Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Envy
    Envy
    Envy
    Audiobook9 hours

    Envy

    Written by Anna Godbersen

    Narrated by Nina Siemaszko

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Gossip Girl meets the Gilded Age in this delicious and compelling novel, the third in the New York Times bestselling series from author Anna Godbersen.

    In the thrilling third installment of Anna Godbersen’s bestselling Luxe series, Manhattan’s most envied residents appear to have everything they desire: Wealth. Beauty. Happiness. But sometimes the most practiced smiles hide the most scandalous secrets.

    Jealous whispers. Old rivalries. New betrayals. This is Manhattan, 1899.

    Two months after Elizabeth Holland’s dramatic homecoming, Manhattan eagerly awaits her return to the pinnacle of society. When Elizabeth refuses to rejoin her sister Diana’s side, however, those watching New York’s favorite family begin to suspect that all is not as it seems behind the stately doors of No. 17 Gramercy Park South.

    Farther uptown, Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the city’s most celebrated couple. But despite the glittering diamond ring on Penelope’s finger, the newlyweds share little more than scorn for each other. And while the newspapers call Penelope’s social-climbing best friend, Carolina Broad, an heiress, her fortune—and her fame—is anything but secure.

    “Mystery, romance, jealousy, betrayal, humor, and gorgeous, historically accurate details. I couldn’t put The Luxe down!” —Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Gossip Girl series

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 10, 2009
    ISBN9780061709609
    Author

    Anna Godbersen

    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.

    More audiobooks from Anna Godbersen

    Related to Envy

    Titles in the series (4)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    YA Mysteries & Detective Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Real-life Hero

      May 13, 2020

      Real-life Hero
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Only Rule

      Jul 13, 2020

      There is only one rule in polite English society, but it is iron clad. Of course, polite English society is a fiction. For one thing, its members are rarely polite. Politeness is for the middle classes rather than those who live off ancestral acres o

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      Yohanca Delgado

      Mar 9, 2021

      The widow arrived at LaGuardia on a Sunday, but the rumors about the woman who had rented a big apartment, sight unseen, had taken an earlier flight. We had already reviewed, on many occasions and in hushed tones, in the quiet that comes after long h

      15 min read

    • Article

      Manhattan, 2035

      Mar 26, 2021

      There were problems with being the daughter of a former it girl. First of all, the designation, which, as her mother grew older, warped slightly across the society pages, affecting her mood. Most people remembered her mother’s modelling stints, brush

      4 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      ABATH For All SEASONS

      Jul 4, 2019

      ABATH For All SEASONS
      7 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      Nothing to Declare

      Jun 15, 2019

      All the senior partners were having a laugh about a movie they’d seen. Forty-Five Years. Something, something about the movie taking forty-five years to sit through. The woman McGuinness thought he recognized was in it with them at the far end of the

      24 min read

    • Article

      ‘My Life With Princess Diana’

      Sep 11, 2023

      ‘My Life With Princess Diana’
      3 min read

    • Article

      In Love And War

      Jun 10, 2021

      April 1943 - Krakow, Poland Irena was bent over her needlework, stitching the frayed seam of her skirt when she heard a single gunshot ring out. She jerked and then scowled. After four years of war, she ought to be used to it. Why, the other night a

      11 min read

    • Article

      Reginald’s Party

      Jul 10, 2022

      For the fourth time that evening, Reginald smoothed his moustache in the mirror. It was perfect. Was it? Just a touch here… Now it was perfect. Soon his guests would arrive—only a few this evening, a small coterie from the Mayfair Club, on whom he co

      27 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Jun 18, 2015

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      Hardly Never in Vegas: Fat Johnny Little and Salty Salt Sue make a break for the desert.

