In the romantic comedy Lies and Weddings, Kevin Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians) delivers another sly, hilarious comedy of manners about the high class, the low class, and the rich with no class.
Hong Kong native Arabella, the Countess of Greshamsbury, is a former model and current luxury hotel mogul who persevered against the racist backlash that greeted her marriage to the British Earl of Greshamsbury to become an icon. Now she is finally embarking on the grandest campaign of her life, marrying off her three gorgeous adult children to rich minor European royals of her choosing and cementing "[h]er legacy as the matriarch of her own royal dynasty."
Unfortunately, her eldest daughter's wedding to a minor European prince slash microdosing coach does not come off without a hitch. The couple's extravagant Hawaiian wedding is thrown for a loop when a volcanic fissure opens in the middle of the ceremony site. Turning the fissure into a feature only goes so far, because another shadow falls over the proceedings. Namely, a hot mic broadcasts a confession of love from Arabella's son, international heartthrob Rufus Gresham, to beautiful, down-to-earth doctor Eden Tong.
Eden is a childhood friend of the Gresham siblings, the daughter of their family doctor, and the last person Arabella has in mind as a future daughter-in-law. The revelation that the Earldom of Greshamsbury has run financially dry further complicates matters and puts even greater pressure on Rufus to marry well. What follows is a class-driven comedy of errors to make Jane Austen proud, complete with a pregnancy mix-up, misguided matchmaking, a debauched heir, and romantic connections that readers likely won't expect.
Kwan dishes out another juicy, satire-tinged romp about the lives of the opulent class with aplomb. The characters behave to the standard his fans have come to expect, dressing in couture from epically curated closets, globetrotting with the casual air of someone walking into the next room, and dealing out deadly insults in only the poshest, politest tones. The third-person omniscient narrative voice follows each character's movements with the chattiness of a gossip columnist. It creates enough remove to emphasize the untouchable nature of the fantastically wealthy even as it invites laughter at their eccentricities. Readers hungry for an escapist tale with a soupçon of social criticism and a dash of true love overcoming obstacles should find Lies and Weddings a delicious diversion. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan returns to form in this dishy, hilarious comedy of errors about the lives and loves of the obscenely rich.