Luxe is a novel set in a Victorian-American era. It follows the back story of some socialites as several of their worlds are turned upside-down. All the lies and all the back-stabbing is exposed during the course of the story.
Luxe follows the story of the Holland family, Elizabeth in particular, and the Schoonmaker family. After the death of Elizabeth's father, the family is left in dire straights. To counteract this, Elizabeth must marry Henry Schoonmaker, son of a wealthy soon-to-be politician and notorious local playboy. This is where things start to get complicated. As various lies and crushes come to the fore, as well as scheming, this plan starts to fall apart.
Luxe is well written. It is written in short bursts from multiple characters points of view. No chapter is more than 3 to 4 pages in length and this gives it a real sense of brevity and pace. That being said, some of these chapter definitely feel like filler. Also some plot points are brought up but never resolved or never feel like they go anywhere.
Overall, it is an interesting story. But too often it seems to choose the narrative path of least resistance. I did discover during the end of reading this that it is the first book in a series. So it does build up characters and the world around them quite well. But as a stand-alone book, it doesn't serve too much up except for some lazy Sunday noon entertainment.
2 out of 5 Waffle of High Social Standing.
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