God, whats not to love about a Kevin Kwan novel? So fun. So effortlessly stylized. You finish and wish it could just go on and on and on. Fans of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy will not be disappointed. This could absolutely fit into the series if you switched around some characters. The one thing, which Ive noticed in his other books as well, is that the lead female protagonist is always a fish out of water, in the rich fashionable world, who makes her way through the story in a clunky way until the guy finally pulls it together at the end. I would love if we started off with a woman who had better footing next time, from the beginning. Theyre all gorgeous and brilliant, but dont know it, and I think Kwan is such a talented writer that he could easily break this trope and still write a completely charming story.

Thank you DoubleDay books and Netgalley for this gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

This is the perfect escape during this time when all we can travel to is from the bedroom to the living room. I think our next vacation will have to be Capri! It sounds gorgeous and full of history! As usual, Kevin Kwan does an amazing job describing the lives of the rich and famous. I don't think it's as good as Crazy Rich Asians but it is still a good read.

Like many of the other romance lovers out there, I watched the Crazy Rich Asians movie when it was released, so I jumped at the opportunity to check out more of the author's work. Unfortunately, I could tell right away that this story was not really for me. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, the romance is underdeveloped, and most of the humor fell flat for me. If you're already a fan of Kwan's books, then this might read better for you, but I just couldn't get caught up in the story.

Normally, this is where I would give you a little tease about the plot, but... that blurb gives away WAY more than I usually do. That covers about 90% of the book right there, because the Capri section is about 40% of the book and everything else happens in the back half. This is much more chick lit than romance, with several characters to keep track of and a relationship that is woefully underdeveloped. If you loved the insights into class and race that are a big part of Crazy Rich Asians, then you'll find it here, but without a likable heroine or a compelling (normal) relationship, it's a lot less relatable.

If you're a reader who loved the Crazy Rich Asians novels and want more of that world, then it's likely that you'll still enjoy this new book. But if you're new to the author and are looking for a love story that you can get lost in, I think you'll be left wanting. Lucie and George's relationship is so surface level that I just don't see it overcoming years apart, a family-approved fiancé, meddling friends, or a heroine who isn't strong enough to stand on her own two feet. I received an ARC via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Sex and Vanity was another ARC that I received from Doubleday Books via Netgalley. After reading the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy in 2018, I found Kevin Kwan's writing to be something I never experienced before. Reading his books are like watching a guilty pleasure soap opera, and I don't mind that one bit. Sex and Vanity is a retelling of A Room With A View by E.M. Forster, which I've never read. While reading, I couldn't help but compare it to CRA. It's very similar in writing style. The plot follows Lucie Churchill, a girl torn between two heritages. She's half-Asian and half-white and finds herself suppressing her Asian side in favor of her Caucasian side. Because of this, she tries so hard not to fall in love with George Zao, a Chinese-Australian guest at her friend's wedding in Italy. Five years after the tumultuous ending to that week in Italy, a newly engaged Lucie faces George again, much to her disdain, but her heart's desire. Sex and Vanity was entertaining enough. There were funny moments here and there. The side characters were over-dramatized. Lucie and George lacked depth, and there wasn't much of them two together so I really didn't buy the romance. If there was less brand name dropping and more Lucie and George, I would've enjoyed this book more.

This was the exact book I needed to read right now. Kevin Kwan takes us on a decadent trip to Capri in a retelling of A Room With View. It is gorgeous and lavish. Lucid and her cousin, Charlotte arrive in Capri for a wedding and find their rooms facing an alley. Mrs. Zao and her quiet son, George offer to trade rooms. This is a different cast of characters from the Crazy Rich Asians series although there are hints of them sprinkled about. It is a must read this summer.

It's been a long time since I've found a book that captures my attention enough to read 100 pages in one sitting, but Sex and Vanity grabbed me immediately. Kevin Kwan's writing style is laugh-out-loud funny and his characters and setting sparkled. I can't speak to how it did as a retelling of A Room With A View as I've never read it, but I was engaged with the plot the whole way through. Only reason this book didn't get 5 stars was because I would've liked to see a bit more information about Lucie and George as individuals (I got the general idea of who they are, but I would've liked it if Kwan had gone deeper). Overall, though, this book was really, really good.

