Book Review: Splendor

Author: Anna Godbersen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: The Luxe #4
Release Date: October 27, 2009
Pages: 400
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: New beginnings. Shocking revelations. Unexpected endings.

As spring turns into summer, Elizabeth relishes her new role as a young wife, while her sister, Diana, searches for adventure abroad. But when a surprising clue about their father's death comes to light, the Holland girls wonder at what cost a life of splendor comes.

Carolina Broad, society's newest darling, fans a flame from her past, oblivious to how it might burn her future. Penelope Schoonmaker is finally Manhattan royalty-- but when a real prince visits the city, she covets a title that comes with a crown. Her husband, Henry, bravely went to war, only to discover that his father's rule extends far beyond New York's shores and that fighting for love may prove a losing battle.

In the dramatic conclusion to the bestselling Luxe series, New York's most dazzling socialites chase dreams, cling to promises, and tempt fate. As society watches what will become of the city's oldest families and newest fortunes, one question remains: Will its stars fade away or will they shine ever brighter?

LC's Take: 

In the fourth and last installment of The Luxe series, you can't expect anything to turn out the way you think it will. It has been a roller-coaster ride, following the drama-filled lives of Diana, Elizabeth, Penelope and Lina-- and true to her writing style, AG delivers an ending that will shock her readers and leave them sighing over the fates of her characters!

Diana and Elizabeth Holland-- two sisters born into a world of wealth and privilege in 19th century New York City-- have anything but "charmed" lives. Elizabeth bet everything to be with her one true love, and watched as her whole world crumbled to pieces. Now she is picking up those pieces, only to be caught as a victim in a plot for her family's money. Diana, outwardly the opposite of her quiet and conservative older sister, is still struggling with her passionate love for Henry Schoonmaker, one of the wealthiest young men in the city. Henry meanwhile loves Diana just as passionately, but was blackmailed into marrying Penelope, the Holland sisters' worst enemy. 

Oh, Penelope... here is an amazing character because of her complexity-- throughout the entire series, she is the one person that you love to hate, because she is just so devious and scheming. But by the end of this book, you really come to pity her when you find out that she is her own worst enemy, and that she is just as much a victim to the society she lives in as the rest of the girls.

And Lina-- AKA Carolina-- is a similar character. Throughout this series she has done some truly horrendous things-- backstabbing her way to greatness, abandoning her only family, lying through her teeth at every turn--only to discover in the end that all the money in the world can't buy her the one thing she actually wants-- someone to love her for who she really is. 

Splendor ends The Luxe series like the grande finale of an amazing play. All of the characters have grown up and have come to realize that what they wanted in the beginning is completely different from what they know will make them happy now. I won't give away what happens or who ends up with who, but the ending was very well-done-- although like I said, completely unexpected! I know that this is one of those series that I plan on buying and re-reading one day. It was an incredible story made up of unforgettable characters, gorgeous world-building, and a totally addicting plot. I am so happy I discovered these books, and hope if you end up reading them that you get caught up and enjoy them as much as I did!

LC's Rating:

**Swoon!** This series is to die for! And Splendor was a great end to a great series-- I highly recommend these books to anyone who loves historical fiction, drama, and unexpected endings!

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!

Book Review: Rumors

Author: Anna Godbersen
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Pages: 432
Read it in: 3 days
The Hook: True love. False friends. Scandalous gossip. Welcome back to Manhattan, 1899.

Summary: After bidding good-bye to New York's brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, rumors continue to fly about her untimely demise.

All eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed: her mischievous sister, Diana, now the family's only hope for redemption; New York's most notorious cad, Henry Schoonmaker, the flame Elizabeth never extinguished; the seductive Penelope Hayes, poised to claim all that her best friend left behind— including Henry; even Elizabeth's scheming former maid, Lina Broud, who discovers that while money matters and breeding counts, gossip is the new currency.

As old friends become rivals, Manhattan's most dazzling socialites find their futures threatened by whispers from the past. In this delicious sequel to The Luxe, nothing is more dangerous than a scandal . . . or more precious than a secret.

LC's Take: 

So, if you read my last review for The Luxe, you know that it pretty much left me swimming in a puddle of my own drool, it was that freaking amazing. I LOVED it! Well, true to form, Anna Godbersen has come back again and she definitely does not disappoint-- Rumors was everything that I was hoping it would be-- with all the scandalous intrigues, rich descriptions that make you feel like you've been transported back in time to another world, and characters that are so completely realistic that you wonder if they were actually once alive.

It is December, 1899 in New York City, two months after news of the tragic death of Elizabeth Holland, one of high society's most respected and famous young starlets. However, her story is more than it seems, and Diana Holland-- Elizabeth's younger sister-- knows all about it. So does Penelope Hayes, Elizabeth's former best friend (Note: she's the one on the cover of this book). Ruthless and scheming, Penelope longs to be married to NYC's most eligible bachelor, Henry Schoonmaker. However-- as luck would have it-- Henry had been engaged to the unfortunate Elizabeth just before her death, and he's now desperately in love with Diana...

And finally, there is Lina Broud-- Elizabeth's former housemaid. Lina is in love with Will Keller, the Hollands' former coachman. Will was once hopelessly in love with Elizabeth, but now that Lina knows she's dead and out of the way, she will stop at nothing to become a member of high society and win Will's heart over. That is, until she is completely seduced by the new life she's worked her way into.

