This was such a sweet read and definitely the first of many I will be reading by this author. I found all the characters relatable in their own way. The romance aspect was written so well.

I enjoy travel romance stories, so I thought I'd give this a read. However, I didn't end up finishing this book.

After reading the first chapter, I felt the character Iris was too self-absorbed, and I didn't feel she'd be a likable character. Plus, the chapter had some too-descriptive parts that turned me off from the book. I never saw "Crazy, Rich Asians" so I can't say if this is a good book for fans of the movie, but it's definitely not a recommended travel-romance book. I've personally seen better travel-romance books.

DNF
I tried to read this and lost interest. I ended up DNFing this novel; however, I do still want to try to finish reading it at some point in the future! I just don't think that now was the right time for me and this book.

This book really wasn't for me. I've seen some stories do this concept well, but without any growth happening in the MC, it makes the story so unlikable. You could tell the story was really character-driven as well, which made the whole story overall flop for me since I didn't like the characters driving the story. It was really disappointing because the premise was interesting, and the cover is gorgeous, I just disliked the main character so much. I can handle self-centered characters with growth, but there just wasn't any to be had.

This is about a Chinese-American teen is thrust into the world of Beijing high society when she is sent away to spend the summer in China. This book is very character driven but the MC was really hard to like. Maybe if she got better but she never grows and spends the entire book just being selfish and annoying.

Very promising but very disappointing.

This book must have the lowest average rating I've ever seen, and I've seen so many 1 star review. I fully expected to really dislike it too, and I kept putting off reading this book. Now, this is certainly not a new favourite. But I honestly enjoyed the drama, for the most part. I don't tend to enjoy books with unlikeable main characters very much, but I thought it was mostly well done here, with the addition that the girl on girl hate was A LOT. I had some other problems with this as well, that were better discussed by other readers, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy reading this. I would recommend maybe giving it a shot if you enjoyed Anna K and Loveboat, Taipei!

Iris Wang’s summer is starting rough. Really rough. In a hopeful attempt to get her refocused, her parents send her to visit family in Beijing. Iris is anything but happy about this, but maybe, just maybe this could actually be good for her.

Oh boy, I wish I knew where to begin here because as much as I wanted to like this book and thought that there was a chance for a good turn around, this never hit it.

My Summer of Love and Misfortune is a story that is character-driven. The focus is entirely on Iris and her experiences. The problem with this is that Iris is not a likeable character. She is entirely self-absorbed and believes that she is a gift to man-kind. There were so many moments that I couldn’t believe she could be so ridiculous, but she surprised me time and time again in the worst way possible.

To have a protagonist this unlikable, progress really needs to be shown. But Iris did not grow throughout this story. Instead of growing or being put in situations that might make her question herself and grow from that, she was consistently put in situations that excused her actions. She’d be told that she acted like this because deep down this was her issue. You cannot excuse someone's actions and say it’s just how they are. HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE!

Iris had so many other ticks that just grated on my nerves. She’d compare people or things to the oddest things that made no sense and more often than not, seemed to be a way to keep herself above them. She would also compare the Mandarin language to Star Wars or sci-fi sounds or something along that line while also consistently thinking that maybe she was Korean or Japanese. Wait, maybe she was even adopted and really belonged to a rich family. None of it was ever challenged and just felt… wrong. With how often it was brought up, it was upsetting to never see any of that challenged.

Technically, I guess you could say that Iris has some growth, but all of it is told and not shown which left me not believing any of it. It all felt like a lie that would pass any second and she would go back to her own ways because how couldn’t she when there was never a moment that left her actually thinking about her actions?

I could also get into the side characters and how bad they were, but I think talking about Iris and how no one challenged her probably is a good explanation of all the other characters in itself.

My Summer of Misfortune and Love could have been a promising book about growth, but instead it went a completely different route of never finding yourself truly accountable for your actions.

I tried to read this book and I just couldn't get into it. Sadly this wasn't for me as I wasn't able to connect with the story. I'm sure others will enjoy it though. That's the joy of books!

After reading reviews, I unfortunately have zero interest in reading this book any more. It's just not something I'm interested in spending time on.

An interesting YA novel that I didn't really like, but Teens will find it easier to relate the main character.

My Summer of Love and Misfortune was not what I expected.
I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't. It was kind of therapeutic yelling at all the characters though!
Iris Wang is irritating and self-absorbed, her redemption arc seems forced. & the rest of the characters were not very likable either,

If you would like to rage read a book where you can yell at all the characters, I highly recommend this book for you.

DNF 32%

So positives I absolutely loved the cover the synopsis I thought was exciting. Sadly that's the only thing that was good about this book.

She is a horrible person. She is irresponsible doesn't care about anybody but herself and she doesn't try did you better or be better.

She is very vapid and narcissistic. She didn't get into any colleges and has failed high school so her parents decide to send her to Beijing to live with her dad's half-brother.

This girl is delusional and she doesn't take any blame it's always someone else's fault. So they send her to Beijing so that she can become a better person and so far she is the same selfish self-absorbed person but spending her uncle's money.

I wanted to like this book but just couldn't. I still want to thank Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This cover is gorgeous but sadly that’s all this book really has going for it. I really struggled to get through this. I went into it expecting a fun summery read, what I got was a mess, the characters were self centred.and she got herself into reckless situations.

DNF @ 20%
This book was not for me.
The main character was an awful human being, she was self cantered, rude and just horrible. The relationships she had, her friends and family were almost the same. I tried read it but I couldn’t.
The author tried to make the book funny but the humour was cringy and fell flat and was just weird.

Most reviews for this book both on Netgalley and Goodreads are not good, I don’t like to read reviews for any book before I read it but I had to know if this book was worth my time and unfortunately it was not.

