Sex and Vanity

Sex and Vanity- Kevin Kwan

DoubleDay/Random House

Release Day: June 30, 2020

Rating:

📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. "Your mother is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone like him," Charlotte teases. The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world--and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.

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From the creator of Crazy Rich Asians comes a new world of over-the-top money, family, and romance in New York.  When George and Lucie meet at a friend's wedding they are teens who barely speak to each other but are still drawn together.  One night, one indiscretion, and one drone send them apart.  Years later they are back in each other's orbit and Lucie has to decide if she's going to stay on the path she's planned for herself since she was 8 years old, or take a risk and go for what her heart really wants.

Sex and Vanity is a pretty good description of most of the people in this book- emphasis on the vanity.  It's Crazy Rich Asians up a notch.  The only exceptions seem to be our heroes, Lucy and George and their mothers- all other friends and family are shameless name droppers and have black belts in one-upmanship.  Lucy has spent her life trying to fit into this world, while believing that she isn't good enough for it because she's half-Asian and she doesn't look like her father's Plymouth Rock WASP family.  Every time she manages to enjoy a moment as herself, something happens to shock her or shame her back into her protective little shell.  She thinks she has to be what everyone else wants her to be, but George sees her for who she actually is, or could be.  

While I enjoyed the book, with its fast paced writing style and breezy over-the-top world, I wish we had gotten to see George more.  The reader actually gets very little "George" time, which makes it hard to believe in love between George and Lucie.  He almost never talks, does nice things without fanfare but just to help people (which is great, no complaints there- especially compared to Cecil!) but I hard a hard time following Lucie through her feelings for him.  At first she doesn't like him, on no basis at all.  Then she does, on no basis at all.  Magnetic pull might be a good start to a relationship, but it never got beyond that for me.  He seemed like a Mr. Darcy type who never got turned into a character to know, but just an idea.

Light summer fun to help make people smile, Sex and Vanity will be enjoyed by everyone who enjoyed the world of Crazy Rich Asians.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review