Mini review:

I received this e-arc via the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

I was so happy that I was approved for this title! It sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately I didn't like it.

Iris really irked me! The more I read, the more annoyed I was. I did skim towards the end, and while Iris did improve it was too late for me.

The only positive I have was the ending. It was sweet! Though not enough to save the whole book.

I still recommend. I think others will enjoy it.

As excited as I was for this book, the main character Iris completely ruined it for me. She was self-absorbed and so terrible. All she cared about what drinking and parting and couldn't understand things such as global warming and exchange rates. Her way of thinking was vapid and I just couldn't this whole book surrounding her. Maybe this will be a hit for others, but I just couldn't trek it out.

Today is a momentous day on Read By Tiffany because I’m writing my first ever...DNF (aka did-not-finish) Review. I always try to give a book a fair shot and power through until the end, but oh my goodness...THIS BOOK WAS B A D.

Starring a self-absorbed main character and filled with elementary writing, My Summer of Love and Misfortune was unfortunately a cringe-fest. When I started this book, I thought it would be my next love, but unfortunately, I had to DNF the book at the 20% mark, or 70 pages.

My Summer of Love and Misfortune follows the life of Iris Wang, a high school senior whose life is filled with parties, boys, glamour, and avoiding every responsibility ever given to her. After putting -10% effort into her college applications, she’s *shocker* rejected by every university and proven to be a bigger disgrace to her parents.

I shit you not...here’s a direct quote from Iris’s mother:

“Let’s face it, Jeff. Our daughter is going to be a loser.”

Iris Wang belongs in the Hall of Fame for delusional main characters alongside Shane from Again, But Better and Isabella from The Summer I Turned Pretty. I truly have never read from the perspective of a protagonist that was so out-of-touch with reality.

She remembers the wrong date for her boyfriend’s birthday. She drives WHILE DRUNK and crashes her $30,000 car. When her father drops her off at the airport, she throws a tantrum and exclaims that if he loves her, he wouldn’t send her off to China...and that he must not even be her real father. #what?!

“And how can I be self-absorbed? I’m the most selfless person on the planet, after Gandhi.”

Honestly, this book is almost hilariously bad. Some of the scenes just felt so outrageous I couldn’t help but laugh. When another Asian family comes over to Iris’s house to brag about their daughter’s acceptance into Princeton, Iris’s mother is so ashamed...she tells her daughter to hide in the food pantry.

The main plot of the book follows Iris’s dramatic character transformation when she’s sent to Beijing for the summer, but unfortunately, I had to stop reading before we landed in China.

Friends...I really tried. 😭 I thought this book would be my next love since it sounded so similar to Loveboat, Taipei, but truthfully, it didn’t just fall flat...it metaphorically flung itself off a cliff. If you’re looking for a fun contemporary featuring transformative story for the main character, I wouldn’t recommend this one.

Did not finish

The book wasn't advertised or summarised properly.

The unlikable protagonist is the main issue. The summary says it's like Crazy rich Asians. HOW?? Except for the unexpected trip to China , where???

The writing isn't really good and I'm really sorry I even wasted my time with this book.

I could not finish this book. The writing wasn't bad, but the protagonist just didn't read well. Of course there could have been character development but I skipped around some and I didn't get any notion that she does develop. Unfortunately I just don't have time or patience to read a book where I won't get much satisfaction, so I could not finish it.

As much as I want to love this book because it was pitched with Crazy Rich Asian vibes, Iris Wang, as a main character, is TOO annoying.

I know that the purpose of the author in creating her is to show how a self-centered teenager acts in her everyday life but everything Iris does is just too much for me too handle. She is too selfish and never thinks of the repercussions of her action before actually doing it.

I did enjoy her stay at Beijing though. The food, the culture, and the travel were all perfectly presented I can picture the food Iris is eating all the time.

However, this did not conceal the fact that the center of this universe is an annoyance in human form. She makes these mistakes and then turns to her childish reasoning when caught.

If that is the main goal of the book, then good job. However, the storyline did not vibe with me at all.

I appreciate receiving this e-arc for review. I was initially excited about this story centering around a young Asian-American woman wanting to connect with her heritage. I thought the first chapter was cute and quirky. I thought it told us a lot about her and her father in a way that was informative without being an info-dump of exposition.
Unfortunately, it went downhill from that point.

