best friends and their books

Tracie’s Version

From the author of the Crazy Rich Asian trilogy, Kevin Kwan, I really had high hopes for this book. This love story starts with Lucie being torn between her two cultures- a rich white privileged family and her Chinese heritage.

Lucie and her (white) cousin are in Italy celebrating a close family friends wedding where Lucie meets George Tao. Lucie is instantly disgusted by him and unsure why. After a few interactions, she is instantly drawn to him. After a very scandalous night, she leaves Italy to never see George again.

Flash forward five years, Lucie is engaged to another man. A white man with new money that makes her happy very proud. But fate steps in and George appears back in Lucie’s life- just in time to shake it up and make her realize what she truly wants and deserves.

I really loved the beginning and end of this book but everything in between fell very flat. The themes were great and I love watching Lucie embrace her Chinese culture and shutting her horribly racist family down.

I almost had to quit on this book because I was very close to not being able to read one more name drop or read one more footnote explaining a term or place I was unfamiliar with. This was a thing in Crazy Rich Asians too, but I love the characters and story line so much more it didn’t matter as much. There are so many characters in this book. I honestly could barely follow.

All in all it let me down big time and I give it a 3/5 ⭐️’s