Recommended by New York Times Book Review• Washington Post • People• Entertainment Weekly• USA Today• Time• Cosmopolitan• Today show • Harper’s Bazaar• Vogue• Good Housekeeping• Parade• New York Post • Town & Country• GMA.com • Buzzfeed • Goodreads • Oprah Daily • Popsugar • Bustle • theSkimm • The Millions • and more! Ava Wong is close to her breaking point. She put her career as a lawyer on hold be a stay at home mom for her young son who is a bit of a handful. Her surgeon husband is always working and their marriage is suffering to be blunt. Ava's college roommate, Winnie Fang, pops up in her life again. Winnie grew up in China and went to Stanford with Ava before abruptly dropping out. Ava is now running a scheme in which she imports near perfect replicas of luxury handbags to the US. Winnie could use Ava's help with her business. Totally illegal stuff. Let's see how things play out for Ava. Counterfeit is decadent and delicious. The sparkling story line seduces with its compelling twists and turns even as Kirstin Chen deftly interrogates issues of race, identity, wealth and consumerism. A true delight for mind and heart from beginning to end.” — Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee

Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen | Goodreads Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen | Goodreads

I loved the main character development (though you need to have a lot of patience to discover the development.) Neither Ava nor Winnie function on a WYSIWYG model – they are complex, sometimes irritating and sometimes vulnerable. Henri the toddler is l’enfant terrible. While I don’t enjoy children being portrayed in such a way, Henri’s behaviour adds a further layer of complexity to Ava’s arc as her parenting skills depict her attitude towards life. Ava Wong hasn’t seen Winnie Fang since they were college roommates & she hurriedly left without explanation. When she sees her 20 years later at a local coffee shop, she doesn’t sound, act, or even appear the same. One thing is for certain, Winnie oozes the word RICH. Width. Counterfeit textbooks often don't have the same width as the authentic ones, as illegal producers The story takes an almost satirical look at modern day consumerism, including the use-and-throw culture and brand fetishes.Recommended by The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Time • Cosmopolitan • Today show • Harper’s Bazaar • Vogue • Good Housekeeping • Buzzfeed • Oprah Daily • Parade • Popsugar • Goodreads • theSkimm • Katie Couric Media • The Millions • and more! Example #2: Counterfeit item on the right has a different color tone and is narrower (a fake book cover):

Counterfeit: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Counterfeit: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York

The topic the author is trying to discuss has already been discussed multiple times by other authors like Kevin Kwan. We have read this story many times, and it now seems boring to hear it again. But there are many other problems associated with this book that needs much more serious discussion. Binding. It differs from the one of the authentic textbook. The glue can be of a different color and unevenly distributed along the binding, and the book may generally look poorly made. Books with bindings for which cheap glue was used also smell differently than an original quality edition. The curvature of the spine can also be different (e.g., too flat or bent). My thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the DRC of “Counterfeit”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.Ava Wong, Asian American lawyer, has the appearances of a perfect life. Sure hasn’t worked since having her son, Henri, now two years old. Her husband Oli is a renowned transplant surgeon and everything should be rosy. So why does she feel so flat? Well Oli spends too long either at work or travelling to and from it and Henri is a very difficult child who cries at every opportunity. In fact Ava would be completely lost without her nanny, Maria.