China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan, 2015

Kevin Kwan's books are enjoyable whirlwind soap operas filled with outlandish characters.  Depictions of the beyond 1%-ers where private planes, multi-million dollar spending sprees and fortunes in the hundreds of millions are scoffed at.

There is a new class of Mainland Chinese whose net worth are in the billions, rivaling Russian oligarchs.  In China Rich Girlfriend, Rachul Chu and Nick Young from Crazy Rich Asians travel to Shanghai where they meet some of these Mainland Chinese billionaires.

Familiar characters Astrid Leong, Eleanor Young and Kitty Pong return while we are introduced to new characters including Carlton Bao and Colette Bing, the aforementioned billionaires.

This is a world where an old money guard is able to charge consulting fees on how to break into the upper echelons of Hong Kong and Singaporean society and provides invaluable advice from how to dress to where to eat.

Despite barely blinking an eye on spending hundreds of thousands for clothes or millions for art, the older generation of Chinese remain thrifty where spending $20 for parking or paying for the overpriced breakfast at the five start hotel is to be avoided at all costs.

Similar to Crazy Rich Asians, observations about ABCs (American born Asians) ring true.  Like Colette's puzzlement as to why Rachel and other American Chinese wear so little jewelry.  When I am on the T in Boston, I can spy the foreign Asians by the amount of jewelry they wear.

The decadence of private jets with koi ponds and teenagers driving million dollar sports cars got a bit overwhelming and I was glad to finish the book before it eroded my sensibilities.  At the same time though, I will be ready for the next installment of the trilogy when it comes out.

Another fun aspect of China Rich Girlfriend is that scenes take place in neighboring Shanghai cities like Hangzhou with its West Lake, places that I have visited with my extended family a few years back.  The lurid and conspicuous wealth that the book depicts seems incongruous to the charming cities that I remember.