Counterfeit: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick and New York Times BESTSELLER - the most exciting and addictive heist novel you’ll read this summer!

Product Information

My thanks to the author, Kristin Chen, and the publisher, William Morrow, for the ebook if this novel. Their time together was incredibly short as Winnie only lasted roughly half the year before leaving under mysterious circumstances. This is the story of two buck the system young women of Chinese descent, developing a system to pass off counterfeit handbags as originals. 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. It also dealt with Chinese cultural elements (as well as stereotypes) in ways that were insightful and respectful, yet not heavy-handed.

No surprise that the sly feminist caper was the subject of a fierce eight-way bidding war for TV rights.It’s funny because going into the novel, I thought about how I’m not caught up in expensive purses anymore. That is, until the reader comes upon the story which is being narrated by Ava while she’s spilling her guts to the detective who has sniffed out the scheme.

For fans of Hustlers and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, the story of two Asian American women who band together to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise—an incisive and glittering blend of fashion, crime, and friendship from the author of Bury What We Cannot Take and Soy Sauce for Beginners. Yes, another scam story — Ava Wong reconnects with her college roommate, Winnie Fang, and unexpectedly joins Winnie in her counterfeit handbag scheme, going as far as traveling to China to visit business partners and the factories where their fakes are made. To access you ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. My first impression after reading the synopsis for this book was that it sounded different and quite intriguing.Chen spins a clever tale offering two sides of a story involving a complicated friendship and knockoff handbags. Come for the con, stay for the insights into identity and self discovery, and the ever-elusive American dream.

This is a very personal thing, but for me, unreliable narrators work best when there’s a clear reason they can’t be trusted. I am, however, grateful to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly. Despite some of the serious themes, there was a lightheartedness to the story that made this a well-balanced read. This is a subject near and dear to my heart, and I think there is more to be written here, but I have to say that both of these books are insanely whiny and privileged.

But what starts as one favour turns into two, then three, and soon Ava is in far deeper than she ever imagined. Her son has constant tantrums, Ava hates being a lawyer and has taken an extended break, her husband works non-stop and doesn’t even live in the same residence, and she feels a little bitter she did everything she was supposed to and ended up here. This novel covers many topics and it was especially interesting reading about the perspectives of the American Dream from these women. I always enjoy reading about the filthy rich and seeing the very different ways they live their lives and how that alters their mentality. It takes me 2­–3 drafts to get a handle on the story, and at that point, I put together an outline that consists of one sentence summing up the heart of each chapter.

I drafted my first novel in graduate school where I benefited from strict deadlines and copious feedback from my classmates and teachers. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. I have been reading about the verbal battle regarding exotic writing between Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie in the book Joseph Anton: A Memoir.This is very out of character for Ava who has always played it safe but with things falling apart at home, it’s a risk she is willing to take. QUICK TAKE: I really loved this soapy caper about two Asian American friends who build a global counterfeit purse ring, This is THE USUAL SUSPECTS meets HUSTLERS, full of escapism and wish fulfillment, but it is also a grounded exploration of motherhood and culture and class. Counterfeit is an entertaining, luxurious read—but beneath its glitz and flash, it is also a shrewd deconstruction of the American dream and the myth of the model minority.