the romance community within the last several years. And the #ownvoices movement celebrates stories in which authors speak from their own backgrounds. Hoang isn’t the only writer who addresses neurodiversity in fiction, but the spectacular success of The Kiss Quotient has generated new awareness of the need for such books.

Fans of her work have appreciated not only her characters with autism spectrum disorder, but also her depictions of Vietnamese-Americans and first-generation immigrants. In addition to allowing readers to see themselves, Hoang also understands the unique power of narrative to help people truly see people often regarded as “other.” “I do hope readers can learn from my books, but not in the same way they would from reading a textbook. They’re not facts that I hope to convey so much as feelings and experiences—the perspectives of people with different backgrounds, races, cultures, or even neurotypes.” She adds, “I think it’s important for people to see themselves represented in love stories. Love is universal.”

Jessica Jernigan is a writer and editor living in Michigan. She was a 2018 Kirkus Prize judge.