China Rich Girlfriend
Ratings155
Average rating3.7
DNF at PAGE TWO HUNDRED TWENTY NINE. That's how much I wanted to love this book. I am so disappointed. I really enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians, and was so excited to get this one.
I feel like this book passes little resemblance to its predecessor. Rachel and Nick have suddenly become the flattest characters ever, several of the previous book's characters have had total personality transplants, and the fun of the gaudy houses and over-the-top jewelry is now multiple pages describing every single detail of every single room in the gigantic homes of a slew of new characters that aren't interesting enough or fleshed out enough to care about.
There were too many storylines, and none of them were so compelling that I wanted more (EXCEPT ONE - the transformation of Kitty Pong, because Corinna telling her what to do was awesome, and there wasn't enough of that - it took SO long to get there and then there were SO many other chapters in between each of Kitty's), and like, I don't care what happened to Kitty's douchebag of a husband, and I don't believe for a second that Rachel and Nick would have been cool with what his mother did the day before their wedding, and all that stuff about Rachel's birth father in China was a) not mysterious enough to be fun, and b) not serious enough or over-the-top enough to get away with being as big a storyline as it was.
A big ol' pfffffft to this book. Sigh.
Great book. Like it even better than the first one, Crazy Rich Asians. The plot is much more interesting, the characters are even more richer. The detailed description of the lifestyle of the obscenely rich is fabulous. Lots of funny one liners sprinkled throughout the story, too.
When I first started reading this series, I expected it to focus much more on Rachel and Nick's relationship with each other, but it was a lot wider than that.
What I realised as I went on is, you will not be able to remember every single person mentioned here and I think that's intentional. It's overwhelming and confusing in so many ways. At the same time... the moment you let go of that, you are going to have much more fun.
Some of the characters getting more of a role here were a lot of fun. I especially loved Kitty, the chapter with her adviser trying to help her become classy was amazing. The guidelines, they made me laugh so hard. Don't get me wrong, Kitty is an awful person, she really is, but she was so entertaining in her dumb and greedy ways.
I still didn't buy Kevin Kwan as an emotional writer. He is amazing at being funny, being over the top entertaining. The deep and emotional moments... well. Yeah, no, they didn't work for me, they often felt melodramatic in the not so brilliant way. Often I didn't feel like I cared that much about them.
Which is funny, because I get super invested in the dumb drama. The big speech Rachel throws at Colette? AMAZING.
On a side note, I watched the movie version of Crazy Rich Asians with my mother during Christmas. While is was different from the book, it was pretty great, we both enjoyed it, though sometimes I had to explain things to her, mostly about the connections between people.
Apparently, the movie of this one is on the way, we will be watching it for sure.
the last 50 pages were RIDICULOUS but i still enjoyed it! aaaaand onto the next book
After enjoying and ripping through Crazy Rich Asians, I decided, why not blow through China Rich Girldfriend as well? It was a good book, but I definitely enjoyed it (slightly) less than Crazy Rich Asians. While Kwan does well with ensnaring the reader to continue the story, this book somehow felt less planned out with the story lines chosen, especially some of the characters. I still give it a good review because it's entertaining and nothing more.
More of a 3.5 and that too because the audiobook narration is very funny and entertaining.
The plot itself is very meandering and not much happens but it's still drama which I quite enjoyed a bit during this week when I'm not in much of a reading mood. But the description of every single piece of clothing, artwork, building and food on every page kinda felt repetitive after a while, and I would have skimmed a lot of the book if I wasn't listening to it. It's still addictive and I'm already excited to read the finale.
Trashier than the first in the series, but still a very relaxing read. My God I can't even with these rich people problems.
As the title suggests, CRG heads to Mainland China so Rachel can “Oh wow so cool” all over a bunch of new locations. There's less Rachel and Nick in this book, which is still way too much. Astrid is still awesome and Kitty becomes the other cool character. Third best character is the footnotes.
This book is less racist than the first and doesn't have a bullying subplot, so I judge it better. Not great by any means, but a decent choice for “what audiobook does my library have that I haven't already listened to?”
Much like the first one, China Rich Girlfriend is over the top, dramatic, and cheesy. It is not out of this world fantastic and there were definitely boring bits but it was a fun listen. It is nice to have a book just be easy going and something purely for entertainment.
This was a fun book to read. I felt it dragged on at times and didn't quite capture my interest as much as the first book.
After months hearing my wife talk about this series I finally gave it a shot. I loved the first book as well as the movie and didn't want to wait until the next movie to see what happened next.
While the first book focuses almost entirely on Nick & Rachel, the shift to focusing on different characters in part 2 makes sense in the expanding cast. Kitty Pong's character, as well as Rachel's family, makes sense without being forced while staying entertaining (even if a bit telenovela).
After months hearing my wife talk about this series I finally gave it a shot. I loved the first book as well as the movie and didn't want to wait until the next movie to see what happened next.
While the first book focuses almost entirely on Nick & Rachel, the shift to focusing on different characters in part 2 makes sense in the expanding cast. Kitty Pong's character, as well as Rachel's family, makes sense without being forced while staying entertaining (even if a bit telenovela).
I listened to this as an audiobook (just like the first one!) and had a really fun time with it. The narrator was different from the first book though, which was a little disappointing since I loved the other narrator so much. This one was still good, but not quite as good.
As for the story itself, China Rich Girlfriend is a really fun book to watch play out. It's exciting, and funny, and sad all at the same time. Like the narrator, this sequel is not quite as good as the first. I still enjoyed it, but I didn't love it.
Go out and read these books! They're easy to read/listen to and fun to experience.
A fun read but not quite as well-developed as Crazy Rich Asians. I found Rachel and Nick boring and cheesy, and Michael truly insane (after feeling pity for him in the first book).
These books are completely bonkers and so much fun. I found Astrid's story really compelling.
Just as good as the first! As a (very middle-class) Chinese-American, I loved that I could simultaneously relate to and be shocked by the lives of the über-wealthy Asians out there. Perfect summer read. I wish there was a third to bring to the beach with me next week.