My biggest issue with this book was with Iris, our protagonist. She is perhaps the dumbest and most willfully-ignorant character I've ever read about. EVER. It felt like there was an attempt made to make her a Cher-Horowitz-type character, but it just didn't work. She lacked the care Cher has for the people around her. She was vapid, self-absorbed, and unapologetic in her disinterest and disdain for the people and situations going on around her. I spent a good deal of time before writing this review trying to figure out what the purpose of this character was. Are we supposed to start out disliking her and then as she matures we learn to love her? If that's the case, it failed. Her 'transformation' was far too little, too late. Are we supposed to find her ignorance quirky and fun? Again, it didn't work that way for me. It felt like this book was trying way too hard to be funny and quirky instead of giving us characters that felt real and believable. The following are just a few examples of things that drove me nuts about Iris:
1. She ditches class and tutor sessions, shows up to the SAT test (that she didn't study for) half-drunk, and is then shocked when she doesn't get accepted to any of the colleges she applied for and when she isn't 'voted' valedictorian. By the way, that is not the way valedictorian's are chosen. I'm not sure if this is actually how the author thinks this happens or is just supposed to be another example of how clueless Iris is. The fact that it isn't clear is a sign to me that it doesn't work in the story. Any teenager in America who goes to public high school would be able to tell you how a valedictorian is chosen. It's not realistic that she wouldn't know, even if she is a total moron.
2. She doesn't know what global warming is, except that it's some sort of 'current event'. She then likens it to face cream. Again, I just don't see how even the most self-absorbed 18-year old wouldn't know what global warming is.
3. She questions her parentage for the entire book, just because her parents are taller than her. The first time she mentioned wondering if she was adopted, I thought it was just some sort of throwaway comment from a sullen teenager. But then she spends the entire book thinking about it and it comes off as absolutely ridiculous.
4. She doesn't know how to pronounce her Chinese name because she never asked her dad how to pronounce it. I just can't imagine being so apathetic.
5. She doesn't 'understand' Star Wars, even though she's watched the films with her father. It's not that deep.
6. She doesn't have any idea what the exchange rate is between yuan and US Dollars, even though it was explained to her. She remains ignorant of this throughout the course of the book.
7. At one point she says that she hasn't eaten in twelve hours, or 'practically half a day.' People aren't this stupid.
8. She blames all of her flaws and faults on her birth sign.
9. She tells someone she has 22/22 vision. This isn't a thing.
10. Someone asks her what the word 'acute' means. Her answer is anything but cute.
11. She doesn't know that cousins have the same grandparents.
12. SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT A MUSEUM IS. She's surprised that there aren't price tags on the pieces and no one is haggling. I just...don't believe that someone who has grown up in American in the upper-middle class doesn't understand the concept of a museum. This is cringy. There is no way to root for this girl. She is too ridiculous.
13. She doesn't know where China is in relation to America on a world map.
14. She agrees to help her cousin with something, then breaks her promise. The cousin texts her and Iris basically ignores it. Then later on she acts completely shocked that she forgot, as if she hadn't received the text a couple chapters earlier. I'm not sure if that's a structural error with the writing or if we are really supposed to think that Iris is that stupid and selfish. Again, the fact that it isn't clear is a problem.
This is just a sample of this character's idiocy. Every single page of this book had multiple eye-rolling moments with regard to her sheer ineptitude at life. I have to question the decision to make her the butt of a thousand jokes throughout the course of this book. It just doesn't make sense. Ignorance and stupidity aren't cute and quirky in our society. They're just sad and frankly inexcusable.

I also thought her parents were really inconsistent with regard to their characterization. On the one hand, we're supposed to believe that they are these traditional Chinese parents putting pressure on their child to get good grades, go to a good college, be a successful adult. But on the other hand, they are completely neglectful and oblivious to the reality of who their daughter is. They apparently have no idea that their daughter doesn't go to class or tutor sessions. They don't know that she bombed her SAT test. They don't know that she is on the cusp of failing her senior year of high school. THAT IS NOT REALISTIC. If a child isn't showing up to school, her parents would've received multiple calls from the school. If they were risking failing out, the counselor would call the parents, not the lazy teenager. Her father never told her about his family in China, but then decides that, instead of actually PARENTING their child, they'll send her to live in China with said brother who she's never met or spoken to. She doesn't even know his name or what he looks like when she's sent off. They also give her free access to a credit card, apparently completely unaware that she is totally irresponsible with money and also totally disrespectful of her parents finances and belongings. Making them so ignorant about her shenanigans but then also being shocked that she isn't accepted to good colleges just doesn't track.

