Rich People Problems: A Novel

I’ve never read this series because I didn’t have time and now with the quarantine, my furlough not being lifted yet for a return to work...I decided better late than never & ordered all 3 books.I liked the 1st two books, Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend, but I wasn’t very fond of Rich People Problems. I’ll explain...FULL DISCLOSURE:I actually hated the character of Rachel. I mean absolutely...the entire time she’s feeling judged by these people, Nick’s family, who she thinks are looking down on her and judging her. People who have led a completely different life than she did. And they were...but she did the same thing. She judged them, mocked them and saw them as ridiculous. She’s just as guilty of walking into that family with preconceived judgements & ideas about them as they were of her.Just in case you haven’t read this: SPOILERS!This book turned me off for a few reasons:The handling of 2 characters, Kitty & Colette.Due to events in book 2, China Rich Girlfriend, Colette is very much viewed as the villain and Kitty as the poor sainted & put upon female. I do not understand this for several reasons and didn’t see Colette as the baddie. Yes, even though I hated Rachel’s character and didn’t want to see her poisoned and die, I think characters in the book were too quick to condemn Colette. Was she spoiled? Yes. Outrageous? Yes. Evil? NO.In the book we are told that her PA, Roxanne stated that as her PA, she took care of problems for Colette, she was a fixer & dealt with situations for Colette. It was Roxanne who admittedly left Colette’s phone to record what was being said after they “left” the dinner with Carlton’s parents. Colette got upset over what they heard in the recording because she was in love with Carlton, saying she wanted Rachel to leave China and wished she had never come there. She was worried about what the effect of actions spoken by his parents would have on him considering the emotional state he was in after the London car crash. Then there’s the fact that Roxanne admitted that the poisoning was her idea only, Colette didn’t ask her to do this and Roxanne wasn’t an idiot, she was educated, more so than Colette who I doubt would think of using a sophisticated poison like this in the first place. Colette was beautiful, trendy, stylish, rich and annoying...but she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. If Colette were the mastermind behind the poisoning, does anyone really believe that Roxanne would “fall on her sword” to protect her? Roxanne wasn’t some lowly, underpaid and worked to death PA! She made $650,000 a year (plus other perks, per book 2) working as Colette’s PA! Think about it...this is attempted murder & the justice system in China is vastly different than the 1 in the US. There is little chance that Roxanne would get a lower charge of manslaughter...UNLESS she said she was told to do so by her boss (Colette) and was in fear of losing her job. She didn’t say that. She never implicated Colette one bit.You might say that Colette “paid her off” to take the fall, to which I would say...WITH WHAT? At this point, Colette had been cut off from her father monetarily, he had frozen her accounts leaving Roxanne to pay the bill for the dinner that put all the plans in motion. Even if Colette offered her a large sum of money for poisoning Rachel, what good would that money do as she sits in prison for the rest of her life because she took sole responsibility for the poisoning? IMO, Roxanne took responsibility because she was responsible. I imagine it’s very easy to tell police that you were paid/forced/threatened into committing a crime, that you had an accomplice when you’re looking down the barrel of life in prison or worse. One might claim loyalty & do something terrible for another but once you’re in jail, facing punishment for something that wasn’t your own idea or that you were pushed into doing, that person tends to come to the realization that it’s not right to bear the burden of the crime alone. Roxanne never did this, even after knowing Colette fired her for it. If Colette has been in cahoots with Roxanne, asking her to poison Rachel to scare her into leaving, doesn’t anyone think that Roxanne would’ve come clean to police once Colette fires her, in effect cutting all ties and support after so many years? You can be the most loyal friend (or PA) but once you feel your “partner in crime” has turned their back on you, the truth comes out with a vengeance so you won’t suffer alone. So no, I don’t think Colette came up with the idea and I thought it sucked that she was reviled for it. Colette was a spoiled girl, one who likely had little parental influence, was raised by staff and left to her own devices.Now about Kitty, a woman who was at the end, viewed much more favorably than Colette for reasons I don’t understand. Kitty was the true gold digger. She starts out engaged to Alistair, only breaking the engagement when she’s told by Oliver on the dance floor that Alistair’s parents are not as rich as she thinks, they’re cheap & the father very traditional...meaning that all his money will go to the eldest son and Alistair is the 2nd son and has no great expectation of inheriting much wealth. Oliver it’s her on the trail of Bernard Tai, the only very vulgar & partying son of Dato Tai that same night. Kitty ends up breaking the engagement with Alistair and runs off to marry Bernard, because he’s RICH. Their marriage is short-lived. By the start of book 2, you hear that Kitty is buying artwork for 190 million & everyone is speculating that she and Bernard are borrowing all the money they’re spending in anticipation of Bernard’s inheritance and future control of his fathers company. If only...Kitty buys a traditional (& expensive) Black and White House, paying double the asking price. Little did anyone know that she wasn’t