      Aug 8, 2013

      Salty Salt Sue met Fat Johnny Little at a card game so hot it burned a girl, the sultry Louisiana night dampening her clothes, making her tingle from the waist down. She sat next to Vinnie DeLuca, who bore a passing resemblance to Dillinger—his penci

      11 min read

    • Article

      OreoArroyo

      Jul 6, 2021

      WHEN THE STRIPPER STRUTTED INTO THE LIBRARY, SHE COULDN’T hide her dismay. Probably, she and her bodyguard expected a bachelor party or investment bankers celebrating a big deal at the mansion overlooking the Newport Coast. She wouldn’t have anticipa

      21 min read

    • Article

      Come the DAWN

      Apr 8, 2020

      Come the DAWN
      21 min read

    • Article

      Raiders From The Sea

      Sep 1, 2023

      CANNY LIFTED HER head from the swirls of gold and red and put down the brush, stretching her frozen fingers. The sun fell through the scriptorium window in warm panels, but the room was still cold, and she’d been at work on the manuscript in front of

      7 min read

    • Article

      ‘The End of the Day’: Featured Fiction from Bill Clegg

      Sep 30, 2020

      An excerpt from a novel Kirkus called "A moody, atmospheric domestic drama with a mystery novel somewhere in its family tree." The post ‘The End of the Day’: Featured Fiction from Bill Clegg appeared first on The Millions.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Suspicious Circumstances

      Aug 10, 2022

      Suspicious Circumstances
      7 min read

    • Article

      Suspicious Circumstances

      Aug 10, 2022

      Suspicious Circumstances
      7 min read

    • Article

      Venice Peach

      Oct 2, 2023

      1. THE DRESSMAKER AND THE HIDDEN SOLDIER by Doug Gold (A&U) WWII thriller about Kiwi soldier and Greek dressmaker 2. SUMMER FAVOURITES by Vanya Insull (A&U) Recipes from @vj_cooks 3. TE REO KAPEKAPE: Māori Wit and Humour by Hona Black (Oratia) Having

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Lost Prayer

      Feb 2, 2023

      A Lost Prayer
      10 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Typewriter

      Aug 2, 2021

      Chère Madame. Vous ne vous rappelleriez pas de moi, mais de ma part… Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap… She flicks the return bar – PING – and her fingers fall back into rhythm. Catherine’s French comes as naturally as the movement of her

      5 min read

    • Article

      Only a Fragrance

      Sep 1, 2022

      Only a Fragrance
      3 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Feb 26, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      10 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Envy