I wasn't a fan of any of the other characters either.

The plot, what there was of a plot, felt like something that could've been interesting, but the book spent too long on Iris's idiotic decisions and not enough on her minimal growth. By the time we got to it I was so annoyed by the main character that I couldn't bring myself to care about what else was going on.

As far as the writing goes, I wasn't impressed. The sheer number of similes and metaphors used on essentially every page was just ridiculous. Most of them made no sense, and many of them were redundancies of similes and metaphors used in previous paragraphs on the EXACT SAME PAGE. I started highlighting them about a third of the way through the book and it's just excessive.

A couple other head-scratchers:

1. On the plane to China, she drops her phone into the toilet, which ruins it because water gets into it. Anyone who has been on a plane in the last couple of decades will tell you that's not how airplane toilets work.

2. Early in the book, we are told that Iris' parents own a swanky Mercedes. Later she talks about her parents and their 'boring Volkswagon'...which is it?

3. There were three comments about pupils that made me wonder if the author didn't mean something else. The first was about how you're supposed to 'widen your pupils' to show sorrow. The second was about someone being sad. We're told that her 'pupils are wet'. The third is Iris talking about how she can't stop looking at someone 'with her pupils'. None of these sentences make any sense. It feels like the word pupil is being used as a synonym for eye, but they aren't synonyms.

4. the term 'expiry date' is used and that's not something someone from the U.S. would say. We would say 'expiration date'.

The one saving grace of this book is the descriptions of the food. Oh my goodness, I want a dozen steamed pork buns right now. Every time she talked about food (with the exception of the scene where they eat scorpion and caterpillar...sorry, I'm just not that adventurous) my mouth would start watering. Unfortunately, that doesn't make up for all of the issues I had with this book.

At the end of the day, I think this story gets bogged down by a mind-numbingly stupid protagonist and a lack of intention with regards to the plot and characterization.

I am conflicted as to how to rate this book... On the one hand, I feel like giving it two stars, but on the other hand, I don't really feel the URGE of giving it two stars. I haven't liked it, but it actually caught me enough to make me go on reading. I didn't even think of putting it aside or abandoning it, and yet, my brain itched uncomfortably when I turned the pages. A lot of it was frustrating, but it didn't feel right to give it two stars. So three is a compromise.

READ IF: You're looking for Chinese rep (which was thoroughly enjoyable and instructive to Western European me), want a summer read that is maybe funny to some but was not my cup of tea, need to read some failing-student/daughter/overall person redemption and growth.

STORY: Iris Weijun Wang is a terribly self-absorbed, oblivious, and delusional (to name just a few of her 'qualities') highschool senior born in the year of the Tiger (for which she is doomed + she has been cursed). She has no care for the world around her and lives only for her own pleasure. When a series of dreadful events result as a consequence of her impulsive and irresponsible actions, and her world starts to crumble around her, her parents take a drastic decision: half to hide her dishonoring failures, half to punish her, they send her to live with relatives she had never known to have. The 17-year-old American girl who only has the appearance of being Chinese (but knows nothing of the culture and language tied to her origins) is shipped to Beijing, where she will begrudgingly sail on a journey of change and introspection. Nothing of what she does, thinks, or plans seems to go well, and she will end up discovering, against her will and terrible love for laziness, hidden secrets during her stay in the big metropolis.

CHARACTERS: Dear, oh dear, how I hated Iris for the biggest part of the book. At first, she seemed funny and lightheaded, but by the second chapter, it is clear that she is many, many, MANY things that are not positive: sickeningly selfish and self-absorbed, appallingly superficial, ignorant, gross, shameless, lazy, idiotic, irresponsible, inconsiderate, loud, vapid... I want to believe that Lindsay Wong wrote her this way on purpose, because in the end I really liked Iris' newfound personality. But it was really hard to feel anything for this repulsive MC from 10% to 90% of the book.

