Your Next Read | Sex & Vanity

After a couple of really heavy reads back to back, I was in desperate need of a good, light summer read. Enter Kevin Kwan’s Sex & Vanity. I picked it up because Kelly Saks and Maria Tettamanti both mentioned it in the span of a few days (consider me influenced). Once I realized that Kwan is the same author of Crazy Rich Asians, I was even more excited to read it – I never read the Crazy Rich Asians series but I did love the movie, and I might even read those books in the future, too. 

I really enjoyed Sex & Vanity, and it one hundred percent made me wish I could take a trip to Capri soon! After the heartbreaker that was American Dirt, this lighthearted read which pokes fun at the uber and nouveau riche was exactly what I needed.

Lucie Churchill is a girl caught between two worlds – born to a blue blooded New England socialite and an American-born Chinese daughter – she has always pushed down her Chinese side to fit into the high society of New York. While she is in Capri for a wedding under the watchful eye of her older cousin Charlotte, she meets George Zao. She hates everything about him, until she doesn’t. At the wedding, her cousin Charlotte catches them in a heated romantic exchange, and she makes it known that she does not approve. Lucie puts George out of her mind, until years later, when she is newly engaged and their paths cross again in New York. 

And while it was light and funny, it was also a really important commentary on how culture plays a huge role in our lives and how being of a mixed heritage can really affect how someone is treated even within their own family, especially when one of those backgrounds is deemed as “less sophisticated.” It’s probably not award-winning literature, but a good summer read nonetheless. 

I truly enjoyed reading Sex & Vanity, and I think you will, too! 

xoxo, 

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