The Fraud Squad was an interesting, light read. I enjoyed the draw to socialite status and lifestyle, but didn't always buy into the successes Samantha won. The "true confession" moments, after the Gala from those who had worked behind the scenes against Sam were a bit too much honesty from those who had been anything but honest. Still, the fact that it was a look at a life far from my own made it a fun page turner. I was glad I read it. It is an impressive work from a very young author. I suspect she will follow with even better reads in her future works.

I’d love to do an interview with Kyla for pop culturalist. This book is perfect for fans of The Devil Wears Prada x Crazy Rich Asians. It’s a fun, fast paced novel and I absolutely love the vivid descriptions in it.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this one prior to release!

Fraud Squad caught my eye: the life of high society, ‘the infiltrator,’ and journalism mixed it - sign me up.

I think for me I would have preferred this book to be character-driven rather than plot-driven simply because even by the end of the book I still didn't know who our characters really were. Sam and the team felt 2D with unclear motivations and unestablished values. I believe the only character I felt for and actually got to know was Sam's mother who barely appears in the book yet still felt more like a real character than all of them.

It was a quick read and I appreciated the concept but I think it lacked execution for me.

Thank you,

Wow! Such a great start and fascinating debut! It presents great portraits of Singapore’s high society. The angsty romance between Tim and Sam and the outcome of their story also made me turn the pages faster, getting easily connected with those characters.

The dues you have to pay to be the part of socialite scene may cost more than Samantha Song has imagined. She comes from poverty, burying her head into magazine pages to forget the meaning of debt. And now she’s trapped in a PR job, barely making her ends meet as her poor mother still works in a nail saloon even though she still suffers from illness affecting her ability to use her hands properly.

When Samantha’s posh colleague Anya Chen invites her a trendy restaurant that you have to wait for months to have reservation, she sees this invitation as an opportunity. They’ll meet Anya’s wealthy and broken hearted friend Timothy and help him to get over his problems with his girlfriend.

When they meet at the place, Sam realizes Timothy comes from one of the most powerful and elegant families. But he detests to work at family business. His father let him have one year sabbatical. He decides to use this opportunity to work in another industry, creating something meaningful and artsy. There is still three months to end of his sabbatical but his family already started putting pressure on him to go back to family business and his traitor girlfriend supports his family’s decision.

Sam listens Tim’s predicament and remembers how she wanted to have a career as a writer reporting high society’s life style. She makes an offer to Tim that they can get both benefited.

Tim wants to convince his family that he shouldn’t be determined by the background he was born just like Sam who comes from working class needs to have a chance to turn into a socialite. They have only three months to achieve their goals.

Pretending a socialite may be more challenging than Samantha expected especially a secret gossip columnist is out there to dig out more dirt, watching her as a vulture, waiting for her to make a mistake.

Overall: this is fast pacing, captivating, easy read for me! I loved the way how the author wrapped things up. I’m looking forward to read more works of the author in near future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Yes, I read this in a day! Yes, I am now obsessed with Sam. The fashion and the food and watching Sam find out who she wants to be. It was pure fun. And I'm in love with the ending. ❤️

Calling all fans of "Counterfeit"! "The Fraud Squad" is.a deliciously scandalous story of high stakes that oozes drama. A must read - well done Kyla Zhao!

This book is set in Singapore and the author has described it and the people beautifully. This book contains romance. This is a great first novel from Kyla Zhao and I hope she continues to write so I can continue to read her novels!

I wanted to like this book but I just really didn’t. I think the characters seemed so nieve about the real world. While I understand I needed to suspend some reality but I just couldn’t get into it