I thought The Luxe was a brilliant book
By Molly Drummond / Spinebreakers Crew
When I got The Luxe, I had already read the introduction and I thought it might be quite dreary, but almost as soon as I started I was hooked. Although I haven’t admitted this to my mum yet, I actually stayed up from 1am to 6am reading it, from chapter 10 to the end. I did predict the twist but I didn’t think Elizabeth was quite up to it, so it was still a pleasant surprise. My favourite character by far, was Diana. I thought she was fantastic. At the beginning I disliked Henry, because he seemed far too slick, but he was growing on me until the part where he rejects Penelope (Elizabeth’s best friend), which is where he shot up to favourite character number two. As for Elizabeth, I wasn’t really fond of her all the way through, perhaps because she wasn’t as dramatic as Diana, but I really, really disliked and mistrusted Penelope, which I suppose is the idea. Liney, Elizabeth’s maid, was another character I didn’t like. She seemed a bit silly to me, even though I did feel sorry for her about Will.
The plot is very complicated, which makes it very good – it’s like a love triangle, or maybe a bigger shape as it involves quite a few people. Basically, Henry and Elizabeth have to get married, Henry because his father says so, and Elizabeth because her father has died and her family’s finances are in ruins. But Henry is in love with Diana (who is in love with him back), Elizabeth’s younger sister, although he only realizes this after he proposes. Beforehand, he thinks he likes Penelope better, and she is in love with him. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is in love with the family’s coachman, Will Keller, and as I said earlier, so is her maid Liney. The only difference is Liney is on her own and Will keeps telling Elizabeth to come with him to the West, where he plans to make a life there. It’s only when Liney finds out, and later when Elizabeth fires her, and Penelope gets her to spill all of her secrets that things really start to go belly-up for poor Elizabeth…
I thought The Luxe was a brilliant book, although I couldn’t imagine them speaking in American accents, they received English Upper Class, I’m afraid. I’m desperate to get my hands on the next one, Rumours, mainly to find out if Diana and Henry finally have a happy ending!