The Luxe Deluxe

I have to admit that when I first started hearing about these books, I couldn't help but think oh not another one. Something like Gossip Girls or one of those equally superficial series, the only difference being it was set in a time where girls wore bustles and corsets instead of slut skirts that proudly displayed their wax jobs.

And you know what? I haven't even read the series yet and I already know I'm wrong. I *heart* intuition, right?

What really has me frothing at the mouth to read these is the fact that it's set in old New York. It had me going chocolate? What? Where? My love for New York and all things New York runs so deep. I'm actually (sort of) writing my own historical fiction set in New York (further back than this, maybe closer to the Civil War) that I haven't looked at in a while but every time I do I don't think it's half bad (some of the stuff I wrote that I look back on I just want to burn, but not this) and even my writing professor saw a huge potential in that story. It just needs developing . . . and direction. No small feat but I can do it.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. When I see something set in old New York, I want to read it. Immediately. Gangs of New York is one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite books (the two are pretty drastically different, Martin Scorsese pretty much just took some names from the book and created a plot, the book is more of a text book than a linear story with any kind of plot), as is Forever by Pete Hamill. It's not YA but if you love old New York, or New York in general, that's a book you want to read. Hamill is a New York nut too and it shows. New York, even in the time of these girls in the Luxe series was truly disgusting. Hamill portrays it so well you can actually taste the stench. One of the most poignant points the book made was that the MC couldn't understand how all these people could have sex because they smelled so damn bad. But when they all smelled that bad, there was no smell at all, was there? Obviously I don't do the description justice and it's definitely an opposite life from this series but it all existed on the same island. The Museum of the City of New York is a great place to start for NYC information.

So, needless to say, these books have been added to my paper TBR pile and will be read, probably with rabid fervor. And that Harper Collins website is pretty cool too. I love that video although I don't love bustles. Like my ass isn't fat enough. So what other books would you recommend that are along these lines? Spill it!