I’m a big fan of Kevin Kwan’s previous work and this was a great, fun read! Perfect for a summer beach read. It has a similar vibe to the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, but it takes place in Italy and New York and introduces new fabulous and fabulously wealthy characters.

The first thing I want to say is that this was a beautiful story! You will learn about the elite Asian culture and a young woman trying to navigate thru the prejudice that she lives in.

Lucie Churchill is half Chinese American on her mother’s side and half blue blooded snobby New Yorker. Her father’s family came to American on the Mayflower and they are aristocratic, since her father passed away, her grandmother never lets her forget her background. She looks all Chinese, and her younger brother looks all Churchill. Light eyes and light hair. No one can ever tell they are siblings.

Lucie just arrived in the Isle of Capri, where she will be attending her best friends wedding. Even thou she’s 19, it was deemed inappropriate for her to travel all by herself, so her older cousin Charlotte is tagging along. The pre-wedding events are five days before the wedding and loaded with activities. On their first day, she meets George Zao, a tall Chinese man with gorgeous hair and a beautiful physique, who is also there for the wedding. From their first meeting, Lucie can’t stand him. Sure he’s gorgeous to look at, but he has no personality. Now she seems to run into him constantly, even thou there are over 350 guests invited to this wedding. Why is she all of a sudden looking forward to see him. I mean, he doesn’t even talk to her, being one of these nerdy types. On the night of the wedding reception, Lucie decides to walk down to the Grotto by the ocean. When she hears footsteps behind her, Lucie is surprised to see that George follow her. It seems that after spending five days together, Lucie is starting to like him. She really wants him and he doesn’t disappoint, that is until her cousin Charlotte interrupts and start screaming that they are being video taped by a drone from the wedding.

Now that Lucie is back in New York and George is back in Los Angeles, both finishing their degrees, Lucie realizes she’ll never see him again.

Moving forward several years later, Lucie is now 25 and spending time in East Hampton, NY, with her fiancée, Cecil. He dotes on her and treats her like a China doll. There are days that she thinks he’s more in love with her heritage and is trying to bring her up in society. Something that has never been any interest to her. He also makes daily suggestions in the way she dresses, telling her she needs to look more polished. One morning as she’s finishing up her beach yoga class, Lucie is shocked when she runs into George also attending the same class. George is now living in New York where he also works. Suddenly she starts thinking about him as they run into each other quite frequently.

Lucie comes to a big decision when she breaks up with her fiancée, telling him that she’s not in love with him, but also making him realize that they aren’t meant to be together. He’s into moving socially upward, where Lucie just wants to work in the museum surrounded by art.
It takes a come-to-Jesus moment for Lucie to make more decisions in her life that will affect her whole future.

In this fabulous book you come to know Lucie from the time she’s 19 thru her 20’s. A fantastic coming of age and becoming wiser. A definite must read!

I was a big fan of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy (and movie!). When I first caught wind of Kevin Kwan’s new book, Sex and Vanity, I couldn’t wait to jump back into a world of over the top luxury, caricature-esque characters, and ways of life beyond my wildest imaginings. This is exactly what I got. Sex and Vanity is marketed as an homage to A Room with a View, and although I haven’t read E.M. Forster’s novel, after a brief skimming of the Wikipedia page, it looks like the general plot is closely followed, and many of the names of the main characters from the original book are used. Other than that, I can only speak to Sex and Vanity as a standalone story.

I will say that in retrospect, there are very few likable characters in this book. I loved the main characters of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, and the way they stood in stark contrast to the utter vanity of those around them. This book follows Lucie, starting when she is in high school and has a romantic trist with a boy named George while they’re at a wedding in Italy, and then skipping ahead to when she becomes engaged to Cecil. Cecil was way too much for me. He was inexcusably rude, vapid, and entitled, and the fact that Lucie could be engaged to him and keep brushing off the terrible way he treated her family made me very frustrated. Besides having little personality of her own, she came off as quite the meek pushover. Additionally, her cousin Charlotte’s character construction was extremely bizarre. She seemed incredibly old-fashioned and conservative for the modern setting. I wonder if this was a sort of carry-over from trying to adapt a novel from 1908. It didn’t quite work.

Besides the issues with the characters, I actually enjoyed this novel a lot. It was a wonderfully opulent escape from reality, with exquisite descriptions of decadence from Capri to the Hamptons. The plot was pretty predictable, but I liked the little dips and turns that were taken along the way. Lucie’s experience being biracial and feeling torn between the two sides of her family was also a thought-provoking and informative layer to her character and the story as a whole. Finally, Kevin Kwan’s descriptive language is masterful. I could practically see, taste, and smell everything he depicted, and the footnotes he includes in his writing allow the reader to have the same background knowledge as the kooky characters, without him including a bunch of exposition directly in the narrative.

Review posted on June 27 tp:
https://treatyourshelf.home.blog/2020/06/27/sex-and-vanity-by-kevin-kwan-book-review/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB8oTS-gDdB/

This book was extremely entertaining, it held me captive page by page. One of those books you choose to read instead of getting decent hours of sleep.

Sex and Vanity mainly follows the story of Lucie Churchill a half Asian American and American sweet heart. She's gone to all the right schools all her life, raised by her Asian mother after her father passing away during her childhood. Lucie's mom always wanted to make sure Lucie grew up with a strong background established with her American Father's side, the Churchill side if you will. With Lucie entering her first semesters at Brown she has an amazing week of summer ahead of her. She has been invited to the the most extravagant, glamorous, wedding of a lifetime.

The wedding takes place in Capri Italy, known for its beautiful and luxurious atmosphere this sets a precedent for cute 19-year old Lucie to set off and "live a little." But do not fret she has been chaperoned by her mother, the only condition she was allowed to venture on her own was if she brought her older cousin Charlotte. And Charlotte an expert WASP is ready to sit back and let the beautiful city of Capri work its magic and make sure her little cousin stays in check.

By chance encounter Lucie meets George Zao and his animated mother. (There was a hotel room reservation fiasco, many people were a witness to this.) In the beginning Lucie cannot stand George, he keeps to himself too much and only chimes in to end up sounding arrogant. Throughout the week long event that this wedding entails Lucie and George have several encounters that make Lucie second, and triple guess whether she despises George OR is actually infatuated with him. The wedding day soon arrives and Lucie and George have a moment, that I WILL NOT SPOIL, but know its CRAZZYYYYYY! This causes Charlotte to step in, do some damage control and end scene.

They had known each other for only a week, and they were both victims of Capri, yes, victims, swept up by all that beauty and history and achingly romantic, Instragrammable moments of Issie's wedding."

Which then brings us to Part II of the novel. It's been 5 years since the fiasco in Capri. Lucie is in her home state of New York, graduated summa cum laude a year or so ago from Brown, and is working in the art industry. *Dream Job Alert!* Lucie is just recently engaged to a uber rich, socialite, now-renounced bachelor, Cecil. Lucie and Cecil are in the Hamptons for the summer (tradition for Lucie and her family) But guess who comes into the scene? Yup George and his spunky mom!!! With this unseen encounter, this sets off to a whole summer of angst and the deep attraction that was once very vivid between George and Lucie all those years ago. It all takes a toll on the dynamic of the group, and makes for exciting and laughable scenes.

Sex and Vanity is so flipping hilarious, its told in third person narrative. That made it like a Gossip Girl experience, with the book mainly following Lucie and her timeline we still get all the salacious gossip from everyone in the room and across the sea. Kevin Kwan has been able to jam pack all the beautiful imagery that you'd expect from him. From the details of the enchanting caverns and lagoons in Capri. To the super edgy and trendy aesthetic of New York. We get a glimpse into the life style of the rich and famous. We get to see Lucie struggle all her life to fit in the mold of her WASP family and friends and how that backfires on her. Lucie despite the crazy and scandalous events she goes through, really finds herself and lets the self love in at long last.

