A well-crafted story with plenty to appreciate. The pacing, characters, and plot twists kept me interested throughout. I'm looking forward to seeing how readers respond once it's released!

I loved the Crazy Rich Asians series, but this was nowhere near as good. The name dropping of the schools didn't mean much, as I'd barely heard of any of them. The main character was a total pushover and the mother was just awful and got no real comeuppance for her behaviour. Just all a bit dull really and very obvious where everything was going. Also, much too long.

I loved the Crazy Rich Asians film, but have not read the book and didn't realise there were others in the series - I was pleased to get hold of this and looked forward to a fun read!

Kevin Kwan has a real knack for creating a page-turner, this is soapy and gossipy and high drama with just the right amount of side-eye. We enter a world of high society, old money and new money (although everyone has money to greater or lesser degrees). I liked that we get to see the educational history of everyone for an added snob-factor and there is lots of name dropping which was fun to google as the story went on.

We follow Eden Tong and the aristocratic Greshams of Greshamsbury, as their stories unravel we discover themes of identity, family and self discovery. The main love story is not the focal point of the book, which is an interesting change to what we'd normally expect to see.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and would highly recommend for anyone looking for an escapist read with a bit of high glamour and scandal thrown in for good measure.

Kevin Kwan’s novels are my guilty pleasure - ridiculously readable, in social circles so beyond my experience they evoke Jane Austen, and with just the right amount of snark. Lies and Weddings did not disappoint and was just the beach read I needed.

The action flits between England, Hong Kong, LA, Venice and lots more - all depicting the intertwining lives and loves of the aristocratic Greshams and the girl next door, Eden Tong.

The plot ‘twist’ was obvious from the novel’s outset, and the romance between the main characters severely underdeveloped - but on reflection, this isn’t really a romance, so much as a story about family.

I am not at all interested in designer brands, the Uber wealthy or high finance, but I really enjoyed this book and read it in 1 day.

4*

From start to finish, Lies and Weddings is an irresistible page-turner filled with humor, heart, and just the right amount of scandal. Kwan masterfully combines the glitz and glamour of high society with deeply relatable themes of love, identity, and self-discovery. Fans of his previous work will find themselves right at home, while new readers will be swept up in the luxurious, drama-filled world he creates.

Classic Kevin Kwan - so much fun and full of biting, gossipy humour. I had the best time reading this, another perfect slice of escapism that touches on darker themes without ever losing its sparkle.

I loved Crazy Rich Asians and this book did not disappoint. It was quirky and funny. It kept me turning the pages.

This book was exactly what I needed. Fun, entertaining and mindblowing. Kevin Kwan never diasapoints. I especially loved Eden’s character. The big “reveal” was long predictable but that doesn't matter at all. Loved it!!!

Having not read anything from this author before it took me a while to get to grips with the style of writing. However as soon as I followed it, I loved this story. The descriptions of the characters & their motivations made for a very engaging read.

Loved it. Very entertaining , lots of laughter and I don't know if very wealthy people act like this but so much fun. Great holiday read or anytime read.

Enter the world of the ultra rich with lots of gossip, family drama and laugh out loud moments
It’s a rollercoaster of a ride, filled with secrets and lies.
Can see this making a fantastic film.
Would you marry a billionaire just for their money?
Thanks @kevinkwanbooks @penguinukbooks & @netgalley for the rollercoaster read

This book is everything I hoped Kevin Kwan's next novel would be. Quick, witty, characters full of relatable charm despite being so unimaginably rich. Read it in a single sitting, can't wait for the inevitable movie adaptation.

A great read that will give you a good few laughs along the way with memorable characters. A book that you will truly enjoy!

Honestly I don't have a huge amount to say about this one, I found it a pretty painful read. Kevin Kwan can be great but this tipped into something else for me. I was intrigued by the initial mystery and the wedding set up. We know Kwan can depict a good wedding lead up. Plus the flashbacks keep the tention rumbling in the background.

But there wasn't a single character here I wanted to spend time with. As a character reader, that's an issue for me. Some people will love the cast of questionable characters, it just isn't right for me.

Lies and Weddings is not a book I will be re-reading! I have never read any thing from Kevin Kwan before and I have never seen Crazy Rich Asians. All I know is that this is an average story (poor girl falls for rich, titled man. Said man needs to marry an heiress to restore the family fortunes. Hey presto, by the end of the book she is an heiress!) However where it differs from maybe a Mills and Boon book, is the fact that each item these rich privileged people wear or buy is documented by it's designer label! Every description of a ball gown or an item of furniture is prefaced with the designer label. A Chanel dress, a Dior bag, a Gucci item. Does anyone really care about what the brands are. It was easy reading but a predictable story and not for me!

