| Title | : | The Splendor Falls |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0385736908 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780385736909 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 518 |
| Publication | : | First published September 8, 2009 |
Sylvie Davis is a ballerina who can’t dance. A broken leg ended her career, but Sylvie’s pain runs deeper. What broke her heart was her father’s death, and what’s breaking her spirit is her mother’s remarriage—a union that’s only driven an even deeper wedge into their already tenuous relationship.
Uprooting her from her Manhattan apartment and shipping her to Alabama is her mother’s solution for Sylvie’s unhappiness. Her father’s cousin is restoring a family home in a town rich with her family’s history. And that’s where things start to get shady. As it turns out, her family has a lot more history than Sylvie ever knew. More unnerving, though, are the two guys that she can’t stop thinking about. Shawn Maddox, the resident golden boy, seems to be perfect in every way. But Rhys—a handsome, mysterious foreign guest of her cousin’s—has a hold on her that she doesn’t quite understand.
Then she starts seeing things. Sylvie’s lost nearly everything—is she starting to lose her mind as well?
The Splendor Falls Reviews
-
Overall 4.5 stars!
The Splendor Falls centers around Sylvie, a retired principal ballerina. A career that means she is an extremely skinny person much to the chagrin of her Southern relatives who want to feed her mercilessly. She even claims at one point that another character Clara "feeds her like [she's:] and underweight turkey in September"! LOL! Now that her career is over due to an injury she is in a funk as she is having to replan her once determined future. Her mother has also just married and is going on her honeymoon so Sylvie is shipped off to Alabama to regroup so to speak. And that's when everything goes wonky, crazy, and creepy! Oh and she meets the oh so handsome Rhys with his Welsh accent and Shawn with his good ole boy charm. The triangle between the 3 was entertaining but was very obvious from the start who the winner would be.
The first half of this book has an extremely slow start. I kept turning the pages less from suspense of the plot and more from the idea that eventually something had to happen. Sadly though it isn't until about 1/2 way through the book that things pick up a bit. The beginning could really benefit from some MAJOR condensing and editing.
The second half of the book though was fast paced, eerie, creepy, mysterious, everything enticing you to read faster and longer until you could discover what the hell was really going on right alongside Sylvie. The very end of the book wrapped things up just a little too nicely, everyone gets their come-up-ins in a way, which was a bit convenient, but I do love closure so it still worked for me,
And not that I have anything against little toy dogs (hell I have 2 Yorkshire terriers, one of them only 4lbs and the other 8) but they can be extremely annoying. Gigi though was all of the adorable and insanely cute things about toy dogs rolled into one with none of the annoying drawbacks like yipping and chewing all your stilettos into oblivion. And she always contributes to a scene. For example, Sylvie is walking off in a huff after yet another argument/misunderstanding/whatever with Rhys in the following scene:For the second day in a row, I left him standing in the garden. Though I suspect the majesty of my departure was undermined by the Chihuahua prancing at my heels.
Just fabulous! That little dog acts as an ice breaker, a comedic relief, a friend, a comforter, and a savior. That's a lot of responsibility for a 6 lb long haired Chihuahua to shoulder yet she does it while prancing!
Overall the first half needed to be like 50 pages condensed and the second half could have had another 20 pages added on, thus minus 1/2 a star, but still awesome and highly recommended! I am actually sad that this is not a series because I would love to spend more time with Sylvie and GiGi! -
- - Spoilers - -
I usually try to list the positive aspects to a novel in my review
However, in this case it was hard to do.
Splendor Falls is really a Novella encased in a longer story of Gigi, the pet Chihuahua dog.
I think that the Author should go back to the 'Drawing Board' or in this case,
the Writing Board.
Sylvie Davis is a ballerina that has had an accident and who's career has ended.
With her father’s death and mother’s remarriage, Sylvie goes to spend the summer with
her father’s cousin in Alabama.
She soon learns about her family's history while being distracted by two guys.
The Title as well as the synopsis is misleading.
It should have been named "Splendor Gigi"
it was as if the dog, a Chihuahua,
was the Main Character and
everyone else was the back drop or
an after thought.
The overall concept of the storyline was interesting but
The main focus was the dog Gigi:
- how cute Gigi is
- feeding Gigi
- walking Gigi
- dressing Gigi
- sneaking Gigi into of the girl's bedroom at night
"Come On" Rosemary Clement-Moore !!
the Girl and I say girl because I can not seem to remember any of the other character's name besides Gigi..
the girl, like I said,
should have been sneaking a Boy into of her room not Gigi ; )
There was more character development and action for Gigi than for other Important characters like:
- Sylvie's parents, her Father especially
- the mysterious Rhys
- Shawn
- Addie
- the Teen Town Council
and of course..
