Book Review: Envy

Author: Anna Godbersen
Release Date: September 29, 2009
Pages: 432
Read it in: 2 days

***NOTE!! This summary/review does contain spoilers, so if you have not read the series yet-- and want to-- you might want to skip this one!!***

Summary: Two months after Elizabeth Holland's dramatic homecoming, Manhattan eagerly awaits her return to the pinnacle of society. When Elizabeth refuses to rejoin her sister Diana's side, however, those watching New York's favorite family begin to suspect that all is not as it seems behind the stately doors of No. 17 Gramercy Park South.

Farther uptown, Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the city's most celebrated couple. But despite the glittering diamond ring on Penelope's finger, the newlyweds share little more than scorn for each other. And while the newspapers call Penelope's social-climbing best friend, Carolina Broad, an heiress, her fortune-- and her fame-- are anything but secure, especially now that one of society's darlings is slipping tales to the eager press.

In this next thrilling installment of Anna Godbersen's bestselling Luxe series, Manhattan's most envied residents appear to have everything they desire: Wealth. Beauty. Happiness. But sometimes the most practiced smiles hide the most scandalous secrets...

LC's Take:  

***NOTE: Some spoilers below-- sorry,  it's hard to review this series without a few!!***

Once again, Anna Godbersen delivers an amazing continuation of The Luxe story, where not everything that glitters is gold, and not everyone you call your friend can be counted out as an enemy.

It's the beginning of a new century-- 2 months have gone by since Penelope black-mailed Henry into marrying her, and she is quickly learning that she has hardly won over his heart, even if she is now his wife. Henry is still obsessively in love with the youngest Holland sister, Diana (the cover girl of Envy). Young but not totally innocent, Diana is a free-spirit who continues to hope that Henry still secretly loves her, despite his having married her worst enemy. 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is still recovering from what happened at the end of Rumors (I can't spoil it for you if you haven't read it yet!!). And Lina, now known as "Carolina," has finally made a way for herself in high society, attaching herself to an old but wealthy bachelor who gives her the life she's always dreamed of-- unfortunately, she soon learns just how precarious her position really is...

In this third installment of The Luxe series, all 4 girls take a luxurious trip to Florida. But behind the elegant dinners, seaside resorts, and ladylike manners is a dangerous, backstabbing world of scandal, gossip and betrayal. The stakes are high and the losses mean complete destruction for a girl of high society. This book was such a roller coaster! One minute, a character is on top of the world, and the next they're on the streets. One chapter things are going as planned, and then a couple pages later everything falls apart.

AG keeps her readers on their toes and makes sure that they never know what to expect next. The writing flows perfectly and her descriptions are just as rich and vivid as ever before, while the characters by this point are so well-known to me that I  feel for them at every turn. I love Penelope and Lina-- even at their cattiest points, they are so wonderfully flawed and endearingly human. The Holland sisters, Elizabeth and Diana, are also amazing characters, and I can't help but feel sorry for Henry and the mess he's gotten himself into-- Oh, the drama! I can't wait to read the last of these books and see how everything turns out, but I will be really sad to leave behind this series...

LC's Rating:

The description and characterization are what make this series so addicting-- that and the fact that AG keeps her readers guessing at every turn of the plot! I don't have any idea what will happen to Elizabeth, Diana, Penelope and Lina in the last installment of The Luxe books, but I am dying to find out!