Today is a momentous day on Read By Tiffany because I’m writing my first ever…DNF(aka did-not-finish) Review. I always try to give a book a fair shot and power through until the end, but oh my goodness…THIS BOOK WAS B A D. 🤧
Starring a self-absorbed main character and filled with elementary writing, My Summer of Love and Misfortune was, unfortunately, a cringe-fest. When I started this book, I thought it would be my next love, but unfortunately, I had to DNF the book at the 20% mark, or 70 pages.
MY SUMMER OF LOVE AND MISFORTUNE by Lindsay Wong
PUBLISHED BY Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster) on May 12th 2020
GENRES: Contemporary
PAGES: 352
ADD TO GOODREADS // BOOK DEPOSITORY
Anna and the French Kiss meets Crazy Rich Asians in this hilarious, quirky novel about a Chinese-American teen who is thrust into the decadent world of Beijing high society when she is sent away to spend the summer in China.
Iris Wang is having a bit of a rough start to her summer. In an attempt to snap her out of her funk, Iris’s parents send her away to visit family in Beijing, with the hopes that Iris will “reconnect with her culture” and “find herself.” Iris resents her parents’ high-handedness, but even she admits that this might be a good opportunity to hit the reset button.
Iris expects to eat a few dumplings, meet some of her family, and visit a tourist hotspot or two. What she doesn’t expect is to meet a handsome Mandarin-language tutor named Frank and to be swept up in the ridiculous, opulent world of Beijing’s wealthy elite, leading her to unexpected and extraordinary discoveries about her family, her future, and herself.
Content/Trigger Warnings: drunk driving, cheating
My Summer of Love and Misfortune follows the life of Iris Wang, a high school senior whose life is filled with parties, boys, glamour, and avoiding every responsibility ever given to her. 🙄 After putting -10% effort into her college applications, she’s *shocker* rejected by every university and proven to be a disgrace to her parents.
I shit you not…here’s a direct quote from Iris’s mother:
“Let’s face it, Jeff. Our daughter is going to be a loser.”
Iris Wang belongs in the Hall of Fame for delusional main characters alongside Shane from Again, But Better and Isabella from The Summer I Turned Pretty. I truly have never read from the perspective of a protagonist that was so out-of-touch with reality.
She remembers the wrong date for her boyfriend’s birthday. She drives WHILE DRUNK and crashes her $50,000 car. When her father drops her off at the airport, she throws a tantrum and exclaims that if he loves her, he wouldn’t send her off to China…and that he must not even be her real father. #what?!
“And how can I be self-absorbed? I’m the most selfless person on the planet, after Gandhi.”
Honestly, this book is almost hilariously bad. Some of the scenes just felt so outrageous I couldn’t help but laugh. 😂 When another Asian family comes over to Iris’s house to brag about their daughter’s acceptance into Princeton, Iris’s mother is so ashamed…she tells her daughter to hide in the food pantry.
The main plot of the book follows Iris’s dramatic character transformation when she’s sent to Beijing for the summer, but unfortunately, I had to stop reading before we landed in China.
“How can my dad be kicking me out of my home and sending me to live with a strange country with strange people???!!”
Friends…I really tried. 😭 I thought this book would be my next love since it sounded so similar to Loveboat, Taipei, but truthfully, it didn’t just fall flat…it metaphorically flung itself off a cliff. If you’re looking for a fun contemporary featuring a transformative story for the main character, I wouldn’t recommend this one.
Have you read My Summer of Love and Misfortune?
What were your thoughts?
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Read By Tiffany 
This character sounds so annoying lmao
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Haha she definitely was 😂
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reading your reviews make me glad that i didn’t request the book on netgalley 😂. the character sounds really bad!
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HAHA i was regretting requesting on netgalley a few chapters in but it still provided some relief 😂
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im LIVING for bitter Tiffany omg this review is everything!!! 👏👏👏 the quotes, the scenes that you’re describing, the way the main character sounds SO entitled and bratty??? how did this make it past the editors im just….???
i’m so sorry that you had to go through that but good on you for dnfing, we aint got time for bad books in 2020. and amazing review sometimes we just have to release the pent up salt in the form of a glorious rant review
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HAHA THANK YOU!! i lowkey had so much fun writing this review and ranting out all my thoughts 😂
i’m not exactly saying you should read it but it is so hilariously bad and i really couldn’t with what was happening!!
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Oh wow this book sounds so bad! I think they’re trying to exaggerate everything in hopes to reformulate the dramatic of CRA, but it ended up just being awful and caricature-ish 🤦
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OOF it’s not anything like CRA except for the money?? but it just wasn’t working for me!!
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Wow! This book definitely sounds interesting…haha. But great and honest thoughts! I respect your honesty and I will definitely hunt for another book to read haha. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you so much for reading my review!! I’m glad that I was helpful in helping you decide your next read. 🙈
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”When another Asian family comes over to Iris’s house to brag about their daughter’s acceptance into Princeton, Iris’s mother is so ashamed…she tells her daughter to hide in the food pantry. ”
WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY TO ME
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IT’S SO HILARIOUSLY BAD!! I honestly did a double take when I read this scene 😂
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those gifs omg! and those quotes from the book are so ridiculous they have me laughing so hard. is it weird that i want to read the book now, just so i can experience for myself how bad it is? 😂
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HAHA I COULDN’T HELP IT!! So many of these scenes were just so outrageous and I had to rant review it all out. I think if you’re really interested you should try to read it to experience the wtf-ery 😂
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I hadn’t heard of this one, but it sounds awful! The main character sounds like a nightmare, and her parents don’t seem to be much better. I hope your next read is better!
Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬
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The main character was terrible!! I’m glad that I was helpful in helping you decide your next read. 💖
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oh no…. i despise this kind of protagonist in books so i definitely would not survive reading this. i mean i really do get that there are teenagers who are like this but sometimes… it is too much for me. i’m sorry you didn’t like this one more, tiff!! (but i enjoyed this review very much 💗)
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haha i’m glad that you enjoyed my review!! the main character just really didn’t sit well with me, and i couldn’t keep reading. 🙈
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I’m currently read the book-and it’s seriously painfully bad? I’m half-determined to finish the book, and rant about every detail I hated because it’s that bad.
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HAHAHA I was thinking the same thing and tried to power through but I really couldn’t 🙈
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It’s probably a good thing. I just finished it, and honestly-it’s a mess and that’s putting it lightly. Everything was spot on about your review, because my thoughts were really similar and I powered through somehow.
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Oh yikes that sounds like a trip – man it sounded so interesting too! I still need to power through Loveboat Taipei but after seeing this one around the internet was thinking about picking it up after 😦
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Ahh I know what you mean!! I thought about picking it up because it sounded a lot like Loveboat, but trust me…LOVEBOAT IS SO MUCH BETTER!!
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I love that you only read 70 pages & STILL managed to find some er…’gems’ to support your argument about how unredeemable this character is 😂 This book honestly sounds like my worst nightmare – cheating & a selfish, overdramatic MC. Um…THANK U, NEXT 😂
💛 Ngoc
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HAHA I was honestly so surprised that there was this much to talk about too!! I didn’t think it would be enough for a full review but HERE WE ARE 😂
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Wow that really does sound hilariously bad 👀
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I almost want to encourage you to read it 🙈
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The main character’s a combination of Shane AND Belly? 😬 I’m taking this off my TBR.
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HAHA she’s definitely not my favorite…
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