She had done nothing but deceive herself, and the deception hadn't just begun this summer. It has started all those years ago in Capri..."

This book was all the glitz, glamour and gossip your heart and brain need for a summer read. It's hilarious and just the right amount of sexy as well. Filled with a bunch of footnotes to explain happenings and characters, this truly was a reading experience I loved. It's enchanting, compelling, hilarious and flirty!

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan will be available on June 30th, 2020. I beggeth of you reader, please grab a copy! This is the read you have been needing.

When I got the opportunity to read Kevin Kwan's next book before it was released by #NetGalley I jumped on it. I couldn't wait and Sex an Vanity didn't disappoint. It was the perfect, fun, summer read! The characters were enjoyable with just a few eccentrics thrown in to make the story fun to read. I couldn't wait to see what would happen with Lucie and George. Their friends and family were fun. I really enjoyed all the pop-culture references and the footnotes were hilarious. It was like spending time with your somewhat sarcastic, but lovable best friend.

I loved Crazy Rich Asians, the book, a lot and the trilogy a fair bit but not quite as much. So I was feeling very positive about Mr Kwan striking out with a new set of characters in a new setting. He based this new novel on E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View which I haven’t read but I’ve seen the movie, and looking at the Wikipedia plot summary it seems like Sex and Vanity mostly matches the plot beat for beat albeit in a contemporary setting and with Asian and biracial characters.

However, I just found this novel very labored, lacking the effervescence and exuberance of the earlier books and the descriptions of the decadent settings, interiors, and clothing seemed forced rather than sprightly.

But my biggest problem was that the characters just didn’t make sense, particularly Lucie and Charlotte. They didn’t seem to be coherent people as they changed between chapters into different ones. Certainly part of the problem is imposing early 20th century white uppercrust values and morality onto 21st century characters and situations.

So for me this was pretty disappointing but I’m sure it will do just fine without my appreciation.

Thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

3.5, rounded up. Don't start this one with high hopes for it as a retelling of A Room with a View--Kevin Kwan makes this book an embellished standalone imbued with drama in his own unique way. While it lacks the panache of the Crazy Rich Asians series, Sex and Vanity seems to take itself a bit more seriously--through Lucie, a half-Chinese, half-white young woman, Kwan explores the complexities of racial identity (though Lucie, like the character on which she is based, isn't appealing to me). I also felt like it was more focused, though I could have used more development with George and Lucie.

This was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ book for me. I’ll admit, I never read Crazy Rich Asians, so I can’t attest to how Kevin Kwans writing style is, but I really, really didn’t like Lucie, the main character. I did however, really like a lot of the side characters. This will be part of a series and I’m not sure if I’ll go in to read the rest. It was funny and engaging enough for me to keep going til the end though!
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Lucie and George have a PAST (Capri, wedding, scandal!). And when George comes back into Lucie’s life right as she gets engaged, drama ensues. Lucie has to grapple with her feelings, all while living up to the pressures of her high society life.
Thank you @netgalley for an ARC of this book!

A breezy summer read perfect for a day at the private beach. The rich have problems too, just not like the rest of us. They're more fun! Enjoy an easy read. It won't make you think much but it will make you laugh.

This is a fantastic book from Kevvin Kwab. It centers around a destination wedding in Capri of an Asian American socialite. There are twists and turns that make this a fun read. I could not put it down. .

Lucie Churchill is your typical blue-blood, descended from pilgrims, oh except her mom is Chinese American and Lucie has a lot of Asian features, unlike her brother. The story starts at a wedding in Capri, of a childhood friend of Lucie's when she is just 19. She meets a boy she thinks she loathes and then picks back up 5 years later when they meet again on her home turf.

Classic Kevin Kwan! New storyline, same crazy rich culture. This book didn't' disappoint.

