The Fraud Squad
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A working-class woman who infiltrates Singapore’s high society to fulfill her dreams risks losing everything in the process—including herself—in this propulsive novel by debut author Kyla Zhao.
For as long as she can remember, Samantha Song has dreamed of writing for a high-society magazine—and she’d do anything to get there. But the constant struggle to help her mom make ends meet and her low social status cause her dream to feel like a distant fantasy.
Now Samantha finds herself working at a drab PR firm. Living vicariously through her wealthy coworker and friend, Anya Chen, is the closest she’ll get to her ideal life. Until she meets Timothy Kingston: the disillusioned son of one of Singapore’s elite families—and Samantha’s one chance at infiltrating the high-society world to which she desperately wants to belong.
To Samantha’s surprise, Timothy and Anya both agree to help her make a name for herself on Singapore’s socialite scene. But the borrowed designer clothes and plus-ones to every glamorous event can only get her so far. The rest is on Samantha, and she’s determined to impress the editor in chief of Singapore’s poshest magazine. But the deeper Samantha wades into this fraud, the more she fears being exposed—especially with a mysterious gossip columnist on the prowl for dirt—forcing her to reconcile her pretense with who she really is before she loses it all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Zhao updates My Fair Lady in her sparkling debut, a high society farce set in Singapore. Samantha Song, a PR pro with a working-class background, toils away at an entry-level firm while longing to be a reporter for the prestigious magazine S. After Sam's wealthy coworker Anya Chen introduces her to Timothy Kingston, the son of one of Singapore's richest families, Sam sees a path to her dreams. Sam and Timothy begin dating, and at Sam's behest, Anya and Timothy mount a campaign to transform Sam into the latest hot socialite. The scheme works, and Sam thinks she's hit the jackpot until things go disastrously wrong at the worst possible moment, with a humiliating zinger from Timothy's ex, Lucia Yen. Zhao brings buckets of charm to her characters, portraying Timothy as a well-heeled man who doesn't take himself too seriously, and she makes palpable Sam's insecurity as she navigates Timothy's glittering world. The author also gets plenty of mileage from arrogant socialite Lucia, who reads like she strutted off the pages of The Devil Wears Prada. Readers will be eager to see how Zhao follows up this whip-smart and witty rom-com.