Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. Lucie and her chaperone Charlotte attend a wedding in Capri. There Lucie meets George. She can’t stand him and not only that, him and his mother don’t fit the “money” crowd. Fast forward, Lucie is engaged, George enters her life again. Kevin Kwan, author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, writes another great book! #sexandvanity #kevinkwan

If you saw (or read) Crazy Rich Asians then you know Kevin Kwan. While Crazy Rich Asians was sweet and sincere (with a dash of satire), Sex and Vanity is sarcastic and slick-with a dollop of saccharine. There's not a lot of sex-but "vanity, thy name is woman!"* Sex and Vanity oozes with excessive pride-especially regarding one's wealth (or the appearance of). Sex and Vanity is a retelling of the early 2oth century novel A Room With A View (even the character's names are similar). Both novels are about finding your true self in a world with strict notions about what you should believe and how you should behave, and here Sex and Vanity shines. The plot is mostly about Lucie shedding the stereotypes and biases her family has about her (and even more damaging-the ones she puts upon herself) on the path to true love. If you read A Room With A View you know how Sex and Vanity ends-heck, even if you're reading it in a windowless room with no view you'll see the end coming from the first pages. But that's ok-what Sex and Vanity mostly has going for it is the good sense not pretend it's something other than what it is-campy good fun with a moral compass hidden underneath. "Vanity, thy name is woman" is a saying misquoted from Shakespeare. The actual line from Hamlet is "Frailty, thy name is woman." Footnotes like this appear all throughout Sex and Vanity-a tactic Mr. Kwan has used before. The footnotes range from dreadful to delightful.

Kwan does it again! A fun romp with whispers of Pygmalion and Austen. This novel humorously tackles class, race and romance.

I love crazy rich asians series so I was excited to read this new book by Kevin Kwan! It was hard at first to understand what was going on but I soon figured it out. The plot had alot of depth and I loved the story line. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends.

A delicious, over-the-top rich, summer read!

Fans of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy will be thrilled to be back in Kwan's world of the super rich-- this time in good ol' Manhattan! We start out in Capri, with Lucie and her cousin, Charlotte, attending a lavish wedding. There, Lucie meets the strikingly handsome George. She can't help the chemistry between them, even though he is not someone that her family would be happy for her to be with. After an embarrassing encounter, she and George part ways for 5 years . . . until Lucie is engaged to someone else.

I love how Kwan puts the 1% on blast for some ridiculous customs and supreme snobbery. He has a way of making characters come to vivid life, and there are moments of pure comedy (especially when George's eccentric mother is on the scene). This is just the perfect summer romp of a book!

I so loved the first section of this book which was set in Capri and filled with wonderfully evocative descriptions of the beauty of the area, the food, sights and smells, especially as experienced by the rich!!! The characters were interesting enough and Kwan’s tongue in cheek humor was much appreciated. Fast forward to the body of the novel in NYC and the characters became annoying and cliche, There was little to appreciate in their overprivileged world. The novel is bookended by a return to Capri but it felt forced and obvious at that point. Read the first chapters and move on to another book.

This is a retelling of E. M. Forster’s A Room With A View done Crazy Rich Asians style. It was at once a fairly faithful retelling and also just a hollow framework used to drop famous names and fashion brands. The book does a great job of showing off Kwan’s ability to write scenes with elaborate displays of wealth, and his sense of humor was front and center, which was refreshing. While Kwan’s writing has certainly improved, the pacing of this book felt odd. The entire first half of the book takes place at a wedding, and the second half hurries through the rest of the story leaving the book feeling unbalanced. Unfortunately all the showing off of wealth and the rushed second half made it almost impossible to really care about the characters and the book was an emotional flatline. Full points for humor though, and certainly an entertaining fluffy fun summer read if you enjoy Kwan’s style!

I actually feel terrible rating a Kevin Kwan book so low, but this book just didn't quite do it for me. "Sex and Vanity" follows the story of Lucie Tang Churchill (half-Chinese, half-white; all rich) as she attends the wedding of a childhood friend and the fallout from what transpires between her and guest George Zao over the fabulously lavish wedding week and their lives 5 years later. It has several of the Kevin Kwan hallmarks that I appreciated in his "Crazy RIch Asians" series- the overly rich and lavish characters and settings, quick and stingingly funny wit, the sidebar footnotes that offered context and humor. The characters were unlikable to me, and I think it's because they were underdeveloped. The book feels short at only 288 pages and it may have benefitted from some additional character and plot development. All that said, "Sex and Vanity" is a perfectly fine beach read or an easy afternoon distraction.

Lucie Churchill had a strong reaction to George Zao the first time she saw him at a glamorous wedding in Capri: part attraction, and part hatred of that attraction. After a whirlwind romance, she's ready to forget about George and move on with her life. But several years later, while planning her wedding to another man, George reappears and her plans are upended yet again.