- Sylvie
The author could / should have touched upon anyone of the characters listed above with less focus on Gigi.
It is just a little disappointing to read about a person's Pet when
the Book's description hinted at being a
Gothic Romance Mystery.
It should have come under the subject
'Animal Lovers'
People gave good reviews because they could see a good 'Concept'
*However
Great story Concept But it fell short of actually pulling it off.
~ Quit Disappointing -
Also das Buch hat mich einfach tootal überrascht. Habe überhaupt nicht mit so einer guten Story gerechnet! Super spannend und total unvorhersehbar! Ein tolles Mystery Buch, dass ich jedem nur empfehlen kann! Perfekt für die Sommerferien :D
-
Can love last beyond the grave?
3.5 stars I like the cover of this book and even though I'm not exactly sure why it's called The Splendor Falls, I like the title too. Both the title and the cover just sort of beckoned me to read it, promising a lot of good gothic mystery.
The book is about Sylvie, a girl who lives in Manhattan, and who is recuperating from a tragic and freak accident which has left her unable to continue with her ballet career, a career that meant everything to her. Sylvie has also been struggling with the loss of her dad, and to make matters worse her mother has now remarried and this has driven a wedge between Sylvie and her mother. Her mother decides that what Sylvie needs is to visit a distant relative in Alabama who happens to be restoring an old family home there. Strange things begin to happen and Sylvie begins to think she's seeing things that aren't there.
I must say that I had a hard time keeping my head in this book for about the first 100 pages. In my opinion it took way too long to get to the meat of the story. I think the book is just too long in general, and it didn't need to be over 500 pages long. When we finally get to the old southern mansion where the story takes place, instead of pulling us into the mansion and its surroundings and enthralling us with it, the author makes the mistake of focusing in too much on Silvie's pet dog Gigi for a good portion of the book. I felt like this distracted from the mystery and the feel of the surroundings.
I can't really say at what point I became engrossed in the story, it was well into the book, but there was a point where Gigi seemed to fade into the background and the story finally took off. The atmosphere of the book changed and suddenly I couldn't put it down. From that point on the book deserves 4 stars. I would say it probably deserved 2 stars before that.
There were two guys in this book that Silvie meets and finds attractive for different reasons. Rhys and Shawn. I liked that even though she was interested in them and they in her it didn't take over the story. The romance was very light and Silvie wasn't all consumed by thoughts of the two guys, so it didn't feel like I was reading a love triangle or anything. I thought Silvie and of course Gigi, were both very well drawn characters. Its just a shame that the rest of the supporting characters couldn't have been more fleshed out. More attention to Rhys and less to Gigi would have improved the book. I liked Rhys and I just wanted more of him.
Overall I ended up liking this book quite a bit. I thought it ended well although there was one thing I thought might be revealed that ended up not being the case .
Review also posted at
Writings of a Reader -
This book was a disappointment. The beginning was very well done, it was easy to getg swept up in Sylvie's bitter teenage angst about losing her ballerina career and being forced to live with a distant relative in the boondocks. The mystery part had a horror-story element, leading to the combination of fascination and disgust that makes the franchise popular.
But after Chapter Twenty-Six the book became a car wreck. And by car wreck, it was like watching an out of control car with no breaks crash, while horrified bystanders stood watching.
The supernatural stuff made Twilight a work of literature. Not only did the ending read like a bad chick-flick, but it completely ruined the entire mystery of the story by adding it. The actual mystery itself was resolved, tepidly, but only after the guy-gets-girl-kiss, cue credits and happy song.
Historical-fiction + mystery? = Fantastic
Chick-flick + supernatural = Adding salt instead of sugar for the final step of a cake. -
Devastated by an injury that broke her leg and destroyed her career as a ballerina, 17 year old Sylvie Davis reluctantly goes to visit a cousin in Alabama. There, for the first time, she sees the imposing family home, now being turned into a B&B by Cousin Paula, and Sylvie begins to wonder why her recently deceased father never returned or even mentioned Bluestone Hill. While investigating secrets of the past and present that threaten her life and possibly her sanity, Sylvie is also faced with the question of how much she would sacrifice to regain her dancing career.
This started slow, and while at times I felt the heroine was a bit too whiney, then I had to admit I would experience the same bleakness and depression about the future in Sylvie's situation. And while I don't like little dogs, the relationship between Sylvie and her dog (at one point she credits the dog for getting her through the pain of her injury) was very convincing. I also appreciated the way author managed to link Alabama and Wales. -
I ended up DNFing less than 100 pages from the end. By that point it had been revealed what the bad guys were up to, and I was no longer interested in seeing how it would all play out. I think that had to do with the length and dullness of the building, and the anticlimactic nature of the reveal despite the shoddy foreshadowing. It's a shame, because there were some really good elements and ideas that I don't feel were used to their full potential.
