Sex and Vanity cover art

Sex and Vanity

from the bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Sex and Vanity

By: Kevin Kwan
Narrated by: Lydia Look
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men.

On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can’t stand him. She can’t stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can’t stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can’t stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa.

The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, she finds herself drawn to him again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé and ultimately herself, as she tries to deny George entry into her world – and her heart.

Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.

PEOPLE WATCHING HAS NEVER BEEN SO MUCH FUN.

©Kevin Kwan 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Literature & Fiction Romance Romantic Comedy Comedy Witty China

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Pretenders cover art
When We Were Young cover art
Tessa Bailey Book Set 3 DA Bundle cover art
First Comes Love cover art
An Invincible Summer cover art
The Wedding Veil cover art
The Italian Fiancé cover art
Secrets in the Dark cover art
The Address cover art
Gideon the Ninth cover art
Pride & Prejudice: Special Edition with Bonus Chapter cover art
A Room with a View (Dramatized) cover art
The Hotel on the Riviera cover art
Demon in the Wood cover art
A Court of Thorns and Roses (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
The Weekend Before the Wedding cover art

Critic reviews

Delightful ... complete with designer outfits, glamorous parties, and exotic locations.
Sex and Vanity scores high on all intended fronts; the opening half, set in Capri, is bathed in sunshine and sexual tension. The novel reads like travel porn, listing the island's best and lesser-known sights, places to eat, stay and drink. And then there is the story of Lucie Tang Churchill, a biracial New York princess from the Upper East Side, attending an eye-wateringly extravagant wedding.
Sex and Vanity is basically your PERFECT SUMMER READ. Set in Capri, New York & the Hamptons, the location descriptions are so evocative you will feel like you're there. The characters bounce around the globe engaging in pretty much the binary opposite of social distancing so a double win for this delicious, delightful romp. (Sara Lawrence)
This satirical romp through the gilded lives of the international super-rich is laugh-out-loud funny, with all the crackle you'd expect from the author of Crazy Rich Asians, plus a tender love story at its heart.
Sex and Vanity, another decadent romance novel by Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan ... [is] the perfect summer read.
Effervescent, grand cru escapism. All the playful Kwan hallmarks are present and correct. Sex and Vanity may poke plenty of fun at the moral iniquities of the impossibly wealthy but it's also astute on the racism that can exist within Asian families as well as without.
Delicious and delightful, I adored it.
As fizzy and refreshing as a peach Bellini.
A whip-smart homage to EM Forster's A Room With A View, but with designer outfits, lavish parties and Instagram.
With a warm love story at its heart, Sex and Vanity is also a satire on the rich and privileged that you'll devour in one gulp.
All stars
Most relevant
The book was an easy read and didn't depart from Kevin Kwan's fascination with the lives of high society doyennes. I still liked the CRA series better as it had a deeper story and more well-rounded characters.

Classic Kevin!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved Crazy Rich Asians so I decided to read more from the author and started with this (maybe should have stayed with the Crazy Rich series initially). Whilst it is good I struggled to like the main characters and that aussie accent isn't the best.

But its a decent story if somewhat lacking in depth at times

Expected more

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The perfect easy listening book, I really enjoyed it and was great to fill the time on a boring flight

Fun read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Some of the characters were quite irritating. Plot isn't anything extraordinary, but light listen during the pandemic and had me dreaming of holidays in Capri!

Summer listen, but nothing different

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you are a fan of everything glamorous then this book is for you.The true storyline in this book did not start to emerge until far into the middle. The constant introduction of new characters with a short biography made it difficult to listen to. I feel like The reader was better at reading the other book by Kevin Kwun As her various accents were not very convincing. There was a subject matter of internalised racism which could have been further explored had the writer delved into it right at the beginning. A good romantic comedy that could have been more cleverly told if the book had been a few hours longer. Everything seemed quite rushed. I very much prefer the crazy rich Asians trilogy to this. It Seemed more authentic..

Nothing like the crazy rich Asians trilogy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews