Thank you Librofm, Harper Audio for the ALC and William Morrow #partner, for the finished copy of Counterfeit in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Harper Audio / William Morrow
Published: June 7, 2022
Summary:
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.
Money can’t buy happiness… but it can buy a decent fake.
Ava Wong has always played it safe. 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. 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.
Enter Winnie Fang, Ava’s enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. 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. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business–someone who’d never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.
Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life.
My thoughts:
When I was offered this book recently, I decided to take a chance on it and I’m so glad I did. It was my first time reading this author and if all her books are like this one, then I know I will have some good reading ahead of me.
This is an entertaining, fast-paced read that totally took me by surprise by how much I ended up enjoying it. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve have designer counterfeit bags in the past, so it was fun to see how these two long-lost friends end up collaborating on a luxury counterfeit handbag scheme. It seems that Winnie comes into Ava’s life at just the right time to wave this unique opportunity in her direction and how could she pass it up?
I particularly loved the device that the author used of having the story told via flashbacks. Ava is with the detectives telling her story and we get flashbacks as to what has happened. This creates such a sense of suspense and tension throughout the book because you know something must have happened to land her there but you don’t know what and so it just begs you to keep reading and luckily the shortness to the book just lends itself to a one-sitting, or in my case, a one-shot listening experience. There is also the sense of whether there just might be some unrelialibity here…again, you need to keep reading to find out.
It really is such an original story with expertly placed twists that you just don’t see coming and equally surprising is the depth that the story takes. This isn’t just a book about a designer bag scheme, but also a look into motherhood and friendship.
This is the perfect book to add to your summer reading list!
Audio thoughts:
I absolutely loved listening to this book – it was narrated by Catherine Ho and I thought she did such a great job bringing the story to life. Her pacing and intonation were spot on and she gave each character their own personality and voice.