Some people complain about the love triangle, but honestly, I don't feel it was a proper love triangle, especially given the publication year. Throughout the whole book the MC is drawn to two guys, but with one of them she acknowledges it's only a surface attraction to his politician-like charm. She doesn't actually like him, and there's never any danger she's going to be with him. However, I found the main love interest pretty condescending, and when they got together, it seemed like they should have gotten to know each other better first.
So, I didn't expect much from this book, but I was actually disappointed that all the cool threads didn't really pan out. At first it reminded me of two other books I enjoyed,
Dreadful Sorry and
The China Garden, but ultimately it was much duller and too long to keep my interest. -
After a devastatingly embarrassing and crippling accident onstage that handicaps her leg and permanently throws her plans of being a prima ballerina astray (who's ever heard of a one-legged ballerina, anyways?), Sylvie Davis is at a loss in regards to what to make of the rest of her life. When she accidentally gets drunk at a wedding (her mindset being: what the heck, I'm crippled and my life sucks so why not drink a bit and oopsies-) and sees things that shouldn't be there (which, by the way, was a very cool thing that she sees, historical freak that I am!), her mom and stepfather-to-be sends her to the deep South (Alabama, to her dad's family's old plantation-turned-bed & breakfast, to be exact) to "dry out". But dry out she does not. Instead, she is faced with a situation more dire than anything that might have happened had she stayed in New York, one that invokes terrifying chills and things that go bump at night. Once arrived at Bluestone Hill, the old family home, she is faced with a plethora of mysteries. Of what kind, you ask? All kinds! Boys, ghosts, and century-old questions.
THE SPLENDOR FALLS has got to be one of my favorite books ever. It's definitely a slow read at first, but I found it enchanting to read about the workings of a small Southern town and a Manhattan trust-fund girl like Sylvie trying to find her place in such a setting. People, there are food descriptions in this book. Good, mouth-watering Southern dishes that made my stomach rumble in envy as I read. And aside from the delectable foods, Clement-Moore sprinkles in perfect helpings of romance and love-triangle dilemma and bone-chilling ghosties. The chapters alternate between idyllic and heart-pounding--there were several chapters interspersed throughout the story that were downright creepy. I could imagine the ghosts and eerie whispers of things long past as Sylvie experienced them, leaving me jumpy at the slightest noise and nervously checking over my shoulder every so often to assure my paranoid self that no, there were no sinister ghosts lurking in the shadowy corners of my room (unlike Sylvie's room...). Brrr.
The two probable love interests are the right amounts of charming and infuriating; I enjoyed Sylvie's interactions with both of them, in part because thankfully Sylvie does not act like a love-smitten fool in their presence, as a great deal of YA female characters are inclined to do these days. Sylvie, the main character, felt like a truly fleshed-out character- cynical, perhaps, and grumpy at times- but I'd like to think that is the mark of a true teenager. Clement-Moore does such a good job establishing her person that I felt like she was a real human, someone who I could understand and relate to being a teenager myself. Each and every character had a distinctly unique personality, so I had no trouble distinguishing them. Like I previously mentioned, the book starts out at a stately pace, but in the last approximate 25% of the book, the speed picks up and it's nonstop action after confrontation after action!
The only complaint-and a small one at that-that I have with this book is that Clement-Moore puts a little too much emphasis on Sylvie's dog, Gigi, than I'd like. There was an overdose of dog-related occurrences that worked as a plot device and no doubt will appeal to dog lovers, but alas, being a non-dog-owner myself, I found to be a bit tiring after a while. But don't let that detract you from the book- it is a real gem!
Overall, a supremely wonderful, well-researched, and fantastically developed book. I really didn't want it to end, but it did...that was the only bad part of the book. -
Firstly, I will say that I did enjoy The Splendour Falls. It is an interesting and intriguing read, with paranormal and romance elements combined with a little mystery. One of the things I liked most was Sylvie, the main protagonist.
Sylvie's character is great. She is quite a refreshing change to the many young girls who fall at the feet of male suiters. Sylvie is a very mature seventeen year old and I really liked the way she went about things for a girl her age. Being smitten with two guys didn't reduce her to a girl who is unable function if they didn't look at her that day, instead she is bright, witty and intelligent and very much her own person. Sylvie definitely knows what she wants and that's to dance. To hone her ballet skills she has to train for hours and hours each day, which requires motivation, dedication and above all no distractions and to do this there has to be total focus. This shows Sylvie's strength of character. And although she may never dance again due to breaking her leg, she doesn't give up, instead she focuses her attention on finding information about her deceased father and her newly found family history.
