Kwan proves has another more characters to start a new series with a modern telling of A Room with a View. Traveling to a wealthy Capri wedding with her cousin, Lucie Churchill is knocked off balance when she meets George Zao. Their families meet again when both have moved in new directions but the sparks makes Lucie question all her choices.

FINALLY. I feel like I've been waiting for this book for years! I loved the tone, the writing, the setting and pacing. Everything about Kevin Kwan's writing is sold gold.

Another glitz and glamour tale from Kevin Kwan. This time, the wedding is set in Italy, but readers will delight in the tawdry tales of the Uber rich.

I reviewed this book for Bookreporter.com. It is a very clever and entertaining book, much like his last series.

Not quite as engaging as Kwan's earlier trilogy, but just as fun and bawdy. I liked the characters, I loved the setting, and the story was fun and kept me reading. A good beach read, fireplace read, read for those of us stuck inside for who knows how long.

This book was exactly what I wanted to recreate how I felt while reading Crazy Rich Asians, though it was slightly less crazy.

I loved Lucie and enjoyed the fact that there was a little more diversity in these characters, yet they were all still very rich and very crazy. I was glad to see how this ended up, while reading I was prepared to be disappointed in Lucie's journey.

I would recommend this for anyone wanted to make their crazy family seem normal.

Another glittering story from the author of Crazy Rich Asians. This time a classy woman is caught between her WASPY fiancé who her family wants her to marry and George Zao, who she doesn’t want to fall in love with. You might want to reread or at least watch E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View. Forster was way to early to envision this instagramming, techy group more familiar with technology than speaking with one another. And there are drones. And maybe its just the focus on minorities, but there’s an undercurrent of microaggression against Asian, even within the family. The characters are flamboyant and outrageous. It is a good choice to read since most of us will be stuck at home for the foreseeable future.

The descriptions of Capri and the decadent wedding had me hooked right from the beginning. The extravagance and wealth described are enough to make it feel like you're enjoying these luxuries along with the eccentric cast of characters. I couldn't put it down. Kevin Kwan certainly did not disappoint on this follow-up to Crazy Rich Asians.

Oh my goodness, this book was so fun!! I read it in a day and felt like I was on vacation the entire time. I love all of the characters (George 😍) and the way Kevin Kwan’s satirical style calls out truths among his characters in the most captivating way. This story wove layers of important thoughts on race and class, while not interfering with the beautiful levity and fun that is this book. I highly recommend everyone take a trip to Capri this summer and read this book!

This book, like the others by the author is soooooo much fun. The extras that he puts into the story, the brand names, the descriptions, and of course the CVs of all the characters makes it more real, although the reader knows that there is no townhome in NYC that has a Venetian canal in the living room with a gondola and gondoliers that are also lifeguards. The characters are all bigger than life as is the story, but there are always a couple that are a hoot and Rosemary Zao and Cousin Charlotte are really hoots. Even if Capri or NYC or the Hamptons are someplace you've never visited, you may want to after reading this book.

First of all, I have to be one of the few people who have not yet read Kwan's Crazy Rich Asian books so I came to his latest novel with no preconceived notions or expectations and cannot make any comparisons to his other novels.

Lucie Tang Churchill (age 19) attends the fabulous destination wedding of a friend on the isle of Capri and falls in lust with a handsome and multi-talented fellow named George Zao. They are caught in an embarrassing position and Lucie is whisked away by her chaperone of sorts, cousin Charlotte. They don't see each other again for the next five years and when they do, Lucie is engaged to marry a wealthy NY socialite named Cecil. But is he the right man for her? "He's in love with the social media impression of you, how you enhance his brand. It's all about sex and vanity to him, nothing else!"

Because Lucie is 'hapa'--half Chinese, half WASP--the story touches on racial prejudices towards Asians in this country. Lucie's father's family traces its roots back to the Mayflower and she has always felt judged by them for looking 'Asian' like her mother while her brother has their father's looks. The family makes those little comments that seem nice on the surface but have a slight sting to them, if one is at all sensitive.

