Book Review: Crazy Rich Asians

Book: Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians book #1) by Kevin Kwan

Edition: Paperback

Description:

When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees on a summer in Singapore to visit her boyfriend's "traditional" Chinese family, she expects the trip to be relaxing, if a little dull. She has no idea....

Nick's childhood home is a palace. He grew up riding in more private planes than cars. He and Rachel will be attending the wedding of the year. Oh, and Nick just happens to be one of Asia's most eligible bachelors -- and his formidable mother isn't so sure Rachel is the right one for him.



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I loved reading this story, it's fast paced and full of family drama, romance, humor, gossip, extravagance, greed and so much more.

Rachel Chu had no idea what she would be in store for when her boyfriend Nicholas "Nick" Young invited her to spend the summer with him in Singapore and attend his best friend Colin Khoo's wedding. She figured she would have fun seeing the sights, meeting Nick's family and friends and hanging out with her old college friend Peik Lin.

Gossip travels fast because as soon as Nick asked Rachel to travel back home with him for the summer, the news had already presided them. And once Nick's mother Eleanor learned of the news, she knew she had to end this romance between Nick and Rachel because to her and everyone else they believed a proposal was imminent.

Since Nick was a Professor at NYU like she was, Rachel sort of had the idea that he perhaps had a modest background such as her. But once they arrived in Singapore and she got a clear picture of Nick's world, it was more than she could have ever imagined.

In what should have been a fun summer vacation for Rachel quickly started to turn into a nightmare as she had to deal with jealous women who consider Nick to be the ultimate catch or more like the ultimate jackpot (due to his family's immense wealth) and the behind the scenes of Eleanor's planning.

This was a fascinating read with some delightfully interesting characters along with several odious ones as you delve into this story. Although this mainly focused on Rachel and Nick, there were other characters and their issues shown throughout the story such as Nick's cousin Astrid Leong who believed her husband Michael Teo was cheating on her.

Wealth (and the perception of it) played a big part in the lives of many of these characters. I feel like with most of these characters they don't really see people instead they only see how much someone is worth coupled with someone's family name or lineage (or lack thereof) then they factor that in how they act towards others.

This is very much a dramedy because there was a good balance of drama and humor as the story featured plenty of emotional and heart-wrenching moments to go along with the funny ones. With the way this ended, I have to get the second and third books to continue the story.