Sylvie is definitely the main focus of this book and although there are other characters involved, we don't really get to know them. Her dog Gigi plays a bigger part than the two guys, Rhys and Shawn, who are Sylvie's love interests. At times it did feel as though it was the Sylvie & Gigi show. With that being said I loved Gigi, so utterly adorable. It's just a shame that the other characters weren't given the same attention. There is little in the way of romance in The Splendour Falls but it is alluded to. Obviously Sylve is attracted to Rhys, but the relationship didn't develop quickly enough or as much as I would have liked it to. There are a lot of smart retorts, hand brushing and skin tingling but not a lot else.
The beginning of the book starts off really well and is very easy to get into with Sylvie's character being instantly likable. But after around a hundred and fifty pages it plateaus and doesn't seem to go anywhere. What follows is a lot of repetition consisting of Sylvie waking up, going to breakfast, walking the dog, going to the garden, sneaking Gigi upstairs to her room, feeling as though she is being watched, checking it out, freaking out and thinking she is crazy. Then going to sleep just for it to happen again the next day. Of course this isn't all that happens. Some of her day is delving into her past and trying to learn about her family's history and trying to understand the ghosts she is seeing. Unfortunately, the story is lost in too much padding. I also feel as though the book goes on for far too long. There isn't enough story to warrant the five hundred plus pages, if it had been shorter it would have giving a more tightly packed story and therefore a more enjoyable read.
However, I was impressed with the writing as it flowed really well even when the story dragged a little and the quality of writing didn't diminish. Towards the latter part of the novel it did pick up pace and become quite exciting as all the pieces of the puzzle began to come together and my interest in the book and in Sylvie piqued again as I was pulled along with the story until the last page. At the end everything is wrapped up nicely and all the questions are answered. This is by no means an easy or quick read, but it's one I would recommend. -
I picked up this book because the back said there was a romance that would take my breath away. I'm all about the romance.
This story starts out slow, and goes slow the whole way through. There is nothing wrong with that, it is very detailed and you get a sense of living in Alabama. Yet, I had a question mark over my mind the whole book. What was really happening? There weren't many clues. I felt in the dark for the first 450 pages. I still read the book in 2 sittings, so I obviously thought it was good enough to keep going.
The love story did not blow me away. There definitely wasn't enough of it, and I wouldn't have put on the back that it would leave you breathless. It was barely there.
I did like the writing style and it moved effortlessly through the topics and situations. I just wish I knew more of what was going on than the day to day life. Overall, a nice debut novel, creative, and well written. Needed more romance, and a faster pace, but it was good overall.
Quote:
"Don't be obtuse princess. It's only because I'm a gentleman that I haven't let you know that I find Victorian ruffles insanely hot." -Rhys -
I truly, deeply, madly love this book.
-
The Splendor Fall by Rosemary Clement-Moore
2 starsSylvie Davis was a rising-star ballerina, but now she can’t dance because of an accident that ended her career and left her with a limp. After her mother marries a psychologist and they ship her off to Alabama for their honeymoon. When Sylvie arrives she starts experiencing strange things, like cold spots and is sure she starts seeing ghosts. Not mention she is having trouble figuring out two complicated guys (Rhys and Shawn), who both seem to have a lot of secrets. I picked up this book at my school’s book fair mainly because of the beautiful cover. There are times that I’m a cover whore, but I try not to be because of books like this. The synopsis on the back of the book sounded interesting and I thought I was in for a ghost story. Sadly, that was not the case. There wasn’t much of a ghost or a threatening presence. I was hoping for something like Sylvie getting thrown across the room or someone having to be put through an exorcism. I don't know something to make me feel like this.
Nope, no of that; and the ghost scene at the end was just as much of a letdown. The prologue and the first two chapters were promising and I thought I had found another winner, but the book slowly went downhill with all the mention of Sylvie’s dog Gigi. I don’t mind reading about characters that have dogs, but when the dog is almost in every sentence or thought, I can’t help but start hoping that this would happen to the dog. (Just picture Gigi the annoying Chihuahua as Regina)
I think there were only two scenes this entire book that did not involve Gigi and those two scenes were sweet bliss.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 2The main female character is Sylvie. Sylvie is your typical, snobby, annoying, mean girl. Even though she did change at the end, it wasn’t a drastic change and I just don’t like her. I think she should just shut up.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 1The two main male characters (love triangle) are Rhys and Shawn. Rhys was the best character in the whole book and he hardly had any character development, but when he was in scenes in this book, it was so much more bearable. Shawn was boring. I mean he’s the “perfect” guy. Puhlease, perfect guys bore me, but then he turned out not to be so perfect and it just proved that I was right all along.