Sadly, this is a DNF for me. I got through about 30% of the book and I coudn't keep going. I didn't feel a connection to any of the characters and the writing fell flat for me. Keep in mind, this is just my opinion, I can see reasons why others would love this story!

Thank you Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start by saying that this review might be more of a rant because I did not like this book. I also want to give a warning that this review might contain some spoilers because of the ranting, so read it at your own risk.

Iris Wang is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever had the displeasure of meeting in a book. She is self-centred, egotistical, reckless, narcissistic, inconsiderate, and thoughtless. After a string of particularly terrible decisions, her parents decide to send her to Beijing to live with her Uncle and reconnect with her culture. When she gets to Beijing, her terrible, self-centred decision making continues, and I’m surprised I didn’t scream or throw my Kindle while reading about it.

This book was advertised as Crazy Rich Asians meets Love & Gelato, and I thought I was going to love it. Crazy Rich Asians is an amazing trilogy, and I cannot recommend it enough, and Love & Gelato is one of my favourite YA books. I don’t want to say that these comparisons were inaccurate because, at the most basic level, they were. This book does feature a wealthy Asian family who finds themselves in a handful of crazy situations. It also features a teenage girl being sent to another country to live with family she didn’t know she had. However, in my opinion, this is where the comparison to Crazy Rich Asians and Love & Gelato ends, and this book lacks any of the charm or humour of Crazy Rich Asians and Love & Gelato.

The main reason why I didn’t like this book is that it’s very character-driven, and I couldn’t stand the main character. I couldn’t wrap my head around how someone could be so self-centred and inconsiderate, especially while their parents dreamt about them getting into an Ivy League school. I found myself asking, “who does that?!” on multiple occasions while reading this book because Iris’s impulses were absurd. I also couldn’t wrap my head around Iris’s inability to use her brain and use any logic. Almost all of her decisions were incredibly inconsiderate and self-serving, and every time I thought she might be improving as a person, she would do something to remind me why I disliked her. I do realize that there are people out there who are like this (*looks towards 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue*), but I didn’t find it enjoyable to read about. I also understand that her intentions were mostly good, but when your actions are consistently bad, it doesn’t matter what your intentions were or how many times you apologize. Even at the end, when she started to become a better person, it was clear that she was still focused on how it made her look and how it helped her.

If there was a character I disliked more than Iris, it would be her friend (or former friend) Samira. Samira played a very minor role in this book, but what she did irritated me so much. All I will say is if you steal your friend’s significant other, don’t tag your friend in all of your social media posts featuring your new (their ex) significant other.

Now I want to take some time to rant about Iris’s parents; specifically, I want to ask how they didn’t realize that their daughter had gotten herself into so much trouble? I understand that teenagers lie and that a parent shouldn’t have to monitor everything their teenager does, but I don’t know how they could go from thinking their daughter was going to Yale to finding out she failed high school? That’s a massive difference, and I can’t comprehend how they didn’t catch on that she was doing poorly academically. Also, if you give your teenager a credit card, set a low credit limit and pay attention to the transactions!

One character that grew on me was Iris’s cousin Ruby. At first, I didn’t like her, and I thought she was just as bad as Iris. As the book went on, I started to tolerate her because there was a reason behind her actions. I also liked that she competed in competitive dog-grooming pageants, and I thought that was a fun and unique hobby.

This book did have some good moments and discussions about family, family secrets, and forgiveness. Unfortunately, since most of these moments were drowned out by Iris, I didn’t enjoy them as much as I normally would.

Overall, I’m surprised that I finished this book. Since the plot was very character-driven, and I couldn’t stand the main character, it was a struggle to get through. Every possible redeeming moment was ruined by one of Iris’s poor decisions, and it was a struggle because Iris didn’t have a backstory that justified her behaviour. I was disappointed with this book, and I thought that the comparisons to Crazy Rich Asians and Love & Gelato were misleading, and unfortunately, I do not recommend it.

I normally love young adult books, so I thought I'd enjoy this. This...I could NOT finish it. I tried, but I couldn't. I made it about Chapter 14. It just wasn't for me.

I really thought I was going to enjoy this book, the plot sounded really interesting and it gave me all the fluffly / cute contemporary vibes, but oh man! I've despised a main character so much in my life! Iris as a main character it's extremely annoying, obnoxious and bratty. I honestly can't say anything good about her. And the rest of the characters were just as bad. It was a really cringy story. Specially the text conversations she had with her family throughout the book. Definetely the worst book I've read so far this year.

I had high hopes for this book. Everyone, who knows me would think me and this book were a match made in heaven from the synopsis. I picked up this book despite all the negative reviews, because I feel I am a very forgiving reader. It's ok with me if a character is self absorbed or reckless or selfish, as long as at the end of the journey, there is growth.

I will admit, that Iris did grow some during this book, but I feel like there it took way too long for her to get there. There were these moments, where I thought she was heading in the right direction, and then she would immediately regress. It was very frustrated.

I also think the humor didn't work for me. I wasn't amused, when I think I was supposed to be.

I did like the theme of family in the story. Those were the highlights for me.

I don't normally finish books, which rate this low, but I wanted to know if Iris made any progress. There were actually times I empathized with Iris, but then she would do two more things that aggravated me.

Sad to say, me and this book were not a good match.

When I first heard of My Summer of Love and Misfortune, it was pitched as the YA Crazy Rich Asians and I was SOLD. I was excited and could not wait to read it.

My Summer of Love and Misfortune had all the drama, luxuries and culture that had the makings of a great book but it sadly fell a bit short for me. I found it hard to connect to the characters. While they were entertaining to read about, I just could not connect with them and so it caused me to find it hard to continue with the book.

I think the story itself was entertaining as I said and I am sure many will enjoy it, it just wasn't my favorite.
I however would be interested in reading more from this author.