![]() ![]() It's funny that the book is so engaging, in a way, because not one of the characters is completely likeable. All in all, it's the stuff of a decadent turn of the century romance novel. Further complicating matters are an affair with a servant, an impossible love affair, and multiple friends who feel betrayed. Wealthy playboy Henry Schoonmaker, in the midst of a flirtation with bad girl Penelope Hayes, is pressured by his father to marry Elizabeth, Penelope's friend and rival. Elizabeth, the older and more responsible of the two, is pressured by her mother to marry well, and quickly. ![]() ![]() Pampered sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland learn that their family fortunes have taken a decided turn for the worse. Chapter 1 then steps backward in time by three weeks, and begins the chronicle of events leading up to the funeral. The Luxe begins with Elizabeth Holland's funeral (though her body, after a fall into the river, has not been found). The book is filled with ballrooms and expensive dresses, arranged marriages and carriage rides, and the pressures of family duty. The dialog is not nearly as witty, of course, and the characters are decidedly more risque in their behavior, but it does give you a bit of the same feel. The Luxe is faintly reminiscent of the regency novels of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. It is the late Victorian Era version of Gossip Girl. The Luxe is the first of a series of novels set among the elite in turn of the 20th century New York. ![]() Anna Godberson's The Luxe is the literary equivalent of champagne and truffles. ![]()
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