Swoon Worthy Scale: Rhys 2.5 Shawn 1.5
The Villain- I can’t tell you that ‘cause then it would give away the ending. ;)
Villain Scale: 2
The characters made me wanna throw a shoe or a brick.
[image error] -
After her father dies and her mother marries her therapist, former ballerina Sylvie is sent to stay with unknown relatives in a small town in the South, where she discovers that her family has an ancestral mansion and a long local history. Are some of their secrets supernatural?
If this storyline sounds familiar, that's because it is. Clement-Moore does some original things with it, but the strongest aspect is Sylvie's vivid voice. Without that I would have given up halfway through, as the many interesting leads failed to materialize. Even with the solid narration I got tired of the same thoughts and actions over and over. This is realistic -- individuals do play over and over the same things that are currently concerning them -- but doesn't make for the best story. The plot unfolds quite slowly and most of the action is crammed in at the end. Again, probably realistic but not great reading. A few dozen passages of Sylvie thinking about guys, wondering if she were crazy, and running heedlessly into the woods could have been edited out to good effect. -
It took a lot of effort for me to finish The Splendor Falls. It was slow-paced, really slow makes me bored and almost didn't finish it. The whole mystery things apparently aren't that mystery except for Sylvie. But the most annoying thing with the book is the main character, Sylvie Davis who whine all the time, complain everything and rude to everyone.
I understand she couldn't dance anymore, something that she loves more than anything, but it doesn't mean that she have to be annoying and ungrateful person. Although she couldn't dance anymore at least she's safe and can walk with her feet and I think she never heard blessing in disguise. Here are the examples of her whine and complain:
I hated the cast, and I hated that Mother had made me lurch up the aisle like Igor in a Vera Wang bridesmaid dress.
of course she had to have cast for her injury, it's obvious. So why she didn't accept that and can't she be happy for her mother?
I eyed the back of my cousin’s head and lowered my voice to ask Rhys, ‘So, what’s with the soccer mom wagon?’It wasn’t the smoothest way to look for some hint as to whether or not Paula had kids. But I didn’t think it deserved the coolly sardonic look I got from Rhys. ‘Sorry I couldn’t manage a limousine, your highness.’
‘I figured if you wanted to, you could go to sleep back there. Traveling always wears me out.’
‘I can never sleep in a car.’ Or a plane, or a bus. I’d gotten a lot of reading done while on tour with the company
���You want a Coke or anything?’
‘Not unless someone wants to rush me to the hospital in a sugar coma,’ I said, returning somewhat to my sarcastic self.
Beside Sylvie, I also disturbed with her dog, Gigi. I don't have problems with dog or other animals in the story but if it always mention in every dialogue and every description, it makes me rubbed my temple all the time.
Gigi’s carrier bag hung from my shoulder, my fingers white-knuckled on the strap.
I ducked into the bathroom. It was empty, so I put Gigi’s bag on the counter while I splashed water on my face and reapplied some lip gloss
Gigi gave a soft yip of discontent.
'Gigi says hi'
It mentions before I know what or who Gigi is, even before other characters appear. And keep mention in every detail along the story. For my curiousity, I counted how many times Gigi's name mention in this book, there are 491 times! My god, can you believe it? 491 times in 34 chapters in 500 and so pages.
In the end, I relieved that I've been through it and survived with minor injured, only head ache and questioning my self why I read it in the first place. -
If you were the sort of teenager prone to flouncing and melodramatic sighs, this book might be right up your alley. When I was 15 or 16, I probably would have eaten this up. However, now I'm a tad more demanding of my books and I found myself rolling my eyes too much for true enjoyment.
Sylvie Davis is a young ballet dancer, but a freak injury at her solo debut ends her dancer career. Left adrift, she gets packed off to spend the summer with a cousin at her father's family home in Alabama. While there, Sylvie finds herself with not one, but two, possible love interests. There's the witty, wry Rhys Griffith, a Welsh student staying in her cousin's inn and then there's town golden boy Shawn Maddox.
Oh, and there might or might not be some ghostly activity, too. The house's history and possible supernatural stuff caught my attention, but since that part of the plot doesn't really get cranking until we're up past page 300, you can imagine how much patience I'd lost by that time. There's only so much angst and flirting one can put up with after all. Oh, and then there are the endless mentions of some group called the Teen Town Council. Yes, it gets mentioned in all caps and yes, they're everywhere - though don't count on getting an explanation for them until the book is well underway. If the sagging middle of this book doesn't get you, the "TTC this" and "TTC that" mentions just might send you over the edge.
Interesting ideas in this book, but the final product just didn't do it for me. -
I'm so glad I picked this book up. I thought it was well written, well played and well done. Loved it.
