The Fraud Squad by Kyla Zhao
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.
I'd finished reading The Fraud Squad by Kyla Zhao last week and I was pleasantly surprised by this debut novel! The reviews made me lower my expectations but the blurb sounded good and I was in the mood for something like this. So it worked out well in the end and I liked it more than I thought I would!
Samantha Song works at a PR company in Singapore but her dream is to write for a high society magazine especially a popular one like S that highlights fashion, society gossip and more. Coming from a middle class family this has always seemed to be out of her reach until her wealthy coworker/friend Anya takes her out to dinner and she meets Timothy Kingston, Anya's friend and another uber-rich+elite person. A casual dinner conversation leads to the formation of this Fraud Squad as they plan to have Sam fake her way into the elite circles while pretending to be a socialite and Tim will have the chance to prove to his parents that background doesn't matter much. Sam would also get a shot at being able to meet S's editor - Missy if she can pull this off, but she might end up losing a lot of things if the ruse is uncovered.
Almost all of the characters in this book were quite flawed but believable. Sam has this desire to be a part of this glamour world but at the same time she knows that she'll never truly belong there too. I admired her confidence though. She took 'fake it till you make it' to the next level and made sure to grab all the opportunities. All of the other characters were pretty interesting too! The plot had me hooked and I was waiting to see which direction the story would head in and there were a few surprises in the latter half! Gave me Gossip Girl vibes! There wasn't much romance in this one and I wasn't really shipping Sam and Timothy so I was happy with that open ending 😂 Overall this was a fun read with great characters and an interesting premise! Will definitely be checking out the author's next book too!
You can also find this review on my bookstagram here
Born and raised in Singapore, Kyla Zhao graduated in 2021 from Stanford University with an MA in Communications (Media Studies) and BA in Psychology. Right now, she works in marketing at a tech company in Silicon Valley, California.
Besides novel-writing, Kyla has an extensive magazine editorial portfolio. Previously, she was a fashion and lifestyle writer at Vogue Singapore. She has also written for the Singapore editions of Harper's Bazaar and Tatler, covered the Asian Television Awards, and interviewed personalities such as singer Nathan Sykes.
Above all else, Kyla hopes to champion Asian representation in her works and write the characters of color that she rarely got to read about when she was young.
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