    4/5

    389 ratings26 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      This review may make little sense to anyone who has not read the first two installments in Anna Godberson’s YA Luxe series. You’ve been warned.Also, there is this: Godberson’s books fulfill, for all intents and purposes, the same place in my heart as my Friday cupcake dates with my son. We eat well all week. We go to mom and baby classes. I go to the gym and he plays on the playground. We like tofu and V8. Look here, we also like cupcakes from The Library Coffee Company.Likewise, I am thoroughly enjoying Godberson’s little four-part series on life between the centuries in (sometimes) lavish Manhattan. It’s full of gossip and scandal and, really, I just don’t have to defend myself to you people.Enough of this and on with the story.For those of you have read the first two books, this, again, will make much more sense.I didn’t realize how little I liked the second book until I finished the third. If Rumors was lacking anything, it lacked the speed and feeling that started in The Luxe and returned in Envy. I thought the series would flounder sans a few key characters from the first and second volumes but Anna managed to keep interests elsewhere.While the same romance and intrigue abounded in the most recent book, I did find myself cringing often for the same reason I never fully loved Harry Potter: There were just too many scripted moments where I, as a reader, found myself yelling, “No! What are you thinking?!” I know it would have been far less dramatic without certain precarious situations but it did require some suspension of disbelieve in the “credulous actions” category.All in all, though, it was a fun progression of the story. For those who have kept up with the other three books my character allegiance lies as such after this story: I adore Miss Diana, can’t stand Carolina and am bored to death by Elizabeth without Will.
    • 5/5
      I went on a Luxe binge, reading this and "Rumors" on my vacation. Luxurious getaway fiction; the restrictive social mores of the time make the betrayals, conniving and rebellious acts even more titillating. I found Diana's desperate act at the end too impulsive to believe given the era but what the hell, I'll be there to see what happens when "Splendor" is released. The reading equivalent of eating bon-bons!
    • 5/5
      Yet another intriguing novel in this series.
    • 4/5
      This is the 3rd in the Luxe series and I think my favorite!
    • 4/5
      This is the third novel in the Luxe series. In this book each of the characters seems to be getting further and further away from what they want, even if it appears that they are getting all they want.
    • 3/5
      As always, the cover is beautiful. I only wish I loved the book as much as I love the cover. I hate to say this, but the ending just wasn't satisfying for me. Maybe my problem is that I think things weren't resolved well for the characters. Yes, there's another book, but I just couldn't see how anything would be fixed from this point on. Also, what were these characters thinking? I know they're flawed and that's fine, but I honestly couldn't understand why they did what they did. If the author can't make me completely believe in characters, then I can't be as attached to the story as I should be.
    • 5/5
      Go, Diana, Go!!!!! It's strange, hers is not usually the type of character that ends up as a favourite, but I love her to bits. Change of scenery this time, still as exciting as ever, and it is nothing like that steaming pile of shit, Gossip Girl!
    • 3/5
      This entire series was, indeed, Gossip Girl for the 19th century set. Or a soap opera. Godbersen's positively a sadist regarding her characters though, one tragedy after another! Definitely a good guilty pleasure.
    • 3/5
      Just like the other two books in the series this one was just as catty-licious. This one focuses more on the relationships between Diana, Henry and the evil Penelope. I really love the drama, even though the character reactions and events were a bit predictable. I can’t wait to get the next one- Splendor.
    • 3/5
      Is it just me, or did Godbersen totally rip off Scarlett's "Tomorrow is another day" bit in one of the end scenes?
    • 3/5
      This is the same as all the other books, evil Penny getting her way, and poor Henry and Diana being the end of the evil. I was finally glad that Henry maned up and joined the Army, although it didn't have to be that way. I really hope that Elizabeth finds some happiness in the 4th book, and Henry and Diana better get together in the end or this will be a stupid series.
    • 4/5
      This series is the only reason I've ever even looked at historical fiction books. Enough said.
    • 5/5
      This is the amazing third installment in one of the best series I have read in a long time. See my reviews of the other books in this series!
    • 4/5
