7 Books Like The White Lotus That Capture Wealth and Secrets

Louise has a dull job, a cramped apartment, and barely enough money to scrape by in New York City—until she meets Lavinia. Lavinia is everything Louise is not: rich, glamorous, wildly charismatic, and completely reckless. She pulls Louise into a glittering world of exclusive parties, lavish nights out, and an intoxicating sense of belonging.

But Lavinia’s generosity comes with a price. As their friendship deepens, so does Louise’s dependence on Lavinia’s wealth and lifestyle. And when their relationship takes a dark turn, Louise is forced to make a chilling choice.

How far would you go to keep living the life of your dreams? In Social Creature, lies pile up, obsession turns deadly, and the line between admiration and destruction vanishes.

In 1962, on the sun-drenched coast of Italy, a young innkeeper named Pasquale spots a mysterious woman arriving by boat—a beautiful American actress who has been sent away from the lavish set of Cleopatra in Rome. She is dying, or so she believes, and her arrival changes the course of Pasquale’s life forever.

Decades later, in present-day Hollywood, an aging Italian man walks onto a studio lot, searching for the woman he met all those years ago. His arrival sets off a chain of events that reconnects a tangled web of lives: a jaded film producer, his idealistic assistant, a struggling writer, and a has-been rock star, all linked by long-buried secrets and missed chances.

Spanning fifty years and multiple continents, Beautiful Ruins is a dazzling, bittersweet tale of love, ambition, and the unpredictable paths that lead people back to each other.

In August 1983, the Riva siblings—Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit—are preparing for their legendary end-of-summer party in Malibu. As the children of a famous singer, they’ve spent their lives in the public eye, but behind the glitz and glamour, each of them is facing personal struggles and long-buried tensions.

As the night unfolds, the party grows wilder, drawing in celebrities, surfers, and unexpected guests. Secrets simmer beneath the surface, relationships are tested, and by morning, everything will change. Malibu Rising is a captivating story of family, fame, and the unforgettable moments that shape us.

As high-profile guests arrive for the club’s grand opening, tensions rise among the elite, staff members struggle to keep secrets buried, and behind the glamorous façade, danger lurks. Not everyone will make it off the island unscathed. With sharp social commentary and a slow-burning mystery, The Club is a gripping tale of power, privilege, and the price of keeping up appearances.

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers is a dark, razor-sharp novel that delves into the mind of an unapologetic, charismatic woman with a taste for indulgence—both in food and in life. As a successful food critic, she’s spent years savoring the finest cuisine and living life entirely on her own terms. But beneath her refined exterior lies something far more complex and unsettling.

With biting wit and unflinching prose, A Certain Hunger explores themes of desire, power, and the hunger that drives us—both literally and figuratively. It’s a novel that is as intoxicating as it is disturbing

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe is a sharp, satirical novel that unravels the excesses and moral decay of 1980s New York. At its center is Sherman McCoy, a wealthy Wall Street bond trader who sees himself as a “Master of the Universe”—until one wrong turn lands him in the middle of a scandal that spirals out of control.

What follows is a blistering examination of power, greed, race, and media sensationalism as Sherman’s carefully curated world begins to collapse. With razor-sharp prose and biting humor, Wolfe dissects the ambitions and hypocrisies of the elite, making this novel an electrifying and darkly entertaining read.