Rich People Problems: You will quickly see that it is Su Yi who rules over everything

Things that are not normally books I go for

• Rom coms
• Stories that are super focused on the materialistic
• General beach read chick lit stuff

And yet, Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians books are SO MUCH FUN. They are 100% all of the things above. It is all about money and brand names and being rich beyond your wildest dreams. The characters are really more outlines. They have one or two characteristics with little to no nuance. The story is right out of a soap opera. And I loved reading them. So I was pretty excited when I was approved for a copy of the latest book, Rich People Problems. 

Does it really matter what the plot is? It does? Fine, I mean I guess, kinda. Mild spoilers for the earlier books, Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend:

Nick's grandmother, Su Yi, the matriarch of the Young family, is on death's door. Rachel convinces Nick to go home and see his grandmother one last time, to patch things up. He hasn't seen her since her whole refusing to give her blessing to Nick and Rachel for their wedding (hence the last couple books). And of course the whole family is going crazy, some with worry but a lot is wondering what is going to happen to all of the money and especially the famous property Tyersall Park. 

Then there's ALSO a subplot about Astrid and Charlie's relationship being sabotaged by their respective ex-spouses.

Oh there's ALSO Kitty Bing (previously Kitty Tai and before that Kitty Pong) who has divorced Bernard and married Colette's father, making her even more insanely rich than before. Of course, being a step-mom isn't easy and Colette and her father Jack haven't spoken since his divorce. Kitty is determined to outshine Colette, who seems to have moved beyond the petty and shallow world she previously inhabited (but don't worry, she's still insanely rich).

Then there's ALSO a bit about Nick's family badgering Rachel about when she and Nick are gonna make babies already.

There are actually a few other subplots but I'm going to stop here because I've already described too many. So while the book was lots of fun and I loved reading it, it's probably my least favorite of the three. There's a little too much going on and many times characters behaved in ways to serve the story, but didn't really match the personality that had been set up in previous books.

Despite all of the problems I might have, I still recommend the book. If you've liked the others, for sure. If you haven't tried them, do that. They're not deep reads but hey, sometimes we need something that may not have any nutritional value but sometimes you just want some chips.

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

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Title quote from location 1095

Kwan, Kevin. Rich People Problems. Doubleday, 2017. NetGalley

China Rich Girlfriend: Anyone can be forgiven. Anything can be forgotten

China Rich Girlfriend was so much fun. It's just more of the same as Crazy Rich Asians, and I mean that as a compliment. It's more people being insanely, stratospherically rich and yet in a way that doesn't actually make me want to stab all the things, or aspire to be them. OK, maybe there was some wishing I could be them, since I finished up the book while flying coach reading about these people that own their own 747s and yeah. OK then it might have been nice to have one of those.

As with CRA, there's a plot. Kinda. I mean, it's there so you can see all of the insane wealth and name dropping. Rachel Chu is about to get married to Nick Young (so, um, spoilers for the first book, I guess) who is willing to give up his craaaaaaaazy inheritance to be with her. But before that can happen they make a trip to Shanghai and we get to see all the crazy richness there.

Astrid is back, which is swell cos I like her a lot. She's still having problems with her husband, who is now a tech billionaire, which he thought would put him on the same level as her family. Astrid continues to be levelheaded without being boring (*cough* Nick and Rachel *cough*) and have excellent fashion sense.

There are some new characters, Carlton, who loves expensive fancy cars and his kinda-sorta girlfriend Colette, a social media celebrity, who is constantly stalked by the paparazzi.

But really, my favorite part was the woman who takes the nouveau riche of China My-Fair-Lady's them into the right kind of rich. I would have been pretty happy if the whole book had turned out to be this because the bit of it we get with Kitty Pong was super fun.

Plus Kwan includes lots of fourth-wall-breaking footnotes to explain Chinese slang, or certain dishes, or other cultural details.

It was a fun story. Sure, there isn't much substance there but that's not really a problem. Sometimes you just want a simple, light, fluffy story that let's you see the stupid crazy rich. And this hits the spot.

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Title quote from page 122

Kwan, Kevin. China Rich Girlfriend. Anchor Books, 2015.

These people are richer than God

I really liked this book. I'd heard good things about it so even where the basic plot itself didn't excite me, other people's enthusiasm did. So when I was hanging out in the city and saw a copy, I decided I needed to have it. Good choice cos I plowed through it.

It's about a few Asian families, who are crazy rich. If the title didn't make that clear. Like really crazy rich.

Nick Young's family is one of those in the super ultra crazy rich category. He's also been taught all his life not to discuss money. Which isn't the worst advice, unless of course he's living abroad (educated in England, working in NYC) away from his family and their palaces and private jets, and he's been dating this girl who just thinks he's a fellow professor trying to get tenure. So when he invites this girl, Rachel Chu, back home to Singapore for a friend's wedding (also the wedding of the century for the creme de la creme of Singapore, though he fails to mention this to her) and to meet his family (who, again, live in palaces), she's not really prepared for what she's about to walk into. And Nick's family doesn't know anything about Rachel, since she's NOT part of the super ultra crazy rich circles they typically move in. And of course there's worry that Rachel's only interested in Nick for said palaces.

When you have that much money you're not really concerned with normal things like bill paying and affording that family vacation so you have to find something else to worry about. In this case, everyone is very concerned with social status. Particularly Nick's mom:

To Eleanor, every single person occupied a specific space in the elaborately constructed social universe in her mind. Like most of the women in her crowd, Eleanor could meet another Asian anywhere in the world...and within thirty seconds of learning their name and where they lived, she could implement her social algorithm and calculate precisely where they stood in her constellation based on who their family was, who else they were related to, what their approximate net worth might be, how the fortune was derived, and what family scandals might have occurred within the past fifty years.

One of the biggest problems, and it's sort of a common one so I can't even fault it that much, it's that the main characters are sort of boring. They're smart and kinda and unpretentious and while that is GREAT for actual friends, reading about them isn't the most entertaining. But that's fine because there are loads of other people. Some are shallow and conniving, some are cruel and manipulative, some are confused and vulnerable.

The plot is mostly predictable. The most fun part is watching the characters be super ultra rich. Not even necessarily Rachel's fish-out-of-water bit (which is also fun, don't get me wrong), but like I mentioned, Nick and Rachel seem like GREAT people but not all that entertaining compared to say Nick's family.

Quick fun and funny read. I will definitely be checking out the sequel China Rich Girlfriend.

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Title quote from page 159

Kwan, Kevin. Crazy Rich Asians. Anchor Books, 2013.