      As we travel back to NYC, quite a bit has changed. Elizabeth is back, Diana is still in love, but now it’s with a married man, Penelope is unhappily married but will do anything to fix it and Lina, well she now goes by Carolina and has climbed the ranks quickly.It’s time for Elizabeth to put her past in the past and get back into society. This means she must accept a trip to Florida with “the group”, including her former fiance Henry, who is now married to Penelope and had a tryst with Di. WOWZA love triangle!But it’s not all drinks and the beach, because of a death, one guest leaves early, two join the military, a marriage is all but br0ken and at least one society girl has a baby on board.I love this series because I love diving into the past. I’ve never been one good with history, but anything involving royalty and the wealthy, I am in. The beauty and luxury of this series keeps me gripped. The writing is amazing and makes me feel like I’m 100+ years in the past. But what I love about it most is that although we are in a completely different century, there is still the same drama. There are still the catty girls and the drama love triangles.I do admit I made a boo boo here. Envy is the 3rd in the series. I skipped over Rumors, which I’ll make next on my list and will surely be angry because I’ll already know the outcome. Oh well.I give Envy 4 bookmarks.
    • 4/5
      Envy is the third book in the Luxe series and also the second to the final book. Our characters are up to their usual and the drama continues. This book offers a nice change of scenery because everyone ends up on vacation in Florida. Penelope's brother, Grayson Hayes, has a bigger role in this installment as does Teddy Cutting. Elizabeth spends most of the book depressed of the death of Will and basically feeling guilty and sorry for herself. Again, her storyline is predictable and boring. Carolina is still trying to play the role of a rich socialite but also may find herself wrapped up in a love triangle all her own. Henry, Diana, and Penelope are still playing their roles in a love triangle despite the marriage at the end of the previous book. There are a lot of misunderstandings that cause a lot of the drama.One thing I like about this series is that the titles have all stayed true to the contents of the book. As the series progresses, you begin to notice some parallels in some of the stories and some are not as obvious as others. Similarly, some things are very, very predictable but there are some twists to hold your interest. Diana Holland has been and still is my favorite character in this series. She is young and naive and she reminds us girls of how we were when we first fell in love. You can't help to be on her side and hope that everything works out between her and Henry. Speaking of Henry, he is very frustrating but seems to be trying to do what he thinks is right. Just when you start to like him, he does something to make you dislike him all over again. This book was good but I'm hoping the last book blows me away. This series has been good but not spectacular and not a page turner.
    • 3/5
      This review may make little sense to anyone who has not read the first two installments in Anna Godberson’s YA Luxe series. You’ve been warned.Also, there is this: Godberson’s books fulfill, for all intents and purposes, the same place in my heart as my Friday cupcake dates with my son. We eat well all week. We go to mom and baby classes. I go to the gym and he plays on the playground. We like tofu and V8. Look here, we also like cupcakes from The Library Coffee Company.Likewise, I am thoroughly enjoying Godberson’s little four-part series on life between the centuries in (sometimes) lavish Manhattan. It’s full of gossip and scandal and, really, I just don’t have to defend myself to you people.Enough of this and on with the story.For those of you have read the first two books, this, again, will make much more sense.I didn’t realize how little I liked the second book until I finished the third. If Rumors was lacking anything, it lacked the speed and feeling that started in The Luxe and returned in Envy. I thought the series would flounder sans a few key characters from the first and second volumes but Anna managed to keep interests elsewhere.While the same romance and intrigue abounded in the most recent book, I did find myself cringing often for the same reason I never fully loved Harry Potter: There were just too many scripted moments where I, as a reader, found myself yelling, “No! What are you thinking?!” I know it would have been far less dramatic without certain precarious situations but it did require some suspension of disbelieve in the “credulous actions” category.All in all, though, it was a fun progression of the story. For those who have kept up with the other three books my character allegiance lies as such after this story: I adore Miss Diana, can’t stand Carolina and am bored to death by Elizabeth without Will.
    • 5/5
      This was my favorite book in the series. I love the whimsical quality of the writing and descriptions; you're able to immerse yourself in the story and setting, from Manhattan to Palm Beach. The characters are uniquely lovely in their own ways and also very well-crafted and are able to make you sympathize, hope, and love with them. And, of course, I love the beautiful cover...
    • 4/5
      reviewherespoilersThis series is compared a lot to Gossip Girl and for good reason, but it reminds me, in ways, of Dangerous Liasions and the like. There are a lot of manipulations on the part of Penelope and she is really the one who sets everything in motion. After having blackmailed Henry into marrying her, she is desperate to keep him so she concocts many plots to dispute Diana Holland, the girl Henry really loves, and make herself look better. Really Penelope would have been better off leaving Henry alone. Why she felt she had to marry him, I don't know. I understood why she had to keep him though. At that time, a divorce would have been such a scandal and Penelope traps herself into her own situation. I was getting such a Scarlett/Rhett vibe from Penelope and Henry in this book, it was a little weird.The Hollands were less interesting in this book especially Elizabeth. I expected such a great showing from her especially at how Rumors ended, but she fell flat. Although I do hope she marries Teddy somehow. She should have married him in the first place, because the whole Will plot was stupid in the end. And Diana was ridiculous trying to somehow keep Henry and never really getting it. He is trapped and he will never be better than who he is (like Nate in GG). So I'm hoping for something more interesting in Splendor, the last book.As an aside, I did find some of the historical trivia thrown in very interesting. For example, women had to wear stocking with the swimsuits on the beach and couldn't show any flesh. And I love the description of all the clothes. It seems so beautiful if stifling.
