Two things. First is, while I didn’t read the summary for this book ahead of time, the A Room with a View vibes are VERY strong with this one (Lucy/George should just be the giveaway). Happy to report, Ms. Rabin, that your lessons on this book were vivid and strong enough to last many many years later.
Second is, a friend of mine pointed out that the romance element of Crazy Rich Asians was pretty weak. This is not a false statement! Nick Young is a sketched out man, perfectly played by Henry Golding who is basically the first definition of “Cis Man, Perfect” in the dictionary.
And now we know why the romance element in those books was nonexistent, because Kevin Kwan does not know how to write romance. I read this entire book out of some sense of hope that the spark of the original trilogy would shine through, but it never does and I suggest you not read it.
I don’t understand how these two were supposed to be in love, and I think it is possible that they met fewer than ten times in the course of the entire book? Did they just see each other a few times in 2013 and then not see each other for five years? It barely works in A Room With A View, I think, and only there because it’s from a different genre and time when longing glances were the epitome of flirting?
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