Rumors

Anna Godbersen

Mar 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

False friends and scandalous gossip abound in this “compulsively readable” YA series “of friends, lovers, lies, and betrayal” in Gilded Age New York (Kirkus, on The Luxe).

After losing New York’s brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, rumors continue to fly about her untimely demise. And all eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed . . .

Elixabeth’s mischievous sister, Diana, is now the family’s only hope for redemption. The flame Elizabeth never extinguished, Henry Schoonmaker, may just be New York’s most notorious cad. The seductive Penelope Hayes is poised to claim all that her best friend left behind—including Henry. Even Elizabeth’s scheming former maid, Lina Broud, is about to discover that while money still matters, gossip is the new currency.

Ratings and reviews

In her fictitious novel, Rumors, Anna Godberson continues to tell a story of romance, secrecy, and betrayal in 1899 New York. This book, the second in the Luxe series, continues the lives of the famous sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland, Lina Broud, and the famously rich and conniving Penelope Hayes. In the first book (spoiler alert) Elizabeth has a love affair with her stable hand, Will, and fakes her death to get out of marrying her fiancé, Henry Schoonmaker, and run away with her lover. Her sister, Diana, falls in love with Elizabeth's Henry, but is kept away by the wall of her sister's engagement. Lina was a made at the Holland household until she betrayed secrets of the Holland household to Penelope for money. Penelope's goal in all of this is to get Elizabeth out of the way in order to gain Henry for herself. Rumors picks up after the funeral of Elizabeth. Henry, unaware of the fact that Elizabeth is alive, schemes to try and find a way to marry his beloved Diana, who also tries to find a way around it. Henry eventually comes to the conclusion that there is no way around it, and must leave his Diana forever, and tells her so. During this time, Lina is trying to boost her position in the social hierarchy of New York, claiming to be an orphaned heiress from out west, finds friendship in a young store clerk named Tristan, who helps her become part of a famous and rich man's, Mr. Longhorn, in crowd. During all this time, Elizabeth receives a telegram from Diana telling her that their mother is sick, so Elizabeth and Will go back to New York to help. The author's thesis is that there are many people in this world, some good and some bad, and you must find the ones you can love and trust and fight for them. Anna Godbersen inserts her view that society then was over-demanding on the elites of New York and that it had too much influence on them through the story of her character Elizabeth having to go so far as to fake her own death to marry the man she loved and through the story of her star-crossed lovers, Diana and Henry, having to sneak around to see each other because of her sister's "death". She may have gained this view from present-day New York, where she lives now, as well, because the famous elite of New York, and other places in the country, have their faces plastered all over the media, reporting every little thing they do. Godbersen supports this thesis in several ways, the first being with her character Elizabeth Holland. Elizabeth loves Will so much, and knows she can trust him. So she fakes her death, an extent no one would want to, or even have to, go to today. She fights to keep him as hers, even if it means abandoning her family in their time of need. Her sister Diana also illustrates the author's thesis. Despite the fact that society wants to keep she and Henry apart because he was her "dead" sister's fiancé, she was still willing to sneak around to see him, send him secret notes, and try her hardest to make him hers officially. Penelope, in her own twisted way, also illustrates the thesis. She very much wants Henry to be hers because she believes they are perfect, so she pushes, shoves, and connives her way into marrying him. Even though it was through threats, she still gained the man she "loved" because she was willing to fight for him. The book's argument is very convincing and is good enough to convince someone who has stopped believing in love and trust to believe again. The characters she develops are so real and so human, the way they act and deal with their problems is simply enchanting. The way Godbersen develops Elizabeth's and Will's love is done beautifully; It's very realistic and makes the reader believe that it could happen, compared to if it was so perfect that it seemed fake. As Elizabeth examines the choices she's recently made to run away with him, she examines him and what will happen as they get older. She thinks about how, "The softness would go out of his face, but the crooked

i just LOVE this series!!!

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About the author

Anna Godbersen is the author of the New York Times bestselling Luxe series. She was born in Berkeley, California, and educated at Barnard College. She currently lives in Brooklyn.