SPLENDOR: A Luxe Novel
Anna Godbersen
HarperCollins Children’s Books
Historical Romance
ISBN: 9780061626319
400 pages
When we last left the heiresses of Anna Godbersen’s Luxe series, each was awash in some personal scandal or tragedy. Penelope, once the envy of society, is trapped in a loveless marriage with society scion Henry Schoonmaker. Diana is in love with Henry, who was blackmailed into marriage with Penelope. Elizabeth is pregnant from a secret marriage with her murdered husband, Will. Carolina Broud --- once a maid in Elizabeth’s home --- finds that her charade as a Western heiress may be over now that her protector is dead.
“After all,” Godbersen writes in the prologue to SPLENDOR, the fourth and final installment in her series set in Gilded Age New York, “it takes only a few seasons to learn how everything changes, and how quickly; to realize that the glorious and grotesque lives lived at the currently fashionable addresses will soon seem quaint and outdated…and staying put will not make it stay the same.”
SPLENDOR begins in Cuba, where Diana is looking for Henry, who has enlisted in the army due to the Spanish-American War. There she works as a barmaid, always searching for Henry among the uniformed men who are stationed there. Miraculously, the two lovers find each other, but it is not long before they are discovered and shipped back to the stifling society of New York. Unable to breathe under society’s strictures now that she has had a taste of freedom, Diana plans to run away to Paris with Henry and make her living writing gossip columns for the New York press.
But life has other plans for the pair. The untimely death of Henry’s father leaves him with responsibilities he cannot easily abandon. As Henry steps into his father’s shoes, he is surprised to find how well they fit. Penelope has caught the eye of a Prussian prince, and abandons pretense and propriety in the hopes of becoming a princess. She offers no argument to Henry’s request for a divorce, but Diana still chafes at the thought of staying in New York.
Meanwhile, blackmail threatens to ruin Carolina’s chance at marrying the eccentric and wealthy Leland Bouchard. People from her past refuse to stay quiet now that she is heiress to Carey Lewis Longhorn’s enormous fortune. Her life isn’t the only one fraught with despair as Elizabeth learns that her husband, Snowden Cairns, played a role in the deaths of her father and of her beloved Will. When she finds out, he drugs her and keeps her prisoner in her own home, allowing no one to see her or to help her and her unborn child.
As SPLENDOR builds toward its final conclusion, it keeps readers in suspense: Will Elizabeth live to see the birth of Will’s baby? Will Penelope get her way and become a Prussian princess? Will Carolina’s secret stay safe and allow her a chance at society marriage? Will Diana and Henry be together at last?
I won’t give away the answer to any of these questions except to say that the end of SPLENDOR offers some of the most satisfying moments of the entire series. Ever attune to details of history, culture and vocabulary, SPLENDOR ushers in more satisfying possibilities for the future of the characters than a respectable marriage with a wealthy husband. A new era of high society, “wealth without class,” is born, sweeping away “drawing room betrayals and love that couldn’t be” for the open horizons of a much larger world.
--- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood
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