Elizabeth, Diana, Penelope and Lina-- 4 very different young women, all connected within the same world of wealth and privilege, and all victim to the dictates of 19th century society. Reading like an Italian operetta, Rumors picks up with these 4 different lives where The Luxe left of. The plot probably sounds super confusing, but the story is so well-done that it is surprisingly easy to follow all of the interwoven plot lines and get to know all of the different characters.

AG's writing, in my opinion, is incredible. It flows like music, it's descriptive down to the last detail, and it's just a lot of fun to read. Rumors once again completely brings to life the characters and the world that they live in-- it was almost more like watching a movie in my head than reading black and white words on a page... I could see every detail of every room, the facial expressions on the characters' faces, and the interactions they had with each other. I don't know how she does it, but this story is not only well-researched for historical accuracy, but it is written in such a way that you can cruise through 200 pages without even realizing it.

This series has completely gotten my attention, and I am now moving into Envy, the third book. I really can't seem to praise this author and these books enough! I can only hope that the next two installments are as good as the first two, with all the delicious drama and intrigue I've come to expect from The Luxe series!

LC's Rating:

Another masterpiece by Anna Godbersen! I am totally IN LOVE with this series. The writing is superb, the characters are vivid and alive, and the world-building of 19th century New York City is painted down to the very last detail. I am completely consumed by this story and was not able to put Rumors down. Can you tell that I'm obsessed with these books? :)

Book Review: The Luxe

Author: Anna Godberson
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: The Luxe #1
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Pages: 448
Read it in: 2 days

The Hook: Pretty girls in pretty dresses, partying until dawn. Irresistible boys with mischievous smiles and dangerous intentions. White lies, dark secrets, and scandalous hookups. This is Manhattan, 1899.

Summary: Beautiful sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule Manhattan's social scene. Or so it appears. When the girls discover their status among New York City's elite is far from secure, suddenly everyone—from the backstabbing socialite Penelope Hayes, to the debonair bachelor Henry Schoonmaker, to the spiteful maid Lina Broud—threatens Elizabeth's and Diana's golden future.

With the fate of the Hollands resting on her shoulders, Elizabeth must choose between family duty and true love. But when her carriage overturns near the East River, the girl whose glittering life lit up the city's gossip pages is swallowed by the rough current. As all of New York grieves, some begin to wonder whether life at the top proved too much for this ethereal beauty, or if, perhaps, someone wanted to see Manhattan's most celebrated daughter disappear...

In a world of luxury and deception, where appearance matters above everything and breaking the social code means running the risk of being ostracized forever, five teenagers lead dangerously scandalous lives. This thrilling trip to the age of innocence is anything but innocent.

LC's Take: 

Reading this book was like devouring a giant, heavily-frosted piece of dark-chocolate cake with a big glass of golden, bubbly champagne—it was just a wonderfully decadent and guilty pleasure from beginning to end.

The year is 1899, and sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland are caught up in all the opulent wealth and scandalous intrigue of New York City’s Gilded Age. Anna Godberson does an incredible job of bringing this world to life in all its vibrant color—I absolutely loved it! From the witty dialogue to the luxurious descriptions of upper-class life, to the dynamics that unfold between the characters, this book had me hooked within the first couple pages.

The cast of characters really stood out for me. From Elizabeth Holland, the elder sister who is pulled along by her sense of duty to her family and outwardly conforms to all the etiquette of her class (while secretly harboring a love affair with the family’s coachman), to Diana Holland, the younger sister who is calculating, unconventional and rebellious towards everything having to do with “high society.”

And the side characters are just as engaging: Penelope Hayes is Elizabeth’s “best friend” who ruthlessly tries to bring her down at all costs as revenge for taking the eligible but hopeless playboy Henry Schoonmaker away from her. Henry Schoonmaker is pompous and vain, chasing after as many skirts as he can. Mrs. Holland is consumed by the fortunes of her family and the need to maintain their wealth and luxury at all costs after the death of her husband. Lina the maid is jealous and spiteful of her old friend Elizabeth, who has not only stolen Will, the man she’s secretly in-love with, but who was once her best friend and now uses her as her servant. If this all sounds like some crazy Italian-operetta with a bunch of different POVs and intrigues, well you wouldn’t be far off! The entire cast of characters work together so well and are all woven perfectly into this story of playing high-stake games in late 19th-century New York City.

The Luxe has totally turned my opinion and restored all my faith in the brilliance of historical fiction (which I have said I’m not a fan of). I absolutely adored this book and thought that its portrayal was not only accurate but vividly real in its descriptions of high society at the end of the 19th century. (The only thing I might point out is that, if you don’t like lots of descriptive language that takes the time to paint every little thing in a room or setting, you might get slightly annoyed with The Luxe, because there is a lot of description!) I for one love these little details so for me they were almost as fun to read as all the tantalizing secrets and scandals, but that’s just my own preference…

If, on the other hand, you like the idea of getting pulled into a 19th century soap opera where everyone is beautiful and no one can be trusted with their dirty secrets and two-faced games, then The Luxe is for you. Honestly, I haven’t had this much fun reading a book in a long time and could NOT put it down. LOVED it and can’t wait to read the sequels!!

LC’s Rating:

The Luxe is one big indulgent treat that you can’t help but find absolutely delicious!