I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read a retelling of Emma set in South Asia; however, this book fell flat for me. While Emma was about the titular character's growth and development, I didn't see any sort of growth for Ania in Polite Society. In fact, it seemed like Rao was distancing himself from his own characters, as though he disliked writing them. Additionally, while this book has been compared to Crazy Rich Asians, it lacked not only the depth, but also the enthusiasm to earn this comparison.