borrowing the money, she wasn’t getting it from Bernard either, she was receiving it by being the mistress to one Jack Bing, Colette Bing’s father. This caused Colette’s parents to divorce & I imagine Colette wasn’t pleased by this. NO ONE would be. Colette was still young, in her early 20’s & her parents divorcing must’ve hurt. I cannot imagine anyone in her situation who would throw out the welcome mat for a stepmother who gained her position by being the other woman, who got where she was by purposefully sleeping with a man & breaking up his marriage/family. Just because Colette & her family were rich doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings.Somehow, Kitty is never made to feel badly for doing this, no she luxuriates in her new position, throwing tantrums because her stepdaughter, the daughter of the woman that Kitty pushed out, won’t “honor her” & show deference. Can you blame Colette? I wouldn’t defer to a woman who did this to my mother, especially when it’s 100% clear that Kitty did it for access to Jack Bing’s fortune. It’s not enough that Colette disappears from her fathers life, Kitty WANTS Colette present, bowing & scraping to her. Even when Kitty discovers she’s getting married to an Englishman, one not in her circle, she becomes angry over the wedding dress because she can’t have it or one made like it & proceeds to destroy it! WTF?!?! Later, she is enraged because Jack set up a trust for Colette as a term of his divorce to provide for her. She wanted him to never do anything for Colette again & have only her mother care for her. She’s angry when Jack won’t set up a trust for Gisele, who is NOT his daughter but Bernards from her 1st marriage & who will inherit a fortune from the Tai family.I have no doubt Colette enjoyed the digs she made at Kitty, like overtaking her for the cover of the magazine Tattle. In the grand scheme of things, I feel like this is the LEAST Kitty deserved, after breaking up her parents marriage so she could gain a high dollar position. I don’t think having a dress designed that Kitty couldn’t replicate or buy & taking the slot of a magazine cover away really compare in severity to splitting up your parents marriage. Perspective people! And Colette getting mad at Rachel for not speaking to Carlton for her after the poisoning & being so ugly...what did anyone expect from a girl who has been given everything her entire life & suddenly it’s taken away? A tantrum. She loved Carlton & rich or not, it hurt when she lost him over something she didn’t do. Colette was a lot of things, poisoner not among them.Was it mean to bring up the wreck where Carlton killed someone in front of Scherezade (Not sure of spelling...) & her parents at dinner? Yes. But I imagine she still felt slighted by him for believing she asked Roxanne to poison his sister.After everything Kitty has done, being an actual home-wrecking, gold digger & taking the slightest action from a stepdaughter that she only wants around to make her suffer, Kitty is still seen sympathetically & as virtuous.WHAT?I realize that Kwan can write his characters however he likes but I didn’t buy into Colette being a villain. A completely spoiled brat who covertly does small things to usurp her stepmother in society? Yes, she’s guilty on all counts. Otherwise, I didn’t believe in the idea that Colette was the baddie of the series. Now Kitty? I believed she was, while being written in a way to make her a heroine. When Colette went to her father to beg his forgiveness & ask him to buy her Tyersall Park, no doubt she knew this would drive Kitty crazy. But who could blame her? Kitty broke up her parents marriage.This leads to a screaming match with Jack Bing where he tells Kitty that Colette begged his forgiveness, he was proud of her wanting to do good in the world & that Kitty should not “try to make him choose between you & my daughter, because you will lose. I only have 1 daughter & I can always get another wife”. And it’s true, as she knows, seeing as he had a wife when she came into the picture, but somehow it’s “poor Kitty”. No matter what Colettes motives are, this statement from Jack is the most loving & appropriately parental thing he has said about HIS DAUGHTER during the entire series. Of course Kitty is angry that he said it & to not to try to make him choose. In Kitty’s mind, Jack should choose & he should choose Kitty over Colette.In my mind, even when Colette had been “disgraced” by something her PA did & was only in the background, living & doing environmental things, tossing out little social digs at the woman who broke up her parents, it seemed like small potatoes to me compared to what happened to her & her mother. It wasn’t enough that Kitty caused her parents divorce, that Colette lost her home To Kitty, she would’ve preferred Colette homeless. Kitty only wanted Colette around bending the knee in subservience which would've been excruciating given the circumstances. Not only that, Kitty is mad she’s marrying a titled Englishman, gets angry thinking about her “future beautiful mixed-race children” & destroys her wedding dress.In the end, we’re expected to celebrate with Kitty as she gleefully relates that Colette had an accident, wearing the dress originally meant for her wedding that Kitty tried to destroy, which was repaired & that apparently she was electrocuted by lighting equipment & is damaged for life because of it. And of...everyone laughs and laughs...There were awful, horrid people in this book, Kitty being chief among them, the rest of them lived in & claimed ownership of Tyersall Park. If Kwan wants us to believe in the villains he writes, a little less plausible deniability is in order. And maybe don’t set up one of the stories heroines to be an over-the-top former porn star who really is a gold digger who maintains her lifestyle by sleeping her way to the top.It’s just not believable.Rant over.