A glitzy, decadent novel set among the upper upper crust of the 1%, Kevin Kwan follows up his CRAZY RICH ASIANS trilogy with SEX AND VANITY. I'm afraid, though, that this book just isn't going to resonate as well as CRA did when it first came out. The world is very different now, and reading about the antics of the rich (including the name-dropping, explanations of expensive designers and cars, and people who are seemingly always on vacation) just didn't sit well with me. I thought it would be a nice escape -- instead, it felt hollow and not as ground-breaking as Kwan's previous novels.

A re-telling of A ROOM WITH A VIEW, we start the book at a fancy wedding in Capri, where Lucie meets George, thus kicking off the love story between two main characters who aren't very well developed, unfortunately. Kwan shines when he writes the ancillary characters like the crazy cousins, embarrassing mothers, and rich assholes. Unlike the joy of learning about Asian culture and the rich lifestyles those previous characters had, perhaps the setting of Capri, Manhattan, and the Hamptons made this book feel like it was not as special. There were also so many tongue in cheek moments in the seemingly unnecessary footnotes that veered from meta into eye-rolling territory. However, I cannot deny this book is FUN and you will breeze through it like a cool Hamptons wind. I would totally see the movie! The book, however, leaves much to be desired.

A young Lucie Churchill arrives on the island of Capri for a destination wedding. Charlotte, her older cousin, accompanies her at the request of her mother. While Charlotte is meant to keep Lucie in line, she essentially tries to suck the fun out of the entire trip. Right off the bat, Lucie and Charlotte meet George Zao. How can Lucie possibly find one human so annoying? And yet, why does she feel so drawn to him? Ultimately, the surroundings of this beautiful island coupled with partaking in the wedding of the century causes Lucie and George to give into temptation. Charlotte forces Lucie to flee the island immediately, so not to ruin her or her family's reputation.

Flash forward five years to find Lucie, now a successful art dealer, living in New York and engaged to a billenial (billionaire + millennial = bilennial). Everything in Lucie's life is falling into place, until George shows up. Suddenly he is imbedded into her life, showing up at her mother's home for lunch, going to the movies with her and her fiancé, and playing poker with her brother. It doesn't take long before the past resurfaces and makes Lucie question everything.

I know some readers were hung up on it being a retelling of A Room with a View, but as someone who has never read it or watched the movie, I had nothing to compare it to in that regard. For me, it was a real struggle not to compare it to Crazy Rich Asians. At some points, I felt like I was reading CRA instead. It has the humor and wit I expect from Kwan, but I still feel like something is missing. I also found the incessant name dropping and rambling rather tiring (I did, however, enjoy the cultural footnotes).

Listen, these characters were fire. I loved some and I hated some (+ I loved to hate some), but they were all hilarious in their own way. Except Lucie. I simply could not stand her childishness or her complete lack of self-anything (awareness, esteem, worth). She is basically a puppet -- thinking, feeling, saying, wearing, and doing whatever someone else tells her to. You know she has substance inside of her somewhere and you keep waiting for it to show itself, but then...you really only get a glimpse of it here and there. I really wanted/expected more character development for her.

Bottom line: Kwan is a master of details. You will be able to see the entire book unfolding right in front of you. It was a quick read, it was fairly easy to digest, but I didn't love it. A great beach read...it just didn't have the depth I was expecting.

Sex and Vanity opens in 2013 as Lucie and her cousin Charlotte travel to Capri for Lucie’s friend Issie’s wedding. The story takes us from Italy to New York and back again over six years as Lucie is torn between two worlds - the WASP* society that her father’s family belongs to and a love story she is trying very hard to avoid.

I am ashamed to admit that I have not read Kevin Kwan’s bestselling trilogy. Sex and Vanity drew me in right away with its beautiful descriptions of Capri and eclectic cast of characters. Kwan’s writing style is refreshing and I love how he uses footnotes to enhance the story and even correct his character’s false assertions. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and cannot wait to read more by Kwan in the future.

*White Anglo Saxon Protestant