This entertaining novel about two former roommates who run a counterfeit luxury handbag scam has it all! The audiobook was under 8 hours and the physical clocks in at under 300 pages, and to some that might be an indicator that the book is going to take some shortcuts and leave the reader wanting more. But beneath this façade, Ava’s world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn’t been used in years, and her toddler’s tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point. Their time together was incredibly short as Winnie only lasted roughly half the year before leaving under mysterious circumstances.

I am not sure if this is a stereotypical portrayal of the culture or Ava’s attempt to capitalise on white people’s stereotypes about her culture. This is a great easy read, it’s clever and fun but with dark undertones as it shines a light on things such as Chinese factory conditions. It is no surprise that she can't avoid getting involved with her one-time college roommate Winnie when she suddenly reappears. in " The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly " Publishing This Week" newsletter. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose.Ava is beginning to realise that things aren’t quite as easy as she was expecting, and before she knows it she finds herself involved with Winnie’s counterfeit handbag business. Once I left school, I realized I needed to create a whole new writing process that was much more internally motivated. It is hard in one story to take on the patriarchy, the invisibility of Asian women in the US, American exceptionalism, inauthentic authenticity (see e.

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Also about the high fashion industry, and the lives of the wealthy upper middle class and how impressively they obliterate their potential for comfort with greed for more. This was a fun story from the perspectives of two very different young women and that, perhaps, is how it should be. It also dealt with Chinese cultural elements (as well as stereotypes) in ways that were insightful and respectful, yet not heavy-handed. A reader can’t be faulted for being swept up in Ava’s narrative, for sympathizing with her plight, even rooting for her acquittal. I’m not going to say much more about plot other than that it was surprisingly engaging considering how little interest I have in handbags (or scams).

But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. Ava Wong appears to have it all: a high-flying career as a lawyer, a surgeon as a husband and a beautiful little toddler with whom she is currently staying at home. I liked Part I but it is Part II and what came beyond that enhanced the book from a 3 star to a higher rating.Did you have a sense of the broader picture as you wrote the first version, or did it stay with you and grow after the fact? As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home--she's built the perfect life. Kirstin Chen is the author of three books: her latest, Counterfeit, is a Reese Witherspoon book club pick, a Roxane Gay book club pick, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. You’ve explored the complexities of family dynamics and tensions in your novels, and the context surrounding your child characters is hugely rich. The characters were mildly entertaining and while there were some twists and turns I didn’t feel I connected to them as well as I could have.

Riveting and energetic…Chen deftly guides readers through the exploits of old friends Ava and Winnie while also exploring the intricacies of friendship, class, culture and survival. I have been reading about the verbal battle regarding exotic writing between Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie in the book Joseph Anton: A Memoir. They felt like the anomaly in Ava’s life and story, and it seems that they had more weight and definition into the events then maybe they first appear, besides the obvious ways.My thanks to the author, Kristin Chen, and the publisher, William Morrow, for the ebook if this novel. The last part dragged out a little with a super speedy epilogue, but this would be a good holiday or midweek read.