It only takes one person to start a rumor…

And it can be a very juicy rumor indeed.  One person’s statement can spread like wildfire, changing a person’s reputation forever.

This is definitely the case in Rumors, the second in the Luxe Novel series by Anna Gobberson.  Continuing right from where The Luxe left off, we start again with a prologue of Henry Schoonmaker getting married, but to whom?  The book then goes back to the beginning, leading up to the prologue.

Everyone is tragically mourning Elizabeth, who “died” in the last novel, but really escaped out west to find Will, who she truly loved.  Elizabeth didn’t want to marry Henry, who actually loves Diana, while Penelope is obsessed with Henry.  However, only Diana and Penelope know Elizabeth is alive, and Penelope is taking Elizabeth’s place as society’s darling – putting on a show to make her seem like a better candidate to become Henry’s wife.  Even Elizabeth’s old maid Lina, now the society darling Carolina due to information Lina gave to Penelope about Elizabeth is making the rounds in the Manhattan social circles.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth gets a note from Diana about their mother being ill.  Elizabeth heads home to New York with Will.  Diana and Henry still dance around each other, finally making love but being discovered by the maid, who is Lina’s sister.  Scandal ensues when Lina feeds this information to Penelope.  How will Penelope use this information to her advantage?  Does Elizabeth get her happy ending with Will?  I’ll leave that up to you to discover – I couldn’t put the novel down last night because I had forgotten about all the suspense that occurs at the end, and I don’t like spoiling novels for people!

Anyway, what will happen next to these characters?  There are two more books left in the series – Envy and Splendor.  Hopefully we’ll see Diana finally get to be with Henry, or will Penelope get her way once again?  Find out next week when I review Envy!