Be prepared and set aside some time as you’re not going to want to put down the novel with so many twists and turns.

I liked the first book, the second one got tiresome with the endless descriptions of ridiculous houses, ridiculous planes, cars and yachts, ridiculous jewelry and clothing, and ridiculous food. This one has toned that down somewhat so is better than China Rich Girlfriend. One thing that I find annoying is that there are basically three stories going on (Astrid, Nick and Kitty) and the constant skipping back and forth every few pages gets annoying. But I'm loving Kevin Kwan's footnotes - they're hilarious!

Hard to keep up with who is who in the zoo. Eventually it comes together.. lots of interesting twists and turns..

My package arrived on time and in great condition matching the description! If I come across a series I love, I like to collect them and yes, (although it’s being picky) I like to have each one look the same; I am excited to finally have all of them!!

Pity that there were way too many things crammed into this final book, which means everything was rushed and told very superficially, to the point that a lot of the plot was either cliché or predictable aka boring.At least I can now say I’m done with the trilogy.

Brilliant!! Written so accurate to time and places and brands and history you learn as well as get swept up in the story. I couldn’t put this book down, just wanted to know what happened next!!

I have been a big fan of Kevin Kwan since his first book, Crazy Rich Asians, which was published in 2013. Needless to say, I was very excited about the opportunity to read the third installment of the series- Rich People Problems.As the story resumes, beloved matriarch Sun Yi falls ill, and her large extended family flies in from around the world, although it remains to be seen whether they arrive out of filial obligation or because they hope to inherit Tyersall Park, the family compound. Let’s be honest with each other: it’s mostly the latter.Tolstoy said that “each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”, and this is certainly the case. Prepare yourself for over the top antics as everyone vies for a portion of the estate- never mind that Sun Yi has not actually passed away yet.Rich People Problems capitalizes on the key points that made the first two books successful: name-dropping of designer brands and mouth-watering descriptions of food. There are several different storylines happening simultaneously, but of course, they all center around the aforementioned soap opera antics.I would recommend Rich People Problems. I would suggest reading the first two books before tackling this one so that you have a full appreciation of the family dynamic and the numerous ensemble characters. This is a light book (with the exception of one plotline) and it was a fun read. The end of the book leaves the possibility for another entry in the series- perhaps in 2019?- one can only hope! Even if this is to be the end of the series, I am looking forward to the Crazy Rich Asians movie!

