China Rich Girlfriend

A Novel

De: Kevin Kwan

Narrado por: Lydia Look

Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians, is back with a wickedly funny new novel of social climbing, secret e-mails, art-world scandal, lovesick billionaires, and the outrageous story of what happens when Rachel Chu, engaged to marry Asia's most eligible bachelor, discovers her birthfather.

     On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond from JAR, a wedding dress she loves more than anything found in the salons of Paris, and a fiancé willing to sacrifice his entire inheritance in order to marry her. But Rachel still mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won't be able to walk her down the aisle. Until: a shocking revelation draws Rachel into a world of Shanghai splendor beyond anything she has ever imagined. Here we meet Carlton, a Ferrari-crashing bad boy known for Prince Harry-like antics; Colette, a celebrity girlfriend chased by fevered paparazzi; and the man Rachel has spent her entire life waiting to meet: her father. Meanwhile, Singapore's It Girl, Astrid Leong, is shocked to discover that there is a downside to having a newly minted tech billionaire husband. A romp through Asia's most exclusive clubs, auction houses, and estates, China Rich Girlfriend brings us into the elite circles of Mainland China, introducing a captivating cast of characters, and offering an inside glimpse at what it's like to be gloriously, crazily, China-rich.

Why was the reader changed???

I did not appreciate a change in the reader from the book before this one. I had already associated a certain voice with each character! I found that the reader had a harder time transitioning between accents as well.

good story

but for me it kind of fell apart at the end like the author abruptly stops. ..Hopefully because he is picking up with a sequel. The narrorators American accent was brutal and she seemed to have a hard time holding it. I also found the transition from one narrorator to another very jarring between the two books as I listened back to back.

Confusing at first

Lots of characters to take in and follow but decided to just keep going and enjoyed it.

Narrator is Singaporean - accents are authentic!

A number of reviewers have complained that the new narrator for China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems, Lydia Look, does bad accents. Nope! Lydia Look is Singaporean herself, and clearly speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese. Her pronunciations are accurate and her Cantonese and Mandarin accents are authentic and subtle (I don't speak or have much experience hearing Hokkien, so I can't vouch for pronunciation or the accents shaped by that language, but I'm guessing she does that well too).

To anyone who speaks these languages, Lydia Look is a distinct improvement over Lynn Chen (whose accents sounded much more stereotypical). Lynn Chen wasn't bad, and I thought her American accent suited Rachel's character and POV in Crazy Rich Asians quite well; however, since China Rich Girlfriend focuses more on other characters from Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China, Lydia Look's range of different Chinese accents is much more appropriate and frankly, such a welcome relief from the usually mangled pronunciations that we get in audiobooks (and film and tv) that strongly feature Chinese language and culture. See, for example, the audiobook for Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age and Joss Whedon's Firefly.

I get that it's jarring to hear different narrators within the same series, and like others have said, it took me a while to get used to Lydia Look's voice. But that's a separate issue from the actual quality of her work, which is great.

Just as good as the first book, but...

I read [listened to] crazy rich asians after noting the movie was being released mid 2018. The stories intertwine and make it an irresistible read. The person who read crazy rich Asians did such an amazing job with the various characters and their accents. She did such a good job I cringed when I started to listen to this audio book. I couldn’t fathom why they’d change readers, it practically killed the characters.

Regardless, the book is so riveting I eventually got used to the sub-par reader, but I know for a fact the book would have come to life if it had been read by the same woman whom read crazy rich Asians.

Sadly, the voice of this book was used for the final of the three books in the series, but at-least I’m used to her slaughtering the characters voices by now.