Enjoyable Story but doesn't end

books:


	• Rumors: A Luxe Novel (The Luxe) Anna Godbersen HarperCollins, 2008 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Nice read...

Nice read for on a cozy night.. curl up with your favorite tea and get lost n another world...

Enjoyable Story but doesn't end

When I first began reading this book I thought I wasn't going to like it at all. The descriptions are too many, forced and awkward and they slow down the story too much. Basically, all the darn unnecessary adjectives interrupt the flow of the story and I think that's why some other reviewers of this author's books call them boring. It's not boring but it takes away from the story. The descriptions should be subtle and flowing and necessary, with no attempt to be artsy (it's too obvious an attempt). That said, this story does quite nicely what many authors fail to do...make a story with several characters and different points of view interesting and allows the readers to know the characters enough to enjoy the story. So often, the introduction of more than a couple of main characters muddles the story and the reader ends up knowing none of them. So, that is where the author is truly successful. She makes them all interesting. Now, to the ending. I was heartbroken. I'm a fan of happy endings so this one was difficult and I am not so much a fan of continuing books so that makes it also difficult. I will read the next, but I will read so many books between now and the next I probably won't remember so much. I'd rather they just end the story and have secondary characters' stories subsequently released, which is just as good and doesn't leave the reader in mid stream. Still a nice read and could be much better with a few tweaks in style.

for more information click here

Can't put down summer read

New York on the cusp of the new century is brimming with hope. Elizabeth Holland has joined Will Keller, formerly her late father's valet, in California. Elizabeth's sister Diana keeps the fact that Elizabeth is really alive secret. Diana is convinced Elizabeth's mourning ex-fiancé Henry Schoonmaker has reformed and is in love with her. She barely heeds her sister's warning that Elizabeth's "best friend" Penelope Hayes would stop at nothing to procure Henry as her husband. Meanwhile the Holland family fortunes continue to fall and Mrs. Holland is determined to make a financial and matrimonial match for her remaining daughter, Diana. The arrival of the late Mr. Holland's business partner Snowdon Cairn provides the family with some financial respite. Diana dabbles in the gossip business and dodges her mother's best efforts. The final weeks of December 1899 frames the unfolding events. Anna Godbersen has once again crafted a fast paced, beautifully written story that deftly places these interwined lives within the framework of known events and persons of the late 1899's.

I couldn't put this book down once I started....A great second book, readers will be eagerly waiting the third installment.

for more information click here

The characters...

I enjoy the characters more and more with every book I read in this series. This book does not fail to deliver the drama. The continuation of developing how the story twists and turns is wonderful. This is a good rainy day, sit down and read in one sitting book.

Well done.

crappy ending ruined the book!

This is the sequel to the book The Luxe. You should probably read The Luxe before you attempt to read this one because even though the author tries to weave in reminders of what all happened in the last book into this one she does a horribly roundabout and dotty job of it. And since the story is linear and dependent on inter-character-drama you need to clearly understand what happened in the last book in order to be able to appreciate this one.

warning: i have tried not to, but there might be slight spoilers in this review.

The book is slightly over 400 pages long and the first half was pretty tedious. The author kept telling instead of showing and she kept trying to use the language and style of the era but it kept feeling fake somehow. it felt like one long gossip column that just wouldn't end. The second half of the book was way better and near the end I couldn't put the book down, i just wanted to read it to it's finish.

There were 3 storylines, Elizabeth and Will in California, The Diana, Henry, Penelope love triangle and Lina Broud's ascension into high society. Out of the three, Lina's story was most enjoyable (though it was so improbable and such a wish-fulfillment fantasy that I was just kinda sad that the author even chose that route. But then again this IS basically a wish fulfillment/fantasy escape kind of book, so why am I complaining?)

The Diana/Henry/Penelope storyline was disappointing. It feels like Penelope only exists to be a villain, the author has not tried in the least to give this character any kind of depth at all. in the end even the author questions Penelope's motives and comes up with the lame answer of 'too much pride.' Henry is a weak and worthless character himself. All of his problems could have been solved if he had just gone up to his father and spoken his intentions clearly but the author avoids this because if it occurred, the book would be shorter by 200 pages and there would be no story. Basically Henry and Penelope choose to be miserable for the rest of their lives because one is a coward and the other has 'too much pride.' The other part of that storyline, the character of Snowden was really annoying, i felt gross and uncomfortable whenever he was in the scene slobbering over diana and i just wanted the scene to end. he is another character that just was not developed well at all. he is literally only there to give the feeling of urgency and impending doom regarding diana and her family's situation.

Elizabeth and Wills story had A LOT of potential to be exciting and interesting but unfortunately it was the most boring of them all. I had to do my best to not skim over the paragraphs because I am trying to give this book a fair review. it just felt like in the last book the author went 'i know! i'll send them to California! wont that be awesome and exciting and unexpected!' and in this book she sent them to California and realized she had nothing for them to do there... So she finds a lame excuse (a conveniently cryptic telegram from DI) and sends them back to NYC!

there are a lot of inaccuracies in that book. i am a fan of the era and have read up a lot on the subject and i can tell you a huge amount of the behavior in this book would have been unthinkable back in the day by people of that circle because of the social code and etiquette rules they had. just read or watch Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence or The House of Mirth to compare/contrast. i really don't understand why the author went this route because it seems to me like she has done a lot of research so she knows that she is writing inaccuracies. i figure she is trying to appeal to the Gossip Girl readers and felt this would be the only way to please them.

The 3 story lines have 3 endings, Lina's is open-ended, i will not spoiler it for you except to say that the reader is definitely left wondering what might happen to her in book 3. The Diana/Henry/Penelope story has a dramatic yet predictable ending that makes the reader go 'OMG! what will happen next!! I wanna know now!!!' However, the Elizabeth/Will ending was so horrible/annoying/irritating and made me want to give the book 0 stars. I really felt cheated by the author. I mean now in the next book it will make for great drama, but still, I felt really let down.

I will probably read book 3 because I am interested to see what happens in all 3 story lines.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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 Schoon-maker, 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.

for more information click here

hot