Kwan sure knows how to make his readers hate his characters. He does a great job making it obvious which characters are lovable and which ones are detestable from the very first chapters. It's sometimes hard to read books with such horrid characters, but Kwan makes his horrid character fun to read about anyway.
This was a very lighthearted fun book that was quick and easy to read. The writing is easy to understand and follow, and I appreciated his use of footnotes throughout the book; it helped me more fully understand the culture he was presenting.
The culture is one which I struggled to visualize, especially when it came to the wedding. The whole wedding celebration was just so far beyond anything I've ever known that to follow the schedule and the descriptions was challenging, but I think I just need to watch the movie to help with that. I am actually very intrigued to see how they make this into a movie. I'm sure the sets are outrageous and beautiful.
I was also a little bit confused by the multitude of stories that Kwan told in this book. The main story is clearly Rachel and Nick, but then you have the story of Eddie and his dysfunctional family, that never really has a resolution, you have Alistair and Kitty's story that is fully resolved, and you have Astrid and Michael's story which isn't completely resolved. Then at the very end, Kwan also throws in some plot twists for Francesca and her family. Rachel and Nick could use a bit more resolution, but from the way Kwan ended it, they seemed pretty settled. Because of these multiple stories, I'm very intrigued to see what the next books are about; there are a lot of different paths that need ending.
Overall, I really enjoyed Kwan's writing style and the way he brought this fun story to life. He did a fantastic job with the characters and creating plot using those characters. I do think I have to finish the series because I had fun with this book, and I'd like to see what he does in the next books!
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