The Splendor Falls

Aug 02, 2010 Bry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, young-adult, urban-fantasy, mystery, favorites

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...more 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! (less)

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Dec 24, 2012 Book Chick City rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, book-list-2010, paranormal-ya

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 did...more
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.

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Feb 04, 2011 Jean rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

- - 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 A...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: titles-i-love, honourable-mentions, ya-ya-ya, urban-street-cahoots

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, w...more 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.(less)

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Jun 26, 2012 Sarah Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ghosts, paranormal, romance, sexy-guy, witches, magic, books-not-in-a-series, pretty-covers, lala-love-triangle, gave-it-away, someone-went-dress-shopping, meh

The Splendor Fall by Rosemary Clement-Moore

2.5 stars

Sylvie 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

...more

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Aug 06, 2010 Miriam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, ya

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 i...more

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May 16, 2012 Shauna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Shauna by: Michaela

Shelves: beautiful-covers, 2010, gothic, i-own-a-copy, rosemary-clement-moore, best-titles

The Splendor Falls has a lovely, dream-like quality to it, or nightmare quality if you are the main character, Sylvie. She is a star ballet dancer, but her world comes crashing down around her, literally when she breaks her leg and can't dance anymore.

After an incident with Vicodin and champagne in Central Park she is sent to stay with her cousin Paula in Alabama. That's when she starts seeing ghosts. And hears crying at night. And causes a bit of a stir with the menfolk. Namely Shawn, resident...more

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Oct 25, 2009 CLM rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Laurie, Elizabeth

Shelves: ya, 21st-century

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 wi...more

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Apr 23, 2011 Lily added it

The Splendor falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Reviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews

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 unhappi...more The Splendor falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Reviewed by Moirae the fates book reviews

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? (Synopsis provided by goodreads)

When I first heard about this book I just had to read it. As an avid reader and an ex-ballerina I couldn’t pass this one up! I was not disappointed, this book delivered. I loved the southern setting of the book and the eerie feel of the whole story.

It’s difficult not to give away anything in this book there is so much that happens! It’s non-stop and packed with twists and turns that kept me glued to the book all day. I really enjoyed the character of Sylvie, she was such a welcome change from the heroins of teen books that are popping up everywhere. She was different. She was strong and she had flaws. I loved that!

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes darker romances and anyone who is or has been a ballerina.

Overall rating ***** 5 out of 5 stars
Cover art the new art for the paperback is simply beautiful.
Obtained I was sent a copy by the author for review thank you!
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May 21, 2013 Haley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, books-with-great-endings, books-that-are-well-written, books-that-are-great, books-that-i-constantly-re-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 02, 2013 Tracy Banghart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review is taken from my blog: www.tracyebanghart.com

This book was exactly what I hoped it would be. Dark, creepy, and romantic, haunting and funny, with a great main character, whose voice is consistent and engaging throughout. Sylvie begins the story both mentally and physically "broken" - she's suffered a career-ending injury and her mother's convinced she's not handling it well. And, in many ways, she's not. Somehow Rosemary makes Sylvie's "woe is me" attitude at the beginning more compe...more This review is taken from my blog: www.tracyebanghart.com

This book was exactly what I hoped it would be. Dark, creepy, and romantic, haunting and funny, with a great main character, whose voice is consistent and engaging throughout. Sylvie begins the story both mentally and physically "broken" - she's suffered a career-ending injury and her mother's convinced she's not handling it well. And, in many ways, she's not. Somehow Rosemary makes Sylvie's "woe is me" attitude at the beginning more compelling than grating, more engaging than off-putting. The best part of this is it sets up a lovely character arc for Sylvie - she actually gets to grow and change over the course of the book!

It's tough letting your characters be broken at the beginning of a story - it can be scary letting them show their bruises and aches and anger and pain, wondering if the reader will care enough to watch them recover, reclaim their power, grow, change....at least...it's hard for ME to do this. :-) From the beginning, I was with Sylvie for the long haul, and I loved watching her journey.

One of my favorite things about this book was the slow build. The slow build of tension, of romance, of mysteries...it took quite a while to get to the explanations and resolutions but I didn't mind, because I enjoyed the piling mysteries, the building sense of dread. The delayed pay-off was INTERESTING, not annoying. And, as I said, creepy! I actually had a hard time reading this book before bed because it was just spooky enough to make me start at strange noises and moving shadows in the night.

I also loved Rosemary's unique take on the love triangle. She didn't try to make the boys "equal" - the suspense is not in WHO DOES SYLVIE LIKE BEST, but in questioning each boy's motives. In the irony of knowing who Sylvie SHOULDN'T choose - but worrying she might choose him anyway.

