WIVES LIKE US

The world’s most competent butler navigates a storm of romantic and financial complications among the British elite.

Sykes gives Kevin Kwan a run for his money in this saga of obscene wealth, designer outfits, miniature dog breeds, and over-the-top landscaping set in Oxfordshire, a rural area of vast estates now mostly in the hands of the nouveau riche. Ian Palmer, a summa cum laude graduate of the Greycoats’ Butler Institute in Mayfair, is known not just for his impeccable outfits, his Colin-Firth-in-A-Single-Man eyeglasses, and his vintage Gucci loafer collection, but for his superhuman ability to manage his employers’ lives. His boss, Tata Hawkins, needs his help as never before since her businessman husband, Bryan, has opened a spot in his in-house mentoring program to a “bikini influencer” named Tallulah de Sanchez (“twenty-six, looked thirty-six due to addiction to eyelash extensions and lip fillers”) and her dog, Pikachu. (As Kwan does with educational resumes, Sykes intros each character with a beady-eyed assessment of their real and apparent ages.) Infuriated by finding a receipt in Bryan’s office for a piece of jewelry that certainly wasn’t a gift for her, Tata has taken her beloved factotum and her daughter, Minty, and decamped to a guesthouse on the property, creating a tsunami of snarky gossip and leaving Ian with nowhere appropriate to store his loafer collection. Of course the solution involves throwing a massive party—supposedly an intimate “Kitchen Supper”—to welcome the area’s newest arriviste, an American named Selby Fairfax, and naturally this causes Tata’s friends to compete by throwing their own parties, one of which is a hilariously elaborate equestrian event called a hack. Poor Selby has had to flee New York after her husband very publicly left her for his boyfriend, but Sykes thoughtfully provides her with a Mr. Darcy, a hot, rich farmer who storms into the story when her children accidentally kill his cow. Crazy Rich Brits may not have the amazing cuisine of their Asian counterparts, but they are just as scheming, fabulous, and fun to read about.

If you like this sort of thing, you’ll dive in and never look back.