Book Review: Envy: A Luxe Novel by Anna Godbersen

Envy by Anna Godbersen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been a very long time since I've read something from the Luxe series-and once again, I loved it-a lot. It's like Gossip Girl, but in the 1900s, where people just kept throwing shade after shade after shade about one another, gossiping about whoever they want when they want in the papers (here's to you, "Gamesome Gallant"...whoever you are....) and, of course, the drama. And when I say drama...my friends, THERE'S SOME DRAMA IN THIS BOOK.

For example, let's look at the lovely marriage that is the Schoonmakers-Henry and Penelope Hayes. Like, honestly, to tell you the truth, if I was playing a soap character on The Young and the Restless, I want my name to be Penelope Hayes. BECAUSE GOOD LORD GIRL YOU IS ONE SHADY BITCH. Penelope, our resident bitch, keeps threatening Henry to go to the papers about him and Diana Holland, the girl he loves SO MUCH instead of her just so they can be married. And on their trip to Palm Beach, FLA, you best believe that girl kept trying to get Henry to stay away from her. But did that stop him? NOPE NOT REALLY.

Because he went to see her twice-once to tell her that he wasn't in love with Penelope and two, that he'd divorce Penny and marry Di. Well, see, that didn't work.....MAINLY BECAUSE THE NEXT MORNING, DIANA SAW THE TWO OF YEHS TOGETHER AFTER THAT DRUNKEN NIGHT OF LOVEMAKING. Yes I'm yelling, but not at Diana, who was trying to move on by going to parties, and even though Miss Penelope sicked her brother Grayson on her, it turned out that he loved her. Oh but the worst (and stupid) part was in the book was the lie (I hope to god it is a lie-I've read the last book a long time ago and I don't remember) she told to the Elder William Schoonmaker, that she was pregnant. PREGNANT, Y'ALL. Henry kept swearing up and down that she's not, and the ending. The ending, when Henry told her that he's leaving to fight for his country, Penelope started calling his name, cryin', not wanting him to go. But he left....so honestly I felt like this was a big 'HA' to her.

Now the Holland Sisters....I've already done Diana, because honestly, just like Lady Edith from Downton Abbey, THIS GIRL NEEDS TO BE HAPPY-AND I DON'T CARE IF IT'S WITH HENRY OR GRAYSON. But Elizabeth-Elizabeth, the girl who ran off with a boy named Will to California, got married, and when he died (got shot), she went back home to No. 17 Gramercy Park to morn him for a bit, then went on the Palm Beach trip, where she and Penelope realized that *dramatic gasp* she's pregnant. Yep, that's right-Miss Elizabeth Holland is pregnant with Will's baby. And even though the Holland family is broke and Penelope shadin' and plottin' over Diana while becoming friends again with Elizabeth, Elizabeth....Elizabeth does something so stupid (to me, at least)....SHE MARRIED MR. SNOWDEN CARINS. LIKE, NO. I noped when I read it in school waiting for my class to start-she didn't love him, she just married him because he bloody proposed to her-AFTER Teddy Cutting proposed to her first. AGAIN. I wanted her with Teddy, not with Snowden-something about him rubbin' me the wrong way, and I don't like it.

And last, but not least, Mrs. Carolina Broad, who honestly needs to hear that Drake song: Started from the bottom now we're here/Started from the bottom now my whole team fuckin' here! Because her chapters in the book had me cheering for her. First, Carolina was hanging out with/the charge of a Mr. Longhorn, who died while she was on the Palm Beach trip. When she came back to New York, everything was taken from her-her jewelry, her clothes, everything. So she goes to Tristan Wrigley, a salesman at Lord & Taylor, to help her find a job...and she did....as Mrs. Tilt's something assistant, but she wasn't happy with that. So she left as soon as she saw Leland Bouchard, the man she's crushing on, and went to a dressmaker to try and get a job there, but she stuck herself with a needle, and so she rested in the cold for a while, until that fateful day when she went back to the New Netherland Hotel, where Mr. Longhorn's will was read, and he gave his home, businesses, real estate, stock and cash to her. And now she's finally able to live the life she wants now, and maybe....just maybe...she can get Leland Bouchard. Just maybe.

I really really loved this book and I really do recommend it!!!

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