And, finally, the sense of place, the lush setting served as a wonderful backdrop to the story. I love books where the setting feels as important as the characters, and this is definitely one of those books.

So, pick up a copy, relax in your favorite chair, and enjoy disappearing into Sylvie's world. Believe me, you'll want to linger there long after you finish reading. :-)(less)

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Jan 08, 2013 Jennie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, mystery, romance, young-adult

One of the first YAs I've read in a while about a heroine who is consistent in anything but stupid. Sylvie's trials are realistic and relatable, and I found myself rooting for her as she tried to understand what was happening to her instead of banging my head against the wall at a protagonist's determined lack of sense. Her reactions to the strange occurrences around her made sense--she didn't eagerly jump to the supernatural as a conclusion, and instead spent most of the book trying to prove sh...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Shanna Swendson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a paranormal/gothic YA kind of story in the vein of Mary Stewart. Our heroine is a teenage ballerina recovering from a career-ending injury who gets shipped off to stay with a relative she barely knows in her dead father's family's ancestral home, an antebellum mansion in Alabama. There she learns about all kinds of spooky family secrets and a history that seems to keep repeating itself. It has all the elements of a classic gothic -- the spooky house, the sense of isolation, the seemingl...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Kumakani rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 b...more 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.(less)

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Mar 31, 2012 Johanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Splendor Falls
by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Genre: Young Adult | Supernatural

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...more The Splendor Falls
by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Genre: Young Adult | Supernatural

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?

Summary: Sylvie Davis is sent to her late father's ancestral home for the summer in Alabama to recover from "The Accident" that ruined her career in ballet. Bitter and distraught, Sylvie begrudgingly adapts to her new historical residence even though there are some unsettling rules (i.e. no dogs in the house), bewildering small-town beliefs/superstitions, and two young men that she develops conflicting/unbalancing feelings for. Even though the lush green gardens outside her home brighten her days, Sylvie's nights are haunted by a watcher in the windows and high-pitched howling noises from the nearby woods. Any attempts to discover the secrets of her father's Old South legacy are usually interrupted by the Teen Town Council (i.e. Shawn Maddox) or the local ghost town (Cahawba) archaeological dig volunteer, Rhys Griffith. And when the legendary ghost stories begin to become reality, Sylvie takes it upon herself to set the past straight by uncovering the mysteries of Bluestone Hill.

Review: Sylvie was a rocky character for me, she either came off a stubbornly strong or frustratingly vulnerable and as much as I wanted to recognize her as an independent female lead, in my eye, she only succeeded in lacking confidence. I know she had good reason to be gloomy, but her coarse actions towards events in the story dampened my feelings towards her. On the other hand, Rhys was a highly witty and delightful character. He portrayed a compelling figure that actually revealed many of the stories historical facts and much-needed revelations that moved the tale along. Shawn also depicted a vibrant character who shined greatly as the small-town's favorite son, but who also had a darker more complex and intense side. The side-characters were all entertaining enough (somewhat excluding cousin Paula who was more of a downer than anything else) without distracting from the main leads -- a plus!

The story had an intriguing concept full of ghosts, folk-lore, history, mythology, etc. that it instantly appealed to me, but there was almost too much going on in each of those areas that they kind of eclipsed each other. Also, sadly, some parts that I felt were very important in the story were either anti-climatic/down-played and only slightly revealed right at the end (i.e. the whole 'past-life' concept), thus I would have like a bit more development altogether. I was entertained though by the spook-factor created from the local ghost beliefs/visions which added a little supernatural thrill. Plus, the romance sparks were there, just slightly hollow.

Likes: Personally, I did enjoy Sylvie's soy milk drinking/meat-substitute eating lifestyle since recently I've adapted to becoming a part-time vegan and got a hoot out of her reactions to the southern dishes. Also, the Welsh mythology was something all together new for me (and that's saying something for a historical/folk-lore Nut like me)!

Dislikes: The overall story's plot development was too lethargic and disordered for my reading taste. The ending left me asking questions that, I felt, weren't fully answered as well as confusion in some of the misleading directions the story took. All in all, it left me a bit baffled!(less)

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Jan 26, 2012 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Splendour Falls was a beautiful story about pain and loss. But it was also about healing and redemption, and how we can find rays of light even in the most hopeless of situations.

