Rumors (Luxe Series #2) by Anna Godbersen

From the Publisher

True love. False friends. Scandalous gossip. Welcome back to Manhattan, 1899.

As rumors fly about the untimely demise of New York's brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, all eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed: her sister, Diana, the family's only hope for redemption; Henry Schoonmaker, the flame Elizabeth never extinguished; Penelope Hayes, poised to claim all that her best friend left behind; even Elizabeth's former maid, Lina Broud, who discovers that while money matters and breeding counts, gossip is the new currency. In this delicious sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Luxe, nothing is more dangerous than a scandal . . . or more precious than a secret.

Children's Literature

Fabulous clothes. Sparkling jewelry. Expensively decorated mansions. Steamy scandals. Sexy gossip. Seems like a modern TV series, but this story takes place in 1899. As 1900 is approaching, New York is the place to see and be seen and all the rich and famous are out to play. Penelope Hayes has set her eyes on Henry Schoonmaker, her late best-friend's fiance. She is determined to make him marry her at any cost. Henry, however, is not interested. His heart belongs to Diana Holland, the little sister of his fiance. Add into the mix Lina Broud, a maid trying to lie her way into the ritzy social scene, Davis Barnard, the local gossip columnist, and Elizabeth Holland, the supposedly dead fiance, and you have a story perfect for the society pages. If you know someone who loves Gossip Girl, they will love this book. It is the second in the "Luxe" series, but other than a few references to previous events, readers can dive right in. There are a few mature scenes and concepts that are more appropriate to older teens, but if a middle school student is an advanced enough reader, these scenes are neither graphic nor disturbing. This book is a wonderful example of the "how the better half lives" genre, a genre popular with teens. Exciting, fast paced, and hard to put down, this book is a great read. Reviewer: Heather Robertson Mason

Children's Literature

This sequel to Godbersen's previous YA novel, The Luxe, continues the stories of Elizabeth and Diana Holland, Henry Schoonmaker, Penelope Hayes, and Carolina Broud at the very end of 1899 in Manhattan. Elizabeth has joined her true love, Will Keller, in Carolina where he is exploring for oil. Only her sister and Penelope know she's alive, but rumors are flying among high society that she might not really be dead. Carolina has used the money she made selling Holland family secrets to set herself up as a lady at a fancy hotel. She believes that, once she finds Will, her makeover will convince him that he made a mistake in passing her over for Elizabeth. Diana and Henry are still engaged in their clandestine love for each other, while Penelope is working behind the scenes to become the next Mrs. Henry Schoonmaker. The rich descriptions of manners, mode and settings are great fun for historical fiction fans. Snippets of gossip and advice columns preface each chapter to lend an aura of authenticity. Romance readers will also find this an enjoyable if somewhat erratic ride—one can't help but feel emotionally manipulated by the author. There are no romantic happy endings here, but the stage is certainly set for the sequel. Reviewer: Paula McMillen, Ph.D.

VOYA

Taking up where The Luxe (HarperTeen, 2007/VOYA December 2007) left off, Godbersen's sophomore effort does not disappoint. Elizabeth has managed to fake her death so that she is free to be with Will, her true love and one of the family's servants. The two are living a rustic but happy life in California. Penelope is glad to have Liz out of the way; she believes that once the mourning period is over, Henry will be hers. Unbeknownst to Penny, however, Henry has fallen in love with Diana, Elizabeth's sister, and his misery has nothing to do with mourning and everything to do with being away from his beloved. Meanwhile Elizabeth's former maid, in an attempt to make something of herself, is selling family secrets to Penelope. Carolina gains some of this information by speaking to her sister, Claire, who serves as Diana's maid. It is Claire who spills the beans about finding Diana and Henry in a compromising position. Carolina passes that information on to Penelope, and Penelope uses it to blackmail Henry into changing his destiny. This book is another delicious read that will captivate teenaged girls. The historical elements and the author's expertise in weaving together several story lines make it a much more solid choice than some of the fluffier teen series available. The reader's only frustration will be reaching the end and realizing that the third book in the series, Envy, has yet to be published. Reviewer: Kimberly Paone

Product Details

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Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

It has been a dreary few months in New York, given the death of Miss Elizabeth Holland—who was one of society's favorites—and the blizzard that arrived in late November and left the city blanketed for days. But elegant New York has not given up hope for a fine winter season of evenings at the opera and gay cotillions. And our eye has more than once been caught by the newly ladylike comportment of Miss Penelope Hayes, who was the best friend of Miss Holland during her short life. Could Miss Hayes inherit her mantle of impeccable decorum and congeniality?

—From Cité Chatter, Friday, December 15, 1899

"Excuse me, miss, but is it really you?"