Ok, so I'm a huge fan of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. So smart and funny and dramatic! While I enjoyed Sex and Vanity, it was honestly missing a lot of the charm of CRA. This story could have really used a foil like Rachel in CRA - someone who isn't super wealthy and privileged, who can look at the frivolous excess through an outside perspective. Without that, Kwan's rich characters lacked the comical obliviousness that made CRA work so well. And the first 40% of the book or so, set at a wedding in Capri, had very little tension driving the action. It felt almost more like a society review of a fancy wedding, which was fun for a while, but I wanted some conflict to keep me reading. It picked up a little more once it jumped to the 2018 New York plotline, and I really appreciated the portrayal of Lucie's family and the constant racist microaggressions against her and her mother. Overall, I would say that I enjoyed it, but it lacked the magic of CRA. But of course, I'll read anything Kevin Kwan writes!

I was excited to see that Kevin Kwan has a new book coming out. I enjoyed this book, though not as much as Crazy Rich Asians. It's a retelling of A Room with a View, which I must confess I have never read. But now i just might!

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The perfect beach read. Lots of fluff but fun and I kept looking up the places they visited in Capri. Really got the travel juices flowing.

Well, I’m officially done with Kevin Kwan. I loved “Rich Crazy Asians” (hated the movie) so much that I gave his second book a chance (but couldn’t finish it). I, however, skipped his third book altogether; then why on earth did I pick this one?

The author is milking the “Rich Crazy Asians” angle but for me, it isn’t working. Enough is enough. I was completely and absolutely bored with “Sex and Vanity.” I didn’t find it funny at all, and for me, Charlotte was just annoying.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

Set against the awe-inspiring beauty of Capri, and later, that of New York, Kevin Kwan transports us into a world of wealth, pride, and influence yet again. “Sex and Vanity” employs the humor and absurdity that we’ve come to expect of Kwan, along with a romance that will keep fans of the genre turning pages. “Sex and Vanity” stands out from the pack in that it explores multi-ethnic and multi-racial identities, as well as the privilege and stratification that runs rampant among high net-worth families. This story is an absolute escape from reality and will make you laugh, make you cringe, and ultimately, make you stay up past your bedtime racing for its end.

Once again readers are dawn into the world of the ultra rich when 19 year old Lucy Tang Churchill attends the weeklong wedding celebration of Isabel Chiu on the Isle of Capri. Lucy is accompanied by her older cousin Charlotte Churchill, who always tells everyone the meet, much to Lucy's chagrin, "Her mother is Chinese, but her father is American." Lucy has always struggled to fit in with the Mayflower Churchill's who view her as an exotic pet. Swept up in the romance of Capri, Lucy is soon spending time with the last person she every thought she'd find attractive, George Zao. Sure George is handsome, smart and kind, but his mother is embarrassing and Lucy has always fought against her own Chinese heritage. Five years later, Lucy is engaged to Cecil Pike, handsome, uber rich and one of Town and Country's Most Eligible Bachelors. Then George Zhou reenters her life. As much a Lucy tries to fight it, she soon finds herself drawn once again to George. This is the perfect beach read!

Armchair travel to beautiful Capri and another insider peek in the world of the wealthy make for another thumbs up read from Kevin Kwan.

I absolutely loved the Crazy Rich Asians series, and was thrilled to see a new book by Kevin Kwan. I was NOT disappointed! The book is a modern retelling of A Room With a View, in which main character Lucie meets George at a wedding in Capri. She doesn’t like him at first, but is drawn to him for some reason. Eventually, they hook up but are pulled apart until they meet again 5 years later under different circumstances. The first half or so of the book takes place in Capri in 2013, and the rest takes place 5 years later in New York. Overall, Kwan’s wit shines in his writing. I loved the footnotes in the story and enjoyed the details about designers and lifestyles of the rich. If you loved Kwan’s writing in Crazy Rich Asians, you will also adore Sex and Vanity.

This is just as escapist as Crazy Rich Asians, but covers a slightly different world. The WASP world is so coded and regimented, it feels like Kwan really did his homework! The only thing that keeps this from being a completely fun experience is the series of microaggressions (and outright aggression) that Lucy experiences or witnesses throughout (though of course that is essential to the plot).

Highly recommend, an extremely fun read!

Overall, this is a very quick and enjoyable book. Perfect for a summer/beach reading list. It is easy to see the similarities between it and Crazy Rich Asians (the excessive wealth, the amazing food and exotic destinations, the crazy situations), but, don't go into it expecting it to be another CRA, the books are different. The plot is predictable, and for the most part, the characters are very likable but not very well developed. All in all, this is a good read.

Fans of Crazy Rich Asians will enjoy this new set of dramatic characters. Similar themes like old vs new money, racism & classism, and family expectations are also found here. The decadence is fun to vicariously experience. and the New York setting gives this a modern, adult Gossip Girl feel. Readers who enjoy Kwan's distinct name-dropping style will find this new novel and world enjoyable.

Full disclosure, I’m Taiwanese American. That said, I loved this book and I especially loved having them going to Capri for a Taiwanese heiress’s wedding. Per a Kevin Kwan novel, we zip around to some amazing locales and get all the amazing g fashions and jewels!!! I enjoyed George being so zen and secure about himself and his mom, and I understood that Lucie was still young enough to be unsure of everything. And I super rejoiced that Charlotte was a good cousin!