    • 3/5
      This was definitely not a very thought provoking novel, but quite enjoyable if you're interested in beautiful dresses, high society parties and scandles.I enjoyed the whole series so far, although I have not read the fourth installment.
    • 5/5
      That delightful mix of high society in NYC at the turn of the century and Gossip Girls-type plots make this a great read. I couldn't put it down, and although book 2 ends in a way that has you reaching for the next book, it is a great, engaging read!
    • 3/5
      Anna Godbersen’s two ‘Luxe’ novels – Rumours and Envy – are truly guilty pleasures, very much in the fantastical Barbara Cartland style of bodice-ripper, although better written and certainly more sexually explicit. The Holland family is at the apex of fin de siecle New York society and the two daughters of the house, fascinatingly fair Elizabeth and bewitchingly brunette Diana – are the toast of the town. Elizabeth’s betrothal to the divinely beautiful millionaire playboy Henry Schoonmaker seems pre-ordained – until the bride-to-be is kidnapped, presumed dead, leaving her fiancé bereft and her family destitute. Like soap operas, Chick Fic’s most endearing quality is its sheer unlikeliness: Elizabeth isn’t dead, just eloped with the groom; Henry is not bereft because he is in love with Diana, and a cast of amoral vixens and adventurers haunt the pages with little better to do than thwart the cause of true love. The villain Penelope blackmails Henry into abandoning Diana and marrying her and at the same time Elizabeth’s groom is spotted by the police and shot dead, since they believe he has kidnapped his mistress – and so ends Rumours…Envy is even more unexpectedly absurd and the Holland girls are invited to go on holiday with the newly wed Schoonmakers and, naturally, Henry and Diana resume their relationship much to the fury of the evil Penelope. The book ends with Henry heading off to war: when dainty Diana hears this she cuts off her long, lustrous curls, puts on an old army coat, dons a man’s bowler hat, and sets off to enlist with him, posing as a man.That exquisite face, that swan neck, those perfect breasts, that delicate yet deliciously curvy little body is magically transformed by just a change of apparel – but that is how things work in the world of Chick Fic and you either accept it or don’t bother reading it at all. Great fun – total tosh of course but the ridiculously entertaining pages are peopled by beauties with great grey eyes, magnificent clusters of wild curls, tiny, plump pouting mouths and pearly teeth, floating along an absurdly small feet, in a flurry of fur, feathers, frills and flounces. Fabulous.
    • 5/5
      By far, I would have to say Envy was the best book in the Luxe series. Blackmail, romance, and of course, gossip! Penelope blackmails Henry into marrying her, and since karma's a b*tch, they have a VERY unhappy marriage. How better to rub it in (to Diana)that she married Schoonmaker than by suggesting everyone (and by everyone, I mean EVERYONE) come on a trip to Florida with the newlyweds. Meanwhile, Elizabeth finds out she's pregnant with Will's child, and feels guilty after feeling sparks with Teddy. Ooh, big surprise ending, TEDDY AND HENRY JOIN THE ARMY! And shocker, Diana cuts her hair and joins too.
    • 2/5
      The sparkle has gone off this series for me, and I found this final volume a little tedious. Elizabeth's troubles are obvious, Diana is too easily manipulated, and Penelope is too one dimensional. Other characters are cardboard as well. I am relieved to find that there is only one book left to complete the story.I'd only give this to fans of the previous volumes.
    • 5/5
      Candy for the mind -- and most definitely set up for a fourth novel. I can hardly wait!
    • 3/5
      I keep telling people that I don't really like these books, but that's a lie. I love the Luxe novels. Not for any exciting or deep reasons, but because, no matter how frustrating they are, they're really fun. And I cannot not read them -- I need to know what happens. Evny is the third of four (or more) Luxe novels by Anna Godbersen and to me, it was the best of the three. While nothing was quite resolved, and things got seriously out of hand, the character development of Elizabeth, Diana, Penelope, Henry and Teddy has expanded exponentially. Without going into too many spoilers, the end of Envy is probably one of the most surprising aspects of all three novels, and probably the most interesting. I'm pleased with the path Godbersen chose for Henry and Diana, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.
    • 5/5
      Envy continues the scandalous adventures of Penelope, Diana, Elizabeth, Carolina, Henry, and the rest of New York society in 1900. It's delightfully addicting and I couldn't put it down! I'm already looking forward to the next one.