This book is a new offering by the author of Crazy Rich Asians and its follow-ups, and is just as much fun as that series.
Rather than going to Asia, though, we mostly are hanging out in New York (though there's plenty of characters from all over the world.)
The story starts with a flashback to an uber-exclusive wedding on Capri. Lucie Churchill is a descendent of those Churchills, but her mother's heritage is Chinese. At the wedding, Lucie is a young Brown University student, traveling with her incredibly uptight cousin as a chaperone. She meets George, a Crazy Rich Asian from Hong Kong/Sydney/UC Berkeley. He and his mother are kind of odd ducks to the old money NY bunch, but Lucie is oddly drawn to him. There's an incident at the wedding that horrifies the cousin/chaperone, Lucie is whisked away, and we go to NYC five years later.
Lucie is now an up and coming art consultant and gets engaged to an oil money "most eligible bachelor" in a scene straight out of a Hollywood musical adaptation. Her family heads to the Hamptons for the weekend, and who show up but George and his mama?
Lucie is a really likeable character. While the book is a fun romp through Crazy Rich New York, the heart is about Lucie and her family dynamic, and it's well done. Kwan's writing style is enjoyable to me - the kind of poke fun at the insider group dynamic - but I admit that as a solid middle-class non-fashionista, non-society follower, some of the name dropping of both people and brands goes well over my head. The footnotes are funny, as they were in the previous books, but as a suggestion I would recommend a physical book. Reading the footnotes on the Kindle app is a little tedious.Narrative is scattered through with texts, emails, or news items, which keeps the pace moving and the voice of the book feels correct.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. If you liked Crazy Rich Asians, don't hesitate to grab this one!
