Yay or Nay: China Rich Girlfriend (Novel)

I finally got around to it. Literally, when I released my review of Crazy Rich Asians which you can read here, I was not expecting it to blow up as fast as it did. I think it hit 2000 reads by the end of the month, way back in January 2019 (when we thought that was the worst year ever lol). Since then I’ve been moseying around from book to book, and I did get a chance to read China Rich Girlfriend— the sequel to Crazy Rich Asians a while back, but just procrastinated the review for a while. 

But since it’s done so well on this blog, I thought I’d do the review now, and then start my audiobook of Mistborn, which I am quite excited to read and then later, review! I was quite excited to read China Rich Girlfriend given that I loved the eloquence and comedy in the writing and style of Crazy Rich Asians. And China Rich Girlfriend more or less holds up to the same standards as the first, with a little less comedy and a larger focus on the plot threads and characters from the first novel (rather than starkly on Nick and Rachel). I was a little disappointed though. The book is good, it is by no means bad or bland at all. It just lacks the spirit, I think, that the first book had, and more or less wraps up loose plot threads, while simultaneously creating a few new ones to carry over into the third book “Rich People Problems”. 

However, I’m getting ahead of myself! Let’s get into it! This is my review of China Rich Girlfriend (Crazy Rich Asians #2), by Kevin Kwan. 

And, as a note, even though I’ll try to avoid spoiling major plot points— it doesn’t go well, so if you really don’t want to be spoiled for this book, read no further! 

The Story

[Taken from Goodreads]: 

On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond from JAR, a wedding dress she loves more than anything found in the salons of Paris, and a fiance willing to sacrifice his entire inheritance in order to marry her. But Rachel still mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won't be able to walk her down the aisle. 

Until: a shocking revelation draws Rachel into a world of Shanghai splendor beyond anything she has ever imagined. Here we meet Carlton, a Ferrari-crashing bad boy known for Prince Harry-like antics; Colette, a celebrity girlfriend chased by fevered paparazzi; and the man Rachel has spent her entire life waiting to meet: her father. Meanwhile, Singapore's It Girl, Astrid Leong, is shocked to discover that there is a downside to having a newly minted tech billionaire husband. A romp through Asia's most exclusive clubs, auction houses, and estates, China Rich Girlfriend brings us into the elite circles of Mainland China, introducing a captivating cast of characters, and offering an inside glimpse at what it's like to be gloriously, crazily, China-rich.

My Thoughts 

Rather than dive into my thoughts on the story, as I tend to get carried away when I do that. I wanted to save my thoughts on the story, and then the book itself, for this section. Mainly, because my biggest issue with this novel lies in the story of the “shocking revelation” (don’t worry I won’t spoil) that happens to Rachel. It (oddly) has a lot of parallels to Rey in Rise of Skywalker, when they first went with the idea that Rey was a nobody, and then in the last movie, decided that randomly, she was going to be “somebody” important in relation to the “Force”. That’s kinda what happens to Rachel here. I liked the idea in the first book, that Rachel was a (for better lack of term) nobody Chinese-born American from New York. Yet, she was able to get one of the most eligible and rich men in Singapore to get down on one knee for her. She wasn’t special, and she knew her worth. And, despite the “crazy” and “lavish” world, she got sucked into in Crazy Rich Asians, money was never a part of her choice in marrying Nick. She loved him, not his money. And he loved her, just her. Most importantly though, she felt she didn’t need to be “rich” to have her worth. She was proud of her “low-class” routes, her single mother, and the family that supported her. She didn’t need more than that, and I felt that it was a good character move for the story. 

That mahjong scene from the movie (here)— pretty much— sums up why I loved this move-in Crazy Rich Asians. It gave it to class, and for a comedy, soapy novel, a lesson too (even if it wasn’t intended). 

Here— they still have that theme going (repetitively enough), but they made Rachel a “Somebody” (much like Rey in Rise of Skywalker), where that whole theme comes up again, and Rachel is sucked into the world of the “China Rich”, even more, crazy than the Singapore “rich”. That’s all I’ll say to the point, but I do question if it was needed, since Rachel (as a character) was fine on her own, and didn’t need any buffing up. 

Actually in that regard, if you read the first book for Rachel and Nick, this book doesn’t really do much with them. They’re still present, but the way in the background (even their wedding, surprisingly, was more backgrounded than I expected it to be). They act as the eyes for the reader to see the “China Rich” cast of characters we’re introduced to, namely Carlton Bao, Collette Bing, and Gaoliang Bao (an influential Chinese politician), and his wife Shaoyen. While that’s a little disappointing (but not as disappointing, there are still some awesome scenes with them) that Nick and Rachel were reduced to that, you will not be disappointed by the next bit:

Astrid Leong (one of my favorite characters) and her husband Michael Teo are a large part of the book, as well as Kitty Pong (the soap-opera actress from China who married Bernard Tai in the first novel). Kwan really digs deep into these two, and their stories and individual sub-plots (including Kitty’s “rebirth” into high society), are really nuanced here. So nuanced in fact, they made this book work. Astrid and Michael have tried to patch up their marriage, but Michael’s growing monetary success has turned him into a monster, and Astrid into a little more timid (in fact it borders if not rides on the word victim), and she needs to decide whether this marriage and Michael (as he is now) is worth it. Plus, the side plot with her ex-boyfriend Charles Wu, is rather interesting.

 Kitty Pong has all been ostracized from high-society, until a social-climber “coach” for hire (more or less) named Corinna Ko-Tung, offers to have her rebranded and “reborn” into acceptance. That has it’s own mysterious curves as it elaborates more into the rather untouched and unexamined life of Bernard and Kitty after they got married and had a daughter in the first book. 

As usual, the writing is still amazing, and each character (save, I think for Rachel and Nick) is brought to life so amazingly on the paper, I couldn’t believe it. Astrid lives even more than she did in the first, and so did many other characters that weren’t in the first book. Kwan’s style still does not disappoint. Sadly, there’s not as much blatant comedy and roll on the floor laughing moments as there was in the first, but that’s not a reason to take away any part of the rating, and its still worth a read. But, as some reviewers have already pointed out, the novel does kinda make you wonder what the point was, if not to wrap up plot threads that couldn’t be wrapped up in Crazy Rich Asians, and begin new ones that will (probably) finish the series in Rich People Problems. 

My Rating

Despite my criticisms that I lay out here, this was a good book. It’s worth the read, and it nearly lives up to its predecessor (I mean, hey, sequels aren’t usually as good as their firsts, and I went in understanding that). Regardless, it’s fun, and it's a good read, and I would recommend it to you either as borrow or as a buy!

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 Stars)

~Meghan