Samantha’s friends agree to help her make a name for herself on the Singapore social scene in order for her dream of writing for a high-society magazine to come true.

I think this was fine - I don’t remember loving it, but I don’t remember hating it. It didn’t make an impression either way, so I’m going with three stars.

This was so much fun!! This was entertaining in so many more ways than one. The characters were so loveable and fun and easy to get attached to and the plot was super fun to follow. Highly recommend!!

This book seemed really interesting based on the description, but I just couldn't get into it. I think I just wasn't connecting with the characters and wasn't propelled forward enough by the plot. I may revisit it in the future, though, because I think it has a lot to offer!

This book was so much fun - the perfect read for fans of the Crazy Rich Asians series - plus a little deceit along the way. I loved this debut from Zhao (and that cover!) and can't wait to read more from her in the future.

This book was so much fun. I was SHOCKED at the big reveal and getting to find out the faces behind some of the things that happened. It felt like a mean girls crossed with crazy rich Asians. I really enjoyed how fast paced this book was and enjoyed getting to know the characters and their personalities. I was so nervous what was going to happen when the big reveal would go down and i loved how it played out.

The Fraud Squad is Kyla Zhao's debut novel and I loved it! It actually made me really excited to see what she will write next, and I couldn't help but get caught up in Singapore’s high society. It was interesting learning about not only the culture in Singapore but their socialite scene as well, and I loved getting to know our MC Samantha Song. For me, Sam's friend Raina was the voice of reason in her life, and I liked that even though she ends up getting mad at her (for good reason), she was still there for her when Sam needed her. I loved all of the various relationships that are explored in the story, and while there is plenty of drama and tension, there is a lot of relatability as well.

I haven't read it yet, but I would liken The Fraud Squad to Crazy Rich Asians based on what I have heard, and I would love to see this turned into a movie someday! It really read like one, and I wouldn't mind seeing the S Gala and all the gorgeous outfits onscreen. And if you enjoy audiobooks, I would definitely recommend listening to this book. Siho Ellsmore is a fantastic narrator and I thought she did an incredible job of breathing life into the characters, especially Sam. I also really enjoyed the fashion/media aspect of the book, and there were a lot of things included that I am a huge fan of reading about. There is a little bit of romance, but this is more about the character growth than anything, and I can’t wait to see what Zhao’s next book will bring.

My favorite part of The Fraud Squad (besides that amazing cover!) are the characters. I thought Samantha, Anya and Timothy were all written super realistically. They weren't perfect and had faults which made them human. I thought the writing was fast paced and I didn't feel bored, but I did want to know how everything was going to come together! I would definitely recommend this one!

I wanted to love this one but it was just okay for me. The story felt almost a bit YA and I thought the romance was a little too insta-love. I did enjoy the world and the writing and it made for a great discussion with my book club.

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the copy to review.

It saddens me to say that this book is just bad.

I was excited to have a diverse story with crime and characters who would have witty banter, and great scenery (hello Singapore!), and yet I got none of that.

The premise/synopsis both make it clear to expect some hint of crime, at least identity fraud, or a scam of some kind, but no, nothing happens. So this book fails to deliver on the main thing it said it was bringing to the table.

If you blink too fast, you will have no idea that the story takes place in Singapore. There is little to no description of Singapore at all. It's like Zhao forgot that a key element to a story is setting. Highly disappointing. Zhao had an opportunity to describe a beautiful place and only mentions humidity and kopi. We are sold the possibility of diversity but really it was just a cover for bad writing.

The pacing is off. There's nothing wrong with taking time to set up a story and create the world for us, but this is done so badly that the story just feels like its dragging and yet nothing really happens? Almost 3/4 of the book feel irrelevant to the story. It doesn't help you like the characters, they don't draw you in, and they don't move the plot forward in a successful way. In fact, there's a fair amount of info dumping to make up for it, but why info dump when you can write something beautiful?

The pacing also affects the chemistry of our MC and her love interest. We don't really get enough to understand their feelings for one another (the little we get shows zero chemistry), and the few moments that we are set up to get more Zhao does not write it in. She skips over it and suddenly our characters are making out and to hell with any sort of development. So many of the moments that could've made this book better just do not exist.

The writing is shallow. With the small amount of understanding that I have about Singapore's society I can tell that this book just doesn't get it. My critique isn't own voices, so please take this part with a grain of salt. I do suggest checking reviews from own voices reviewers. Many of them go into detail about how badly this depicts Singapore's society. The book glosses over the racism and is so superficial in bringing it to the book that is tragic and ultimately useless to mention since Zhao has it serve no purpose.

All Samantha Song has ever wanted was to be part of Singapore's social elite. She crafts a plan to fake being a socialite to highlight the class order in Singapore and quickly gets swept up in all the parties and social rules. Will she stay true to herself during the process? Will she get caught? Or will this be everything she ever wanted?

I enjoyed this little trio and all the fun moments at the various influencer like functions. It was middle of the road for me, nothing bad to say, but nothing really stood out to me either.

I love a debut, and was so excited to read THE FRAUD SQUAD, featuring some of Singapore's elite.

Overall I really enjoyed this well paced story, and found myself connecting to each character. Sam is both caring and compassionate towards her Mother, who suffers from illness, and is buried in debt, working at a less than thrilling job when fate intervenes and she is invited by a friend to the trendiest restaurant in town. She meets Timothy, who comes from prestige and wealth, and its here that the Fraud Squad is formed.

*many thanks to Berkley and netgalley for the gifted copy for review

I really disliked all of the brand name-dropping in Crazy Rich Asians, so I shouldn't be surprised that I disliked it here too. Overall, The Fraud Squad is a light and quick read, but I found the main character quite unlikeable and it soured the reading experience for me.

Thank you to @netgalley @berkleypub and @berkleyromance for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @prhaudio for a free download of the audiobook.

Samantha Song wants nothing more than to be a writer for a high-society magazine. When she gets the opportunity to mingle amongst the society elite, she grabs it as a way to be seen by those that matter. This is Crazy Rich Asians meets Devil Wears Prada and I enjoyed every minute of it. The lifestyles and designer names along make my head spin, I can see how Samantha got easily swept up into the life. It was fun reading the gossip, the parties attended, and labels Samantha’s friends would dress her in.

I wish I were not constantly comparing to other novels. The story line was original, but it was hard to not assign the characters to ones I was already familiar with. Had the book taken place someplace other than Singapore, I feel my connection to the book would have been different.

3.5 stars – Rounding to 4 stars for Goodreads

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Kyla has created a rich world (no pun intended) with The Fraud Squad, a multi-layered book that speaks to privilege, class, and the way we treat each other both because of and in spite of these things. The characters are fleshed out and human, which makes them easy to love, hate, and root for.

This was cute and fun. I’d love to see it as a tv show. I was disappointed there wasn’t more romance in this one since Berkley Romance published it. Definitely more of a fun book with not much in the love department.

I really enjoyed this book once we got past the conflict, but the ending felt rushed and the beginning had me struggling to really connect in a meaningful way with the characters.

Being in the world of the Singapore specialities was fascinating and watching Sam navigate that was intriguing and sometimes terrifying. The friends she met along the way really kept me on my toes and anxious as I waited for the other designer shoe to drop.

The romance between Tim and Sam was cute but felt rushed. I wish they had a better ending, but it did leave it hopeful (definitely not a definitive HEA). I felt like it could have been explored more and then would have really hit hard towards the end.

The best relationship and overall journey in this book that I truly loved was between Sam and her mom. The scene after the gala aas truly touching and healing and it was absolutely the best written part of this book.

Overall, The Fraud Squad was a quick and enjoyable book that had elements of romance but truly leaned more into what it means to be true to yourself and how to carve out your own future despite the life you were born into.

I really liked the characters in The Fraud Squad and the plot was a lot of fun! The characters seemed really relatable (especially Sam), and I loved the progression throughout the novel that they go through and the things that they discover. I thought the pace was a bit slow and the story took some time to fully unfold, but it was a really bright and refreshing read.

This sounded like a super fun read, but closer to its release date I kept seeing more and more mixed reviews. I still wanted to give this a fair shot, but pretty early on it became clear to me that I wasn't going to enjoy this book, and I was likely to agree with the negative reviews. Because of this, I decided to DNF.

I found myself completely uninterested in the story and characters, and I found the writing style to be fairly poor, spelling out everything too much, which became tedious to read really quickly. From a book like this, I would hope for something with a good sense of humour and a good amount of critique on the society its portraying, and of course I can't say for sure that wasn't going to happen in this book, but so far I didn't see even a hint of it.

I have mixed feelings on this book. It was a very fun and intriguing story, with a person of "normal" social status working to fraud her way into high society and I for the most part enjoyed the story and characters, but there was just something missing for me.

While I liked the main character I found her very unlikeable at moments (especially at the very end where I don't agree with her choices) and she went down in my eyes in those moments. The "squad" aspect was fun and it was an enjoyable story, I just wished for more.