The Splendor Falls, by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Sylvie is yet another misunderstood girl with parental issues who is shipped off to a random relative after an one-time-only act of rebellion. After breaking her leg while on stage, Sylvie must quit her promising career as a ballerina and after taking Vicadin with alcohol at her mom's wedding, she is sent down south to her late dad's cousin who is taking care of the family estate. Upon arriving in Alabama (I think), Sylvie discovers that she is something like royalty in the tiny town her aunt lives in. And of course, this story would not be complete without a prince charming and a prince not-as-charming vying for her heart. Her two pursuers are Rhys, the dark and mysterious foreigner who knows way more than he is letting on, and Shaun, the town's golden boy who can do no wrong in anybody's (except Rhys') eyes. As if a new home and two guys aren't enough, Sylvie starts getting the feeling there is something more going on on her family's estate, something with roots deep in her family's history.

Despite the previous paragraph, it should be known that although this book does follow many cliches, it also manages to separate itself from them. I don't know how and I can only pinpoint one or two reasons why that is, but while reading The Splendor Falls I didn't feel any deja vu which means it wasn't too typical. However, I could not give this book a perfect rating because of how long it was. In a book 500 pages long you expect something to happen every couple of pages, but those somethings were so boring that I felt like I was reading what her day to day life was and although it was written well, it was still not very interesting. There were little parts that kept me going, but there were many many times I was ready to give up. I was thankful when I finished the book because that meant that I could finally stop reading it and I would no longer have to convince myself to hold on.

For once there was a main character with a sharp tongue. I loved how Sylvie would react to Addie's insults-she was hurt but she hit Addie with an even sharper comeback. It was incredibly refreshing to have a heroine with both a backbone and a heart. It was also nice how she didn't complain through the whole book and only mentioned her hurt leg when relevant. Sylvie lost everything she ever wanted for herself when she fell and I was nervous that this would be an entire novel full of complaints but thankfully it wasn't.

The supernatural elements of this book were extremely vague for most of it, which almost made me believe at times that Sylvie was actually nuts. Then I remembered that is this is a YA fantasy novel and not a YA dark and twisty and suicidal novel.

One more clarification before I go: the love triangle in this book was perfect, mainly because it wasn't really a love triangle. (In case you couldn't tell, I don't really like love triangles.) Sylvie knows who she wants and makes it very clear who she is interested in so mentioning it in the summary is kind of misleading. And if you were wondering about the title, it's a reference to one line in the book which I forgot already. As for the purple rose, your guess is as good as mine.

4.3 stars.

Can love last beyond the grave?

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?