The main character, Sylvie, has many of the usual characteristics we can find in YA heroines. She has a tendency to whine (although I guess I'm whining about her whining right now), is very pretty, has two boys pining after her, and has a great number of talents that she has yet to uncover. However, the author has p...more The Splendour Falls was a beautiful story about pain and loss. But it was also about healing and redemption, and how we can find rays of light even in the most hopeless of situations.

The main character, Sylvie, has many of the usual characteristics we can find in YA heroines. She has a tendency to whine (although I guess I'm whining about her whining right now), is very pretty, has two boys pining after her, and has a great number of talents that she has yet to uncover. However, the author has perfected the art of narrating a whiny character yet making her extremely loveable at the same time. And I guess part of the reason for the whining not being annoying at all is because Sylvie is, as the synopsis on my book jacket says, broken. She's lost so much already, and I truly felt sorry for her. I was able to sympathise with her. She was also so real--she didn't babble on about guys, she didn't think about ballet all of the time, and she felt like a character I could truly relate to. She had a passion and she had dreams and she had bad days that weren't just bad hair days. This is the sort of character I want to see more of.

One of the biggest problems with this book is that it's a 200 and something-paged story with stuffing in a 518-page body. The story moved incredibly slowly for the first half of the book and then far too fast for my liking in the last chapter or two. By removing most of the meaningless interactions in the first part of the story, the author would've created a more fast-paced and better work. (Nicole's law of editing: If it's not necessary for plot development, it doesn't need to be there.)

Another thing that I felt was completely unnecessary was Adie. She seemed to be there just because of the unspoken YA novel rule: there needs to be a mean girl. Adie seemed to have no personality, she didn't change or grow as a character as far as I could see, and I really didn't know the purpose for her existence.

The synopsis states--very clearly--that the Sylvie-Rhys-Shawn love triangle plays an instrumental part in the story, but it never annoyed me at all because of the way it was written. Sylvie doesn't think about the boys 24/7 and actually has a life of her own other than stalking them. I don't think the author quite nailed the romance scenes--at least they weren't quite what I was looking for after reading Die for Me and Clockwork Prince--but were still good nonetheless, despite being few and far between.

(view spoiler)

Despite that, I thought the author's writing was excellent. It flowed so smoothly and I barely noticed the virtually plot-less writing in the first few hundred pages until I put it down and actually thought about what I was reading.

Overview: The Splendour Falls was a beautiful read with excellent writing, amazing characterisation and a truly realistic feel. There were some rather minor flaws such as an overload of unnecessary descriptions and conversations in the first part of the book, but I don't feel that that is a reason to undermine the brilliance of this book as a whole. It is something I would recommend to many of my friends and look forward to re-reading.(less)

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Nov 06, 2011 The Sweet Bookshelf rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 w...more

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Oct 25, 2011 Meghan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, ya-literature

Sylvie Davis was poised to be a huge star in the world of ballet, when an accident during her debut pulled her from the world of dance forever. Her mom gets remarried and after an embarrassing incident at the wedding where Sylvie mixes alcohol and painkillers, her mother decides Sylvie can’t be left alone while her mother and new husband go on their honeymoon. Sylvie gets shipped off to Alabama to stay with her father’s cousin Paula, and once she arrives at Bluestone Hill, her family’s estate, w...more

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May 13, 2011 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this book we meet Sylvie Davis, Manhattenite and an accomplished ballerina whose life has fallen to bits. A career ending injury leaves her not only unable to dance but with no direction for her life to travel in. After drinking herself into oblivion on her mothers wedding night the "Stepshrink" convinces her mother that Sylvie is too fragile and should not be left alone while they are on their honey moon. She finds herself on a plane from her familiar New York to back sticks Alabama, and an...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very interesting book. I love that there is a little of history and lore in this book.

I had a hard time liking Sylvie in the beginning of this book. She just seemed like a stuck up girl who while yes had a horrible accident was just rotten. It did not take me long to see that she was just hiding her pain that that she really was likable. I really like Rhys right from the beginning. I love that he didn't put with with Sylvie's attitude. There was always the air of mystery around him. As for Chas...more

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Oct 07, 2010 Jennie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-reading-list

I have a thing for the Southern Gothic, YA, and mysteries. Oh, and I like novels about really talented people (in the arts) who either continue on in their talent, or have it taken away from them and have to deal. So in essence, this book was just what I wanted.

My problem with the book was that it was very slow moving at first. There's a lot of set-up. It takes awhile for the plot to get moving, because it's just hinted at. I would have really liked to know more about the family history, besides...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sylvie Davis is a ballet prodigy who is forced to retire at age 17 by a horrible injury. She struggles with losing her dream and her future, and after months of recovery and depