The Luxe Series by Anna Godbersen
Let’s talk about my guilty pleasures, shall we?
Confession: I love reading ridiculously glitzy stories of pretty, young girls with lots of money, lots of drama, and no limits. E.G. Gossip Girl. I loved reading the Gossip Girl series.
The Luxe series is Gossip Girl but in turn-of-the-century New York, instead of present day. Be still my beating heart. Handwritten love letters, corsets, gorgeous dresses, society balls, and carriage rides in the park.
I’ve been reading The Luxe series since they first came out. I actually heard about them through the blog of Sara Shepherd, author of The Pretty Little Liars series (yes, more girly YA I love and enjoy) which is now a TV show on ABC Family. This series is just pure fun. It follows the lives of several members of Uppercrust society and one member of the “lower class”. Told in alternating viewpoints across four books, this series takes us inside the lives of Diana and Elizabeth Holland, Penelope Hayes, Henry Schoonmaker, and Carolina Broad as they love and lose, scheme and plot.
My favorite characters were Diana and Penelope, the heroine and the villainess. I liked Diana because she really bucked her society (and time’s) rules and just did what she wanted. A very strong female character. And Penelope was kind of deliciously evil. But she also did whatever she wanted. She reveled in being scandalous and beautiful.
I recently finished the fourth in the series, Splendor. This novel kept up the momentum of the other three and, even though it’d been awhile since I’d read the others, I got pulled right in. And what I liked the most? Everyone got a sort of bittersweet ending. After so much torture and drama and pain for all these characters, it would have been a cop out to give even one of them a beautiful, happy ending. And Godbersen didn’t disappoint.
Well done.
For fans of: Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, It Girl, Private, Privilege, and other similar series. Anyone who loves intrigue, high society, turn of the century America, New York, and fun YA novels.
Legendary Post 