Iris' family is in part ridiculous (what with the constant wailing and 'shocked expressions' every five minutes - and the obliviousness that seems to be a hereditary trait) and in part okay-ish. Her parents are a lost cause: how do they talk to their daughter the way they do? How can they expect her to be any successful if they keep: a) treating her like she's an annoyance, b) not checking on her actions/whereabouts just a tinsy bit? It's no wonder that she's hopeless if they're such irresponsible parents. I love Ruby, Iris' cousin, because she seems to be the only one who sees Iris for the painful blister she is. Ruby is focused on her future and invested in her goals, hobby, and family.

Most of the characters are stupid; only there to be there. They're incredibly two-dimensional and just fill the space. But Iris undergoes a good redemption arc (albeit all delivered in a bulk at the last minute), and a couple of characters (including Ruby) are well-fleshed enough to make the reader appreciate them (there's even a good plot-twist involving a character).

PROS:
⋆ The ending: It is nothing super wow or super plotted, but it allows the redemption arc of a lot of the characters. It is a little cliche and a little rushed, but very, very satisfying after the whole story. It makes the overall reading worth it. The way the romance ends is how it should be. I was ready to rate this book 1 star if it had ended any other way.

⋆ The good message about toxic relationships: Iris understands at some point that she needs to measure herself to her own actions and values, and not depend on other people to decide her worth. That hit particularly close to home, and I'm so thankful for having read a book that conveys this message.

⋆ Okay, some moments are actually funny: Not funny in a LOL way, but funny in a small-smile-worthy way. Before the situations get too exaggerate, some reflections are actually good.

⋆ Chiiina

⋆ The compare/contrast between Eastern and Western cultures: I'm extremely ignorant when it comes to non-Western cultures, so learning that people (of a certain social and economic class, perhaps) have an English name in addition to their Chinese one was cool. I loved to take a trip to Beijing streets with Iris or to discover that moral values in China are different from the American ones. Family is not considered in the same way, nor is money, nor is entertainment.

CONS:
⋆ The writing style: I first liked that we got the POV of the narcissistic girl. But then I just got tired of the never-ending questions, the same ones recycled every two chapters (first-person narrators are okay, but PLEASE pull the brakes with the introspection. We want a book with some action, not constant boring inner thoughts). And what to say about the canine-based comparisons? Or the looooong lists of food set on the table at every meal? + Too. Many. Similes.

⋆ Second-hand embarrassment: I felt sick for Iris about 29423 times during the book. She is so shameless (in a bad way) that it's disgusting. She never shuts up and makes herself sound stupid and doesn't even care (from someone who wants to be liked by everyone, it's a bit, lot surprising).
She's gross (who keeps describing their running nose and doing nothing to fix that in front of someone they want to impress?) She's delusional and thinks everything is due to her (she even really believes for some time that she was kidnapped as a child and thus grew up in the wrong family and economical class).
She's mentally five-years-old for about 90% of the book and has a shrimp's ability to focus on any topic that is not herself. She wants to make peace with her cousin, but then completely forgets about an important promise she made in favor of her own personal enjoyment and 'good actions' and gets Ruby in a lot of trouble.
MINOR SPOILER: Who forgets a shopaholic's whole mall morning purchases in a taxi? (I don't remember exactly, but there were like ten purses and as many ripped jeans from expensive brands.) GEE.
For the sake of keeping this review from being Wikipedia-page-long, I'll stop here.

⋆ Logistic issues and big stretches to accommodate the plot: I've never been on a plane to China, but I've traveled plenty and... airplane toilets have the vacuum-flush system nowadays? So there isn't enough water them to soak the whole content of a lady's purse? And umm... who in the world sends their daughter on the other side of the planet without telling her how the person that will pick her up looks like or what's their name or where they live?

⋆ Complaints based on culture: I can't remember how many times Iris has cried about not fitting. One time she even said: "Why does being born in a different country, in a strange culture, make me such a weirdo?" Pal, this has nothing to do with the country you were born in or where you are now. I've got two nationalities and have never lived in one of my two origin-countries, but I've always found a way to fit in. If you try, you can. It bothers me when I read this type of reflection because it gives a wrong impression of what multiculturality is. Traveling the world and being from multiple places is amazing.

