Of Swords and Parasols

Leaving behind turn of the century New York, Anna Godberson sets her sites on 1929 New York, full of bootleggers, lost heiresses, flappers, and probably aviators before long.

The night of Cordelia’s shotgun wedding, best friends Cordelia and Letty leave their small town for New York City, Letty with the aim of becoming a star, and Cordelia to find her father, who is now a rich an infamous bootlegger. They separate after a fallout (one that makes little sense, IMO) soon after their arrival, and Letty becomes a flapper and catches the attention of the son of a Broadway director, and Cordelia meets her father and befriends her half-brother, Charlie’s, fiancee, Astrid who is starting to realize her relationship with Charlie isn’t as perfect as she thought.

Godberson basically packs an entire season’s worth of Drama into just under 400 pages, with secrets, forbidden romances, betrayals, and Dramatic Reveals, all over the place. Like Godberson’s The Luxe books, it relies largely on whether Godberson’s slightly-jaded embracing of the romanticized ideal of the period annoys you, or if you get swept up in it (or are me, and are just entertained by the Drama and all the historical girls running around and not quite behaving). Though, if it follows the precedent set by The Luxe, the romanticism will eventually have reality crash in on many characters.

I don’t think I enjoyed this quite as much as I did Godberson’s first book, but I liked it, and look forward to the rest.

May I just say that I absolutely adore the covers of these books? I can testify to the power of a woman in an elaborate ball gown against a dark background being able to pull a person’s eyes from a few shelves away. This is probably the prettiest of the dresses, but Penelope’s red dress on the cover of Rumors is probably the most attention grabbing. Which, given Penelope’s personality, is rather fitting. Not that Elizabeth’s pink number is anything to sneer at.

I admit, as much as I’m enjoying Gossip Girl right now, and as much as these books are clearly riding theGossip Girl wave, only in 1899-1900, I still prefer the Luxe books. This is also the penultimate Luxe book (it seems a lot of my book and manga series are nearing their end). I have a weird problem with writing up penultimate books in that, no matter how good they are.

This book is notable for some people making surprisingly good choices, some people being thwarted on the verge of making good choices, and other making absolutely terrible choices. At least some are improving!

( spoilers )

On October 4, 1899 all of New York’s high society turned out for the funeral of 18-year-old Elizabeth Holland, who died in a carriage accident only a few days before, her body swept away by the river. Notable things about the day are that it was originally meant to be Elizabeth’s wedding day to Henry Schoonmaker, a New York playboy, and that her younger sister, Diana, was scandalously late to the funeral.

Rewind the clock a few weeks, and Elizabeth is just returning from a year in Europe. Diana has gone from a flighty girl who has her head wrapped up in the adventures in books to a flighty girl who has her head wrapped up in the adventures in books who likes to steal kisses with young gentlemen as an adventure. Her lady’s maid, Lina, became jealous in the year she didn’t actually have to work. Her best friend, Penelope, has developed an even more spiteful, subtle tongue than she had before, and is having a secret affair. And Elizabeth herself is still desperately in love with Will Teller, the stableboy she’s loved since childhood. Elizabeth might have been happier if she’d just stayed in Paris.

Just to make things better, Mrs. Holland reveals that her husband left the family, well, rather broke. Appearances must be maintained, however, which means marrying Elizabeth off to someone rich, and quickly, so his family can rescue theirs. Fortunately for her, William Schoonmaker is thinking of entering politics and has to figure out what to do about his son, Henry. While a drunk, playboy son is a bad thing for a politician to have, a handsome young son married to well thought of young lady with excellent breeding is just perfect. The parents couldn’t be happier. The children couldn’t be more miserable. Not helping things is the fact that Henry is Penelope’s secret lover. Also not helping things is that Henry doesn’t think very much of Elizabeth, but is almost immediately smitten with Diana, and decides to steal a kiss before Diana finds out he’s her future brother-in-law. Diana, incidentally, is far less than pleased when she learns he did that right after proposing. And oh yes, Lina is in love with Will, too.

THE SCANDALS! All this in the first 100~ pages!

(And I am again surprised by the things people can get up to in YA! Clearly, I have been depriving myself all these years I wasn’t paying attention to the genre!)