Update--June 12th 2015--I feel like reading this again actually...
Feb 26th 2021, reread. I had forgotten how well Clement-Moore blends the story of the past with the present, and the presence of magic - the kind that involves nature and ley lines. I quite enjoyed revisiting this old favourite. -
**2.5 stars rounded up**
I was originally going to give this 3 stars, but the last two chapters just did it in for me.
This story is about a prima ballerina who got sent off to Alabama after breaking her leg and never being able to dance anymore. She starts to see the paranormal. I picked this up at the library book sale, for about $0.25 CAD. I thought it would be a nice, fun read. But it appears that this case is one where the blurb is more interesting than the actual book.
Sylvie, our ballerina, complained. A lot. That's reasonable because I would too if I was shipped off to Saskatchewan (rural Canada) after breaking my leg. (No offence to people from Saskatchewan!)
Most of the book was just fluff and just Sylvie adjusting to life out in God's Country in Alabama. Sure, that's reasonable, but it shouldn't take up a whole 3/4 of the book. There were sprinkles of paranormal activity here and there, but not much.
In the last two chapters, all of the action was packed where it could have been more thoughtfully spread out through the rest of the book. I really didn't like that, because it just felt like an information dump and it was just too much.
Another thing is that the author more told us than showed us. Any good author can sculpt words where the story comes easily to our imagination and didn't just say how it was. I'm not sure if I'm describing it correctly, but I hope you know what I mean.
Also? The main character didn't even seem to be Sylvie. It was her dog, Gigi. I swear, that girl mentioned her dog three times on one page. I've never had a dog, but I'm more than pretty sure that your life doesn't revolve around your dog, no matter how much you love them. That sounds insensitive to dog lovers, but Sylvie was just annoying when she kept talking about Gigi. It was like I was reading Gigi's diary than the actual story.
The title of the book didn't seem to have any significance either. Maybe I was just tuning out the entire time and not actually paying attention, but there was no mention of anything splendorous or any waterfalls. The title of a book should at least have some significance to the story.
It also felt like the author was just using this paranormal activity/ghost business to further the love triangle. That bothered me a little bit. A girl does not revolve around boys or relationships. Especially if there is something fishy going on, one would not be thinking about kissing the boy from across the hall.
Between the cliche storyline, the dog, and the information pack at the very end of the book, this book gets a solid 2.5 stars. It isn't good, per se, but it isn't entirely bad either. I'm probably not going to read any other books from this author or rereading it, but if you're bored out of your mind and you want to read something, this would be sure to keep you busy. -
Reread as part of my ongoing shelf audit. Verdict: Better than a lot of paranormal YA of its era, but that's not a high bar, and not enough for me to keep a copy.
It's... decent. I get the feeling that there's more heart in this book than there was in some of its contemporaries; Clement-Moore's afterward, talking about her experiences visiting the real area of Old Cahawba, makes it clear that place is the driving factor behind the story, and I think that grounds it (pun intended) quite well. The story unfolds slowly, with most of the pagetime dedicated to Sylvie trying to figure out if she's crazy rather than to the actual supernatural plotline, which then gets resolved fairly quickly at the end. I neither love nor hate that approach; the slow build felt a little underused, as it would have been a great way to underscore some larger themes but there weren't any sufficiently developed. The romance... ehhh. As a teen, the idea of a sexy Welsh dude in his 20s being into a 16 year old would have been appealing. As an adult, it's iffy bordering on kinda gross. IMO Sylvie could have been 18 without taking anything away from the story, except possibly a marketing angle.
There were definitely a few bits that felt formulaic. There's automatic girl hate, because of course there is - there are reasons, but it's just exhausting. There's an outing to a local Event which, despite not being at all like Twilight's Port Angeles detour, somehow felt exactly like Twilight's Port Angeles detour. Lots of sneaking out/around authority figures at night (seriously, these kids and their old houses that seem practically made for sneaking - try that in a model home built in 2004).
The biggest miss here, in my opinion, is the almost complete nonexistence of African-American and Native American characters/cultures/history. There's a hat tip made to Native American inhabitants in the early chapters, but after that, Alabama's indigenous inhabitants only come up in the question of... whether or not they welcomed in a band of Welshmen centuries before. Slavery and racism are obliquely referenced, but not really addressed, and Clement-Moore seems to have gone out of her way to avoid actually describing any characters as Black or African-American, instead dropping a line or two about brown skin and completely ignoring the possibility that race plays a very real role, to this day, in every aspect of people's lives. Given the fact that a lot of American horror/gothic lit subgenres specifically draws on the weight of atrocities committed against these two groups of people, it's weird to have a book that's basically Southern Gothic Lite just totally elide everything to do with them. -
Now this book was a great read, considering 90% of the plot is made up of eating, walking, reading, gardening and looking after a dog. If you don't enjoy slow paced books, then this book probably isn't for you, fair warning. I however liked the slow plot, perhaps because I read this book while sitting curled up in front of the heater on my only day off this week?
