The Luxe Series

So, after my little Twilight fixation you all know that I am not above slumming it in the YA fiction section of my local Borders. Therefore, I suppose, I should not be too embarrassed to reveal that I am in the midst of reading The Luxe Series of book by Anna Godbersen. I've been intrigued by the covers for months now, I am such a sucker for a good book jacket. Since it was on $9.99 and I needed something to do on the horrible red eye flight back from SF, I started out by picking up the first in the series, The Luxe. I read the entire book in one sitting and followed it up quickly by purchasing the sequel Rumours, which I just finished. I have been scouring the Internet unsuccessfully to find a plot summery of the next novel Envy, but I guess I will just have to buy the book to find out what happens next.

Now I am sure you are all wondering what is so great about these books? Well, they are pretty and fluffy reads just like all good brain candy should be. It is easy to get lost in the book and forget about what ever it was that was stressful about your day. The entire series focuses on the lives of four girls maneuvering in upper crust New York at the turn of the twentieth century to secure love and money whilst wearing beautiful dresses. There is the requisite back stabbing, social climbing, salacious sex, cheating, star crossed lovers, murder, scandal, secrets, etc.

The writing is a notch above Twilight and the characters are a bit better developed than in Twilight as well. One might make comparisons to Gossip Girl, but the series is even more soap opera-esqe that GG, believe it or not. In fact, if I had one complaint about the series, it would be that I like my brain candy books to be nice neat little morsels of fluffy happiness, and on this front The Luxe Series fails to deliver. The first book, The Luxe, more or less met this criteria, but the second book, Rumours, has a totally upsetting ending. I know this should motivate me to go out and purchase the next book, but frankly it kind of pissed me off.

I feel like my emotions have been shanghaied. It is totally brilliant marketing, of course, I now have to purchase yet another book, and I think that is part of the reason I stubbornly don't want to buy Envy. I hate being so blatantly manipulated. Based on my Internet search, I know that Envy also ends in a cliff hanger and I don't really want to spend another four hours of my life reading a book that will end in a cliff hanger that will not be resolved until the final book in the series "Splendor" is published. What can I say, I'm just not a very patient girl.

Overall I would have to say The Luxe series is very engaging, but if I were you, I might wait until the final installment is published to give them a read. I do recommend the books, especially if you go in realizing that each book ends with a cliff hanger and they have a good dose of soapy-tragedy woven into the plot.

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