Poetry of Reading

Splendor brings Anna Godbersen’s Luxe series to a close, and what a tremendous ending it is! All the loose threads are tied up, but not always so neatly; the four main young women find that life doesn’t always give you what you thought you wanted, but you’ve got to make peace with yourself no matter what. Splendor is told in alternating chapters that focus on each of the young women and take them through the trials that will ultimately lead them to that peace, whatever it is.

The book opens with Diana Holland having traveled to Havana in search of Henry Schoonmaker, who has joined the army to escape his shrew of a wife, Penelope. While the young lovers are reunited, Penelope herself started to realize that maybe she was too hasty in marrying Henry, and sets her eye on a Bavarian prince who is looking lustfully back at her. Meanwhile, both Elizabeth Holland and Carolina Broad have achieved contentment: Elizabeth has married her father’s business partner to give her unborn child a name, and Carolina’s past as a maid is firmly behind her as she falls in love with the handsome Leland. Of course, none of these flows smoothly, and all the young women are subjected to tragedies of varying degrees.

In this last installment, Ms. Godbersen does the remarkable: she allows her characters to achieve a sense of maturity without being preachy or giving them fairy tale endings. The book is filled with fashion and romance, betrayal and reconciliation, and it could not have been a more fitting ending to this series.