⋆ The... plot?: I was so focused on bearing with my hate for Iris that I didn't spend much energy noticing the plot. It was just a jumble of too-raced events and too-slow thoughts to make a real impact.

⋆ The romance: For a very, very, veeeeery long moment I kept "???????" at a guy's attraction to Iris. How can anyone like someone like her, who treats him like she did? + She was basically forcing herself on him. Then things happened and... the ending made much more sense.

TO SUM IT UP: Ruby's feelings towards Iris were the same as mine towards the book: Okay with it. Very irritated. Annoyed. Gonnashuckheroutofthewindow. Interested. Incredulously surprised. What?? Oh, yikes. Not so bad. oooh, it's finally not about Iris. Well... #mixedfeelings

I will publish the review on my blog and social media in the week of the publication date.

I was very excited about this book – the comp titles are both ones I really enjoyed. But fam, this was not the book for me.

The writing and general plotting was good, and I loved the exploration of Chinese culture. I really, really loved Iris’s flower-hearted father.

But wow. Iris, the protagonist, is the most vapid and insufferable character I’ve read in a really long time. Her self-absorption and general idiocy was just too much for me to handle. I will note that it is pretty clear that this was the authors intent and suits the plot of the story – just not the style for me. Personally, I am more attracted to more intelligent, complex protagonists, so this will not be a title I revisit again.

*I received an eARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

I loved this book! It was so cute and such an easy read. I really enjoyed the plot and thought it was very different then what I have read before. I feel like this would be a good book to read in the summer by the pool. I will purchasing this book for my libraries YA collection.

This book was okay. I didn't like the Iris at the start. I mean I am still not sure if I like her character. Maybe the reason being was that there was lots of thinking and less character conversations. But at after 50% of reading it thr book got better.
Thank you netgalley got providing the E-Arc. But this in no way affects my opinions on the book

Well, I thought this one would be right up my alley. The blurb literally mentions two of my favorite books. But, unfortunately, I could not finish this one. I have to say the writing was good, the setting was awesome and the descriptions were very detailed, but the main character was awful, just absolutely horrible. Ultimately, I could not get past her ridiculous ways and I did not finish. However, I will read other books the author writes because like I said this was just a character that I struggled with, not the writing at all.

* ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

**I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review

I'm going to be honest. This was a lot and not in a good way. The setting was amazing and the descriptions of the food and the sites were what really made this book. However, Iris as a narrator and protagonist was almost torture. I kept feeling like she had to get better to read and have some kind of big transformation, but she came off feeling the same each chapter when she should be progressing. I struggled through wonderful writing because I just couldn't read her POV anymore. I will definitely read books by the author again, but not about Iris,

The writing is strong, however the main character was horrific; not only is she self-absorbed and selfish, all she does is come up with excuses for why she is how she is without the thought of acting instead of re-acting ever crossing her mind.

I really enjoyed this. It was a fun read and felt very summer-y. Definitely recommend this to read later in the year when the time is right. It’s the perfect contemporary read for summer.

Iris Wang have everything in life what one teenager desires. A supporting and understanding well to do parents. A Visa Credit Card. A boyfriend and a best BFF. But one day all this turns upside down when she caughts her best friend and boyfriend having affair, she fails her senior year and she even crashes her parents new car into the garage door.

To teach her value of money and education her parents sends her to Beijing to her half uncle.


Review-

The plot is as cliche as it gets but the characters are definitely unique and that's what makes it interesting.

For the most part of the book I was really irritated with the Iris because despite having so much how can someone be so dumb and self centered. But in the end you just accept her as she is. And the best part is the author didn't tried giving a full 360° turn to her character. She remains the same but with a little bit of maturity.

The characters are too too rich so obviously at some point you just couldn't connect with them while they are distributing thousands of Yuan just to see their grandparents. But it has its own fun to read such things.

I think the book was not edited properly because there are some random sub plots and things happening which doesn't have any value to the overall story. This makes the book quite lengthy.

The characters and family drama is super fun and hilarious. I really like Iris Dad in particular. He is definitely the most interesting to read. And you get a lot of insights into the Chinese culture too.