Sylvie has only ever focused on one thing; becoming a first class ballerina. But when she breaks her leg in a horror accident she must grudgingly reevaluate her future. Her mum has just married her new shrink, and she's seeing ghosts. Either way, when her new father demands she socialize while they go off on a honeymoon, Sylvie is left with no choice but to stay with her biological father's family while they're gone.
While she is there, she discovers more about her family and catches the eye of two interesting males. There's a spark, but no instalove thank goodness. And so the story plods on to the eventual conclusion. I was glad that the triangle was mainly one sided, because I disliked one of the boys from the outset.
So why did I like a book with plot devices I generally hate, and where not much happens? I have no idea. Oh, and Sylvie is no bunch of roses either, snarky and angry her future has changed. I guess it is thd ultimate proof that books reflect our moods, and some things that wouldn't suit me normally worked because I'm feeling tolerant. I leave this boook feeling like I just woke up from a refreshing nap, which isn't always a bad thing I've discovered. I'm not even annoyed I had to write up this review twice because I accidentally deleted the first one.
As I said, if slow plots aren't your thing you probably won't enjoy this one. There are 513 pages, that's alot of reading, walking, eating and gardening. If you're a fast reader then it doesn't matter, I finished this in two major sessions, half an hour last night and a few hours this afternoon. If you think you can handle it, then go for it! Five stars, for being the perfect book at the right time. -
Source: I own this book.
Cost: Free Gift
Title: The Splendour Falls
Author: Rosemary Clement-Moore
Genre: YA, paranormal
Overall Rating: 3.7 stars
Her leg broke her career.
Her father's death broke her heart.
Her mother's marriage broke her spirit.
And then to top it all off, she's now seeing spirits.
When Sylvie's career as a dancer comes to end, she moves to a town full of her family history into an old house that is haunted with restless spirits, and as much as it's brought up, Sylvie knows she isn't crazy. There's also a bit of a love triangle in there too which never helps the situation.
I liked this book, it was a quick and easy read and after having it sitting unread on my bookshelf for over three years, I'm glad I finally got around to it. It was nothing like I expected it to be, if I'm honest, I wasn't expecting to like the characters or the writing but I was pleasantly surprised.
My issue was that I feel like it could've been condensed. This book is over 500 pages long!! It didn't need to be. -
Not bad!
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I absolutely loved every second of this book!
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Ahhh i really enjoyed re-reading this book it really took me back. It's definitely the same amazing book I remember from years ago I would definitely give it 5 stars all over again. It's a ya fantasy which mixes in the civil war and ghosts and history repeating itself with magic thrown into the mix. The romance is one of my favourite ya romances and I would highly recommend you read this amazing standalone ( I would definitely read a second book if there was one
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Now, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of paranormal books. But this book looked interesting and I thought it’d be good. Ghosts, a haunted family past, an ex-ballerina, it all sounded very interesting.
Unfortunately, I was left with a rather boring book.
At 513 pages, this book is pretty long, especially for a YA book. The book dragged on and on. There wasn’t enough of a story to warrant five hundred pages. There was major filler in this book. At least 150 pages could have been trimmed out of this book and the story could still be retained. Too much focus was spent on pedestrian things that did nothing to move the story along. I swear, if I read about Sylvie’s dog, Gigi, taking a “whizz” one more time, I was going to throw the book against the wall.
Much of the paranormal aspect of the story was lost to the excessive filler. It could have been interesting, but I feel like it was overpowered by the padding. Something important would be revealed…oh Sylvie is talking to Rhys about something with no relevance to the plot and Gigi is peeing again. ‘Kay, great. Can we get back to the actual story now, please? I’ve been good! I just want to know about the mysteries surrounding Sylvie’s family! There was definitely an interesting idea showing, but it was buried under all that darn filler!
I didn’t really care about any of the characters. Sylvie was perhaps one of the most obnoxious, ungrateful protagonists I’ve ever read about. I understand that she’d broken her leg and had to drop out of the ballet company and that her dad was dead and her mom had gotten remarried. Yes, it was a reason to complain. But she took it to an extreme. She whined about everything. She was flat-out rude to her family that she was staying with. I wanted to get into the book and slap her.
Rhys was a cliché hot guy and I never really got much of a feel for his character. He felt flat. Shawn didn’t really play as big of a role as the back cover summary played him out to be, so I didn’t really get much of a feel for his character, either. Gigi the dog became a more interesting character that Shawn and Rhys!
