Sunday, January 3, 2010

Splendid

Splendor
To close out my winter break, I also closed out the Luxe series by Anna Godbersen by reading the fourth and final book, "Splendor" (click to see reviews of books two and three). I have to say, I had a really fun time with it. In the beginning, things were kind of calm and humdrum, but by the middle it got really intense and dramatic again. I was a little bored of Elizabeth by the end of the first book, but in this one there's a big twist in the Elizabeth story. By the end of the book, I found myself wanting even Carolina (who previously bothered me a little) to have a happy ending. And the ending is happy to some extent, but not all Hollywoody, cheesy, over the top, which I really appreciate. In fact, over the past day I keep returning to the ending, and the more I think about it, the more I think Godbersen handled it perfectly.

And speaking of Hollywood... usually I am completely against turning books I enjoyed into movies, but in this case I think I'm going to have to make an exception. These books could be such good movies if they were done well. The costumes would be gorgeous. A lot of what I like about the books is imagining the setting and way of life at the time, and I think movies could capture that really well. So, my final word on the Luxe series: it's a little soapy and girly, but it's also really fun and addicting to read. These were the perfect books for winter vacation. I give the final installment 8 pretzel bites.
KAY

2 comments:

  1. Great review!! I agree about the movie thing...who would you cast in the main roles??

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  2. ooh, that's hard... now I'm gonna keep thinking about this. okay, here's what I came up with for now. It's kind of a weird combination and some of them might be too old, but oh well:
    James McAvoy as Henry (he'd have to pretend to be American), Anna Kendrick as Lina (or maybe that girl from "Arrested Development?"), Amy Adams as Liz, Leighton Meester as Penelope, and... I can't think of anyone as Diana right now. And not a big part, but I think James Franco should be Tristan.
    -Kay

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