Friday, October 22, 2010

Splendor by Anna Godbersen - Book Review #101

Friday, October 22, 2010
Splendor (Luxe Series #4)
by Anna Godbersen

New beginnings.

Shocking revelations.

Unexpected endings.

As spring turns into summer, Elizabeth relishes her new role as a young wife, while her sister, Diana, searches for adventure abroad. But when a surprising clue about their father's death comes to light, the Holland girls wonder at what cost a life of splendor comes.

Carolina Broad, society's newest darling, fans a flame from her past, oblivious to how it might burn her future. Penelope Schoonmaker is finally Manhattan royalty—but when a real prince visits the city, she covets a title that comes with a crown. Her husband, Henry, bravely went to war, only to discover that his father's rule extends well beyond New York's shores and that fighting for love may prove a losing battle.

In the dramatic conclusion to the bestselling Luxe series, New York's most dazzling socialites chase dreams, cling to promises, and tempt fate. As society watches what will become of the city's oldest families and newest fortunes, one question remains: Will its stars fade away or will they shine ever brighter?
From goodreads.com

Splendor was a very good ending to the quite mediocre series. To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this book. I somewhat enjoyed the first book, but after that the series went downhill – second book was worse and the third was a big disappointment to me.

I picked up the fourth book just to finish the series, just to be over with it. And I’m glad that I did. Because of the fourth book, Anna Godbersen grew in my eyes as a writer and as the story teller. As I said already, I didn’t expect much from this book, for quite some time already I started to consider Luxe series a collection of predictable and soap operish clichés. However, Splendor pleasantly surprised me – the plot became stronger, characters more complex, clichés faded out and the ending was superb.

I can’t say that I was surprised by the ending itself, I found it quite logical. However, it was definitely unexpected to me that Anna Godbersen had guts to finish her series this way. I’m very glad that she gave each character what they deserved and didn’t feel a need to sugar coat or pink bow any of the story lines.

I will probably take a pick at Anna Godbersen’s next series – Bright Young Things – just to see if the charge that happened to the author in the fourth book was for the best or simply a pure coincidence.

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