Overall, The Splendor Falls was a novel that had an interesting idea going for it, but suffered from too much filler and unnecessary details and flat, boring characters. -
My overall reaction to this books was just okay. I picked it up with low expectations, so at least I wasn't really disappointed. I wouldn't say that I didn't like the book, but it wasn't one of my favorites.
The quality of the writing was very good. The author includes vivid descriptions, and the readers are really exposed to Sylvie's pain after what she titles "The Accident". As a former dancer, I can relate somewhat to Sylvie's love for dance. This was definitely something I enjoyed about the book.
Sylvie and all of the characters were well developed, if a little clichéd. There wasn't anything terribly original about any of them. Sylvie was pretty much your classic female protagonist, and her love interest fits the mysterious stranger description perfectly. Still, I felt like I really got to know all of the characters, and there were a few surprises behind the main characters' outer appearances.
This book brought back memories of the old Nancy Drew days. Most of the book was about Sylvie sleuthing and uncovering secrets about her ancestors. My biggest complaint about this book and its plot was its pace. Things moved so slowly. I felt like we were getting nowhere. Maybe this is why it took me so long to finish the book.
Having said all of this, I am glad that I took the time to read this book. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good mystery/paranormal read, but I would also warn them not to expect too much from it. -
There is a balance that many suspense novels fail to achieve: keeping the setting realistically current, while also making the fantastic elements believably frightening. The Splendor Falls does an excellent job of walking that line.
That's not the only line it does an excellent job of walking. Sophie Davis, the protagonist, has gone through her parents' divorce, her father's fight with cancer and subsequent death, and then the broken leg that killed her just-starting career as a ballerina. Her mother's recent remarriage all but pushed her over the edge, and she has been sent to her cousin's not-yet-open B&B to recuperate. Which might have been a better plan if the place weren't infested with ghosts and other oddities.
All that could easily have been a recipe for an over-the-top disaster, but Clement-Moore makes it work. The characters (living and dead) are believable and sympathetic without being cloying or pathetic, the B&B and adjacent town feel just like many places you have visited (small-town politics and all), and the villain's eventual denouement is surprising but makes perfect sense after the fact. (Foreshadowing: a sign of quality literature!)
All in all, a very enjoyable read, featuring a protagonist I would love to see more of. -
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey of this book and ended up chucking my ToDo List for the day in order to finish it. The heroine is funny, snarky, and real. It is well written and the mystery kept me engaged.
Sylvie is a seventeen year old ex-superstar ballerina. She shattered her leg onstage and her mother has shipped her off to distant relatives in rural Alabama to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. Immediately odd things start happening: She feels this weird connection to a family friend – as if they’d met before. She thinks she might be seeing ghosts, and the local teen town council is acting REALLY strange. Throw in a giant chunk of stone of the same type of rock as Stonehenge, a civil war era ghosttown, a teenage boy with a scary amount of charm, and a long-haired Chihuahua named Gigi, and it is a wonderful ride.
My only complaint (and the reason I couldn’t give it five stars) is that the ending bothered me. I can’t decide if it happened too fast, was too ‘Hollywood’ explosive, or if it was just a tad hookey (perhaps all?). Either way I was expecting something a bit different. Still, overall I loved it and will go hunting the rest of the books by this author. -
After a tragic accident, Sylvie finds herself shipped off to relatives in the South who happen to live in a haunted plantation house. As she uncovers clues to discover who the woman is that she sees running through the forest, she begins to question her sanity as well as her ability to trust those around her. She notices that she's not the only one with secrets and seeks to find out what no one will tell her.
For readers who enjoy descriptive writing, Clement-Moore does an excellent job of setting the stage for the eerie events that plague a rural town in Alabama. In addition, for those readers who prefer novels that jump into the action from the first page, stay patient and you won't be disappointed.
This novel would be excellent to share with readers who like mystery, paranormal, and a little romance. Sylvie is a strong, witty character who proves that she is capable of taking care of herself. With her sidekick, Gigi, she faces her fear head-on even if it means that she might not make it out alive. -
I liked the main characters, Sylvie and Rhys, and I thought Rosemary Clement-Moore did an excellent job with the setting. She did a good job of capturing what I imagine parts of rural Alabama can be like in terms of the town and especially how everyone knew everyone else.
What I didn't like about this book was how overly long it was and why it was so long. If Rhys and Sylvie had an actual conversation about what was going on, so many things would have been resolved sooner. But instead, there were pages and pages of scenes where Rhys and Sylvie would almost talk but then not talk. It felt as if someone decided the book had to be over five hundred pages, and the only way the author could make that happen was by having the two main characters avoid a simple conversation that they should have had much earlier than they did.