The day was clear and bracingly cold, and as Penelope Hayes turned slowly to her left, where the crowd had massed along the narrow cobblestone street, she exhaled a visible cloud of warm breath. She focused her large lake-blue eyes on the eager face of a girl who could not have been much older than fourteen. She must have emerged from one of those tenement buildings, which rose shoulder to shoulder, at imprecise angles, behind the masses of people. A jungle of black wires was strung from their rooftops, cutting ribbons out of the sky. The girl wore a black coat that had turned almost gray with wear, and her already pinkish complexion had gone patchy red in the cold. Penelope met her eyes and spread her plush lips into their warmest smile.

"Why, yes." She drew herself up, willing the full effect of her slim frame, her elegantly ovular face, her incandescent skin. There had been a time when she was knownas the pretty daughter of a nouveau riche, but she had recently taken to wearing the pastels and whites preferred by the demurest girls her age, mindful of their conjugal connotations—although today, given the state of the streets she was traversing, she had chosen a darker hue. She extended her gloved hand and said, "I am Miss Hayes."

"I work at Weingarten the furriers'," the girl went on shyly. "I've seen you once or twice from the backroom."

"Oh, then I must thank you for your service," Penelope replied graciously. She inclined her body forward in a gesture that might almost be called a bow, although the stiff Medici collar of her navy cloth coat with gold piping made it difficult to move her head in a truly humble manner. When she met the girl's eyes again, she quickly added, "Would you like a turkey?"

Already the procession was moving along ahead of her. The marching band playing noels had crossed onto the next block, and she could hear the voice of Mr. William Schoonmaker through the megaphone moving along just behind the band. He was wishing the crowds who thronged the sidewalks a joyous season, and reminding them in as subtle a manner as he was able who had paid for their holiday parade. For the parade had been his idea, and he had financed the band and the traveling nativity scene and the holiday fowl, and he had arranged for various society matrons and debutantes of his acquaintance to pass them out to the poor. They were the real attraction, Penelope couldn't stop herself from thinking, as she turned to her loyal friend Isaac Phillips Buck and reached into the large burlap sack he was carrying.

Even through her dogskin gloves and a layer of newspaper wrapping, she could feel the cold squishiness of the bird. It was heavy and awkward in her hands, and she tried not to show any signs of revulsion as she moved forward with the promised Christmas turkey. The girl looked at the package in a blank way and her smile faded.

"Here," Penelope said, trying not to rush her words. She suddenly, desperately needed the girl to take the turkey from her. "For you, for your family. For Christmas. From the Schoonmakers . . . and from me."

The moment lengthened in front of her, and then abruptly the girl's smile returned. Her whole mouth hung open with joy. "Oh, Miss Hayes, thank you! From me . . . and . . . and . . . from my family!" Then she took the weighty bird from Penelope and turned back to her friends in the crowd. "Look!" she caroled. "This turkey was given to me especially by Miss Penelope Hayes!"

Her friends gasped at the prized bird and shot shy looks at the girl in the fitted coat. Already they felt they knew her from seeing her fantastical name so often in the society pages. She stood before them as the rightful heir to the place in the public's heart once held by her best friend, Elizabeth Holland, before Elizabeth's tragic drowning a few months before. Of course, Elizabeth had not drowned, and was in fact very much alive—a fact Penelope knew quite well, since she had helped the "virginal" Miss Holland disappear so that she might more easily be with that member of her family's staff she'd apparently been enamored with. And so that, more importantly, Penelope could reclaim what was rightfully hers: the fiancé Elizabeth had left behind. Her ascension was so nearly complete that already society's most exalted matrons, as well as its newspaper chroniclers, were whispering how very much more Elizabeth-like she seemed now.

This was not something Penelope would have previously found flattering—goodness being rather overrated, in her private opinion—but she had begun to see that it had its advantages. Penelope repaid the warm embrace of the girl's adulation by lingering a moment longer, her eyes beaming and her smile as broad as it had ever been. Then she turned to Buck, who was highly visible in his gray check suit and amber-colored dress shirt and a coat of beaver fur that covered the length of his generous body.

"You've just got to get me out of here," she whispered. "I haven't seen Henry all day, and I'm cold, and if I have to touch another—"

Buck stopped her with a knowing look. "I will take care of everything."

His features were soft, muted by the fleshiness of his face, and his fair eyebrows were sculpted in a way that lent him the appearance of canniness. A few more ladies, in their wide hats and elaborately lapelled coats, passed by, followed by a marching band. Penelope looked back up the street in the direction of the elder Schoonmaker's voice and knew that his son, Henry, with his dark eyes and his troublemaker's lilt, must be crossing into new streets along with him. Her heart sank a little. Then she turned back to Buck, who had already formulated a plan.

Buck was over six feet tall and his body expanded outward imposingly, and he moved now, as he so often had before, to shield the girl who most benefited from his loyalty. He had not been born rich—though he claimed to be a relation of the famous Buck clan who these days mostly resided in grand old moldering mansions in the Hudson Valley—but was invaluable when it came time to host a party, and as such was often given fine things for free. Penelope pulled the veil of her hat down over her face and followed him into the crowd. Once they had made their way safely through the throng, Buck dropped his cumbersome bag of turkeys and helped Penelope into a waiting brougham.