A rip-roaring and rambunctious tale. The author has transported his successful formula from Crazy Rich Asians and Singapore to the UK. The most compelling thing about Kwan's stories are the insights he gives into the super rich and their lifestyles. It's fun and exciting to learn about how people with too much money live. The story is well-paced and there are some real moments of reflection and thought from the characters around racism. There were times that I felt the experiences of the main female lead as a Chinese woman in the UK were unrealistic. I find it hard to believe that she had truly been insulated from racism and xenophobia growing up in England, especially if she went to school and university there plus worked in the NHS. It also felt a little frustrating that Eden would at her age and stage of life allow people to talk the way they did about her and her friends e.g. the photoshoot editor's comments about Bea...
There were also moments that jarred where the use of US or international terminology was being used in the UK context. Thomas wouldn't have done a "residency" if he did his medical training in the UK - it would have likely been a fellowship when he went abroad to train. Similarly, when one of the characters describes knowing Rufus since he was in diapers - another term not used in the UK.
But apart from those minor niggles, this was such a fun and entertaining read with a satisfying ending.

Perhaps my favorite Kevin Kwan yet - I loved the US v UK commentary, and the flashbacks were perfectly placed to keep up the tension. A win!

This new book from the author of Crazy Rich Asians follows a noble British family, the Greshams, and those around them (especially Eden and her dad Thomas) as they go to Hawaii for the wedding of one of the daughters. Things fall apart though when Rufus, the son, fails to seduce the heiress his mom wants him to, and even worse, declares his love for Eden.

This has been my favorite of Kwan's books since the first Crazy Rich Asians book. I felt the characters were fun (minus Arabella, but every book needs a villain) and I had so much fun reading about their ludicrousness. Eden becomes somewhat of the main character, and I really enjoyed that since she was so much more grounded.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Crazy Rich Asians remains one of my favourite romance books of recent years. The mix of opulence and family drama offset by the luxurious backdrop of Singapore was the perfect combination. So I hoped Lies and Weddings would follow a similar theme. On many aspects it does - there's a lot of rich people drama and fabulous settings. However I found the large cast of characters overwhelming and all of them lack any real depth, with the result that they're mainly down right awful without any redeeming features.

Frivolous fun, but lacking in any staying power for me.

Kevin Kwan, best known for his Crazy Rich Asians saga, is back with a brand new collection of socialites, aristocrats, playboys and billionaires - and of course the requisite couple of wide-eyed ordinary folk to guide the reader through the excesses and eccentricities of the inconceivably wealthy.

At the centre of Kwan's latest offering, Lies and Weddings, is the aristocratic Gresham family, comprising hapless Earl Francis, his conniving wife Arabella and their three gorgeous adult children, Augusta, Rufus and Beatrice. When we meet them, it is days before Augusta is due to marry her very own handsome prince at the family's exclusive resort on Hawaii's Big Island - the first of what Arabella hopes will be a trio of royal weddings for her children. As a veritable who's who of the rich and famous gathers for the wedding, and his wife pulls out all the stops to impress them, Lord Francis is desperately scrambling to hide the fact that Britain's oldest family is actually flat broke and on the verge of losing everything.

For those of us who don't have a swimming pool with a transparent floor through which we can gaze at our fleet of Ferraris, and who are unlikely to be whisked off to a destination wedding on a private jet, Kwan's novels are pure escapism: an opportunity to disengage from everyday struggles and immerse yourself in a world of gossip, scandal, secrets and intrigue, in which the stakes are so unrelatable that you can just sit back and take it all in.

That said, Lies and Weddings, more than some of Kwan's other work, has quite the social conscience. Rufus voices strong objections about the use of sacred Hawaiian land for wedding celebrations, while reader proxy Eden Tong (the doctor daughter of Lord Gresham's best friend, family doctor and closest neighbour, and one of several potential love interests for Rufus) rails against the 'orgy of excess' powered by armies of immigrants which she witnesses on a trip to Los Angeles. Kwan also touches on the legacy of colonialism and the patriarchal nature of the institutions of wealth. However, none of it is tackled in too much depth or detail, and some parts did feel like rather superficial lip service to critics of Kwan's celebration of the 'crazy rich' rather than a genuine attempt to interrogate the ethics of the conspicuous consumption that defines Kwan's writing; for all their socially and environmentally conscious ideas, even Rufus and Eden spend much of the story criss crossing the globe on private jets with nary a moment's pause to discuss the devastating impact on the environment, while the various moments in which Eden, who is Asian, is mistaken for 'the help' are clunky and unsubtle in the point they are there to make. More resonant is the examination of the responsibilities and restrictions that accompany inherited wealth, and of the racial subtext that underpins the relationship between Eden Tong and Countess Arabella Gresham, both of them Chinese.

In essence, Eden is Rachel Chu of Crazy Rich Asians, while Arabella takes on the Eleanor Young role, and I didn't particularly enjoy the retread of the awful matriarch disparaging and dehumanising the object of her son's affections because she doesn't come from the right sort of family. Arabella is such an exaggerated charicature of the trope shd embodies that she is utterly unsympathetic, and it was galling to see how the conflict between her and Eden ended. There is a half-hearted, late effort to provide an explanation for why Arabella behaves the way she does, but it is ultimately insufficient to redeem her in any way.

Rufus is nice enough - especially in contrast with his mother - but I never found the romance between him and Eden to be particularly convincing or compelling. Nobody experiences any character development by the end of the novel, and Kwan resorts to a calvacade of deus ex machina in order to tie up all the loose ends.

Nevertheless, for all its flaws, if you are looking for a fun, entertaining beach read this summer that captures your attention and doesn’t make you think too hard, Lies and Weddings is perfect.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.