By Kevin Kwan.
(Disclaimer: I'm going to spoil the whole plot here. I just don't see the point in holding back in this one. Also, I'm writing this up on the day of the Harry/Meghan interview and the half-PoC stuff coming up here seems super relevant.)
Lucie Tang Churchill is what she sounds like: a half Chinese Churchill from THOSE Churchills. Her mother Marian is a lovely person (and apparently a genius geneticist!), but since Lucie is the kid that takes after her in looks--her brother Freddie came out white-looking--she gets off and on weird racist shit like being called a "China doll" by her racist grandmother and gets asked if she feels more Chinese or more white. Lucie has been raised fairly well white and does her best to blend in and assimilate and whatnot.
At age 19, Lucie goes to a wedding on Capri with her older cousin Charlotte as chaperone. While there, they meet the SUPER generous--if a rather kooky dresser--Rosemary Zao and her extremely hot, serious teenage son George. We don't get a whole lot of personality development from George, probably because unlike everyone else in this world, he's not too into the title words (and indeed, calls them out in his biggest speech in the book). Lucie reacts on a weird soul level to meeting George, in an "I'm repulsed and yet super attracted to you" sort of way. He's not the sort that she wants, but somehow she's still fascinated. And when a guy has a heart attack and falls into Lucie's lap while she's at a cafe, she freaks the hell out and runs away because it reminds her of her father's death. George understands her pain, they have a few moments, and finally they start giving into their passion. George goes down on Lucie...and then some assholes fly a drone camera over them, capturing the moment. While the drone/video situation is thwarted, Charlotte chews Lucie out for what she got up to, think of the consequences, and well, the implications of a half-Chinese girl getting involved with a Chinese guy in their world....
Five years later, Lucie and George meet again in NYC, right after Lucie has gotten engaged (very public proposal-y) to Cecil Pike, a white rich social climber guy who's financially generous, into sexual role play (this was a bit eye-rolly!) and gets super triggered out by running into snobbery, like being around Lucie's relatives. He absolutely loses his shit for a few pages when he shows up at a club with a shirt without a collar, and he's frequently spectacularly rude to Lucie's mother and brother, both of who are perfectly nice to him. At one point Cecil absolutely slams the idea of asking a celebrity guest he knows to go to Marian's benefit, scoring the idea that the celebrity would EVER go to something as puny as Marian's event. Freddie uses "six degrees of separation" to invite the woman, who accepts enthusiastically. After this, Lucie is literally "Ew" at the idea of becoming "Mrs. Cecil Pike" (something that made me gag every time I read her bragging about it) and she peacefully and tactfully ends the engagement.
Marian and Rosemary become fast friends, forcing Lucie to deal with George and their attraction rearing up. (And at one point, bizarrely, their oral sex/drone incident actually MAKES IT INTO SOMEOBODY'S MOVIE, THE FUCK?!) George pleads his case, it's very romantic, Lucie rejects him....and then forges a shitty-yet-kinda-amusing letter to the co-op board from her mother when Rosemary wants to get an apartment in their building. Rosemary, as it turns out, is very forgiving and understanding once she finds out that George has been coming on to Lucie against her will.
This description I just wrote is a whooooole lot more interesting than the actual book. That's about why I got it--the plot sounded at least somewhat interesting, However, much as I know Kevin Kwan loves to snob about and make snobby comments that are amused at snobbery and whatnot, he could have used a bit less of this and a bit more love story. I feel like this is supposed to be a romance novel, more or less, but the romance needs more building. George and Lucie have inexplicable attraction, but they don't spend all that much time together to build upon it. There is LITERALLY no scene in which the two of them finally get together--the big climactic scene is Lucie talking to his mother, and then we cut to an island epilogue in which they're together, and that's it. The fuck? I felt like I was eating half-cooked baked goods. Also, while Lucie is nice most of the time, she gets a bit shitty to George and especially his mother on that co-op letter, and I was all yeesh, girl. I liked Lucie dealing with the racism she got brought up with, when that happens, but it's not as much of a plot element as you'd think.
I rather liked her mother and brother (I wouldn't mind if the brother was in the sequel, but alas, he got a girl offscreen at the end) and Rosemary and Charlotte aren't so bad, but there's just not all that much to this one. Two and a half stars.