While on the one hand this is a fun, easy-reading romantic comedy about some ridiculously rich people devoted to conspicuous consumption, it makes one ache for our society and what it has become--at least for the top 1%ers. I have to say, I quickly grew tired of reading about them: what schools they went to, what designer clothes they wear, their network of social connections and especially their shallow little problems. A well-written book that maybe just wasn't the right fit for me in these particular stressful times.

I received an arc of this new novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks for the opportunity.

Arghhh I wanted to love this so badly! I really loved Crazy Rich Asians, but this just didn’t click for me. I didn’t like the timeline and the random jump forward (really threw me off). There really wasn’t much of a storyline? I feel like all the things that happened didn’t REALLY matter. Just read CRA instead.

QUICK TAKE: the book is split into two sections: an extravagant wedding in Capri, and an engagement in The Hamptons. I loved the Capri portion of the book and the homage to A Room with a View. However, the book kinda lost me in part two and felt a little frivolous and less fun. I didn't quite buy into the romance (both men were duds to me), but the discussions on class and racism kept me engaged and invested in the story and I recommend this one for anyone looking for escapist fun this summer.

He did it again! Love me some Kevin Kwan!! This book was pure escapism at its finest! Tucked into this one during my shelter in place summer and found myself laughing out loud and flipping to the next page to find what happened next! Another wonderfully entertaining peek into the lives of the fabulously rich! This time Kwan explores the life of a young lady who is coming to terms with her biracial heritage. I hated it ended as quickly as it did. I flew through this book!

Sex and Vanity is apparently a modern retelling of A Room with a View. Which I had no idea until I was almost done with it because I'm uncultured, apparently. I don't know how the book worked on the retelling front, but it was a perfectly fine beach read as a standalone. Honestly in some ways it was sorta like Crazy Rich Asians part 4. Kwan has a style and he's sticking to it - funny footnotes, lots of name dropping. It works, but Lucie wasn't as compelling as Rachel. But this could be the source material he's updating?? No idea. Regardless, it's still a fun book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed CRA or likes to read about rich people rich-peopling.

I loved Crazy Rich Asians (the whole series) and I expected to enjoy this one as well. I certainly did! I don't know why the world of excess is so entertaining to me, but Kwan writes it well. All in all, it is a fun and quick read. Definitely one I'd recommend.

What a great retelling of A Room with a View, with the great addition of the modern details of the super rich!

This book follows the same format as CRA just set in beautiful Italy and East Hampton. This was fun as expected from Kevin Kwan but I kept comparing it to CRA which Doesn’t compare. Still makes for a fun summer read

I really enjoyed this book and included it in my recent summer book roundup
https://mashable.com/article/summer-book-roundup-what-to-read/

Don’t you hate when a book you’re excited about is so aggressively… average? That’s how I felt about this one. It had all of the ritz and glamour of the Crazy Rich Asians series but just didn’t stand out as much to me. Kwan’s writing is stunning – he will transport you to wherever the book takes place. The start of this one is in Capri, Italy and I felt like I was there and was envisioning the Italian towns I visited last year while reading. I loved this book for that experience.

All that to say, I felt like there was just too much going on in the book. Apparently it’s a modern retelling of A Room With A View, which I haven’t read so I can’t comment on. Kwan touched on cultural appropriation and racial microaggressions, as well as recapturing the cattiness and name brand dropping of the CRA series. But instead of focusing on a few of these things and doing it well, I think that the issues were stretched too thin and didn’t get the proper coverage that they deserved.

The main character, Lucie, also just didn’t do it for me. She was boring. She had no backbone. She was 19 and needed a chaperone to a wedding? She was with a man who was a complete douche canoe to her and just let him walk all over her. No ma’am. She disliked George, who was so kind to her, for no reason. And there was a huge scandal at the beginning of the book that didn’t quite get the attention and discussion later on that I was needing.

I still think it’s worth a read, but I think my excitement for the release made my expectations a little too high.