The Luxe (Luxe, #1)

by Anna Godbersen

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

At first, the Holland sisters, Elizabeth and Diana seem to have it all being the desired socialites and now, despite her best friend Penelope's resentment Elizabeth is suddenly engaged to Henry Schoonmaker. Everything appears perfect, until Elizabeth is thrown from a horse and buggy and disappears into the Hudson River.

Anna Godbersen's The Luxe is The Age of Innocence meets Gossip Girl. Elizabeth, Diana, Penelope and the Holland's former maid Lina all grasp for romance, fortune and grandeur in Manhattan society at the end of the 19th century.

All represented females had their ups and down in morality, one minute I'd be routing for the heroines and on the next page they would be uppity bitches, (well except for Penelope, she was always an uppity bitch).

Anyway, I felt Anna Godbersen did an excellent job of separating classes in tiers of ranking, but despite consequence everyone managed to slip through the cracks of these standings. But The Luxe is not souly about catty debutantes, it is also about the men they love which is the root of all this backstabbing. From the most eligible bachelor, Henry Schoonmaker to the coachman Will Keller New York has a three-ring circus.

As much as I loved the book I have to get uppity myself for a minute, after I began raving about this to my mom she picked the series up as soon as I would finish it and besides agreeing it was highly readable concurred on another thought, that there were several "sex scenes" that could be a little risque for the geared audience. Fortunately, they were eloquently written so only a maturer eye could catch the full intention. But still, scandalizing!

The Luxe is a soap opera in the form of 400 pages and personally don't understand why the CW hasn't picked it up.