Book 3 is by far the most funniest of the trilogy - there are so many laugh out loud moments. The character Eddie Cheng is so funny and hilarious. I'm not usually a fan of book-to-film adaptations, but I'm genuinely interested in watching the final film adaptation. The author pokes fun at those living the high society life depicting how shallow and fickle some of them can be. The final book focuses less on the storyline of Rachel Chu and Nick Young, and instead focuses more on Astrid Leong and Charlie Wu's storyline which I personally find was more interesting. One thing that wasn't touched upon in the story, was what did Nick's mother Eleanor do years and years ago that made Nick's dying grandmother ask Nick's dad whether he has forgiven her - what did she do? The author doesn't tell us or was this already mentioned in book 1 or 2 which I have forgotten? I like how the author provides readers with a bit of history on Singapore - how it was once invaded by the Japanese. Anyway, it was a good read and I look forward to reading more works by this author.

This third book in the series takes a broader look at Nicks extended family and friends.Rachel takes a back seat and only appears as a minor part of a rich and interweaving multi-generational narrative.Told from the perspective of Nick, Astrid and SO MANY cousins and aunties - as well as flashbacks and diary entries. This final book wraps up the family drama (for now?) and is pretty much the story of Su Yi, the great Matriarch of the family. It's about her past, her relationships and her legacy.Rich people problems is by far the best book in the series. Don't get me wrong, Rachel is one of my favourite characters - but even though she is hardly in this book, there are so many funny and endearing moments here to enjoy.I basically devoured this book in a day and a half.

The conclusion to the ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ trilogy sees the formidable matriarch Su Yi reach the end of her life after a heart attack, an attack that has the vultures circling Tyersall Park. A lot of drama and craziness in this.One of my favourite parts of this book involved the scenes with Astrid - her ex remains a douche.The scene with Rachel when she's getting lectures on having a kid - man oh man I winced and laughed. At least my relatives/elders are more subtle (although that may be because I'm not hitched).All the way through this I was thinking this could make a seriously ace movie - the books have been ok, weirdly they have me hoping more movies come out - the drama onscreen could be ridiculously entertaining.

The final part of Kevin Kwan's trilogy 'Crazy Rich Asians' which I was late discovering, leaves me thinking maybe I should see the film. Released in 2018 it was apparently the highest earner in the genre 'romantic comedy' for over a decade.Hilarious yet ridiculous, I found this to be the best of the three as it feels it has more of a storyline. The following quote from the book sums up the majority of the characters in a nutshell, “Peel away the veneer of wealth and sophistication and you’ll find extremely provincial, narrow-minded people. The problem is that they all have too much money, and it’s come so easily to them that they think they’re bloody geniuses and so they are always right.”In conclusion then the trilogy was for me a playful insight into the unrealistic life style that the super rich Asians ostensibly lead.

What a ride! Given what happened in the first two books, it has become obvious how much drama there would be when Su Yi pass away. With so much wealth at stake, a "bloody battle" and family scandals are almost guaranteed. However, it still took me by surprise to find out who would be character to deliver the shallowest blow right as the funeral taking place. Had such a good laugh reading it. Then there is the ridiculous competition Kitty set herself up to, and as much as despise her, I was also glad she stood to the very end. The book has done such a good job to make me start to like someone like Kitty (she's a nasty one, but that also makes her a powerful ally). Absolute enjoyed it.