China Rich Girlfriend

Plot

In 2013, two years after the events that take place in Crazy Rich Asians, Nick Young has finally managed to repair his relationship with Rachel Chu and plans to marry her, much to his mother's dismay. However his mother, Eleanor Young, happens to make the acquaintance of Bao Shaoyen on a trip to the UK where she notices that Shaoyen's only son, Carlton, looks exactly like a male version of Rachel. Crashing Rachel and Nick's wedding rehearsal she tells Rachel that she has located her father and gives Nick her blessing to marry Rachel now that she has discovered that she could possibly be "China rich." Rachel is able to meet her father Gaoling before the ceremony and afterwards he invites her to spend time with him and his family in Shanghai. Once they have arrived Shaoyen bans Rachel from her home and insists that her husband refuse to see Rachel.

Carlton decides to see Rachel and to his surprise he ends up liking her and Nick. He introduces her to his on-again, off-again girlfriend Colette Bing and the two of them take Rachel and Nick clubbing and to Paris for a shopping spree. Despite getting along well with Carlton, Rachel is hurt and disappointed that her father seems distant and strange now that she is in China. When Carlton is drunk he accidentally tells her that his mother has banned her from the family believing she is out to seek half of the Bao fortune. Despite the fact that Carlton apologizes to Rachel when he is sober she takes a detour with one of her friends and considers leaving China. However, on her trip she becomes incredibly ill and is hospitalized for kidney failure. While at the hospital Nick receives a bouquet of flowers meant for Rachel and sees that it contains a note saying that Rachel was poisoned on purpose as a warning and that things will become more serious if she stays in China. Hearing of the threat Carlton accuses his mother of poisoning Rachel. Shaoyen insists she had nothing to do with it and complies with the police in order to find the poisoner. Feeling ashamed that he almost lost his daughter Gaoling brings her to his home where Rachel mets Shaoyen and the two begin to connect. Meanwhile, a break is made in the case and the police discover that Colette's assistant Roxanne had Rachel poisoned in the hopes that she would be scared enough to leave China and that the Bao fortune would remain with Carlton, something Colette worried about.

Despite the fact that Roxanne acted independently Carlton breaks things off with Colette and refuses to see her. Rachel agrees to meet with Colette and accepts her apology but quickly realizes she is not what she seems when Colette throws a tantrum in public when Rachel refuses to help Colette reconcile with Carlton. Rachel then calls Colette selfish and her takedown of Colette is taped and quickly goes viral.

Meanwhile, Astrid Teo, Nick's cousin, finds herself increasingly turning towards her former fiancé, Charlie Wu, after her husband, Michael, becomes increasingly cruel after his tech-company takes off. When Michael begins to believe that his company is the result of Astrid's father's meddling Astrid goes about trying to prove him wrong and eventually realizes that the company was bought at a loss by Charlie so that Michael would feel more confident in the marriage. Realizing that Charlie still loves her Astrid leaves Michael and Charlie leaves his wife.

Kitty Pong, a former soap actress who managed to marry her way into the Singapore elite tries to buy her way into high-society appearing in gossip magazines and buying high-profile art. When she finds herself continually shunned she hires the services of Corinna Ko-Tung, a woman from a well-born family who tries to help Kitty tone down her look and make the right connections. Ultimately Kitty is unable to listen to Corinna's advice. She engages in a high-profile international custody battle with her ex-husband and reveals herself as the lover of Jack Bing, Colette Bing's father.

Characters

Reception

The novel received positive reviews and was noted in the Washington Post as "the year's best beach reading," as well as excerpted in Vanity Fair. Anne Kingston of Maclean's wrote of the novel, "Kevin Kwan’s sequel to the bestselling ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ is perhaps even more delicious than the first."