Crazy Rich Asians

One sentence synopsis: Rachel Chu travels to Singapore for summer break with her boyfriend Nick... but she soon finds how just how crazy rich and crazy traditional his family is.

This book had been sitting on my shelf for AGES and I am so glad I finally picked it up and read it (even though I feel like I'm the last person on earth to do so). I'm not exactly sure which genre this book fits into - contemporary fiction? - but it was such a fun ride. It felt like 500-pages worth of an episode of Real Housewives! I know people's biggest complaint is that it's hard to get into in the beginning. And yes, I agree that there were a lot of definitions and footnotes, but once you push through that, the book gets really good.

I loved trying to imagine just how rich these characters were, from their lavishly decorated houses to their designer clothes to their private islands out in the middle of who-knows-where. The characters were wonderfully constructed and I felt almost every range of emotion at some point in this book. Anger at Araminta's friends, disappointment in Nick's mother and grandmother, awe of Astrid, and lust for/swooning over Nick. I will say that I felt that there were some chapters/parts of the book that felt unnecessary and pointless, especially towards the end.

As I raced through to the end of this book I was anxious to be able to FINALLY watch the movie (yes I did hold out for this long). I'm not going to go into all of my feelings for the movie here, but I did not really love this adaptation. Have you read this + seen the movie?  Let me know your thoughts because I would love to find reasons to love this movie haha.

Overall, a really strong 4 stars, and I would definitely recommend this one, especially if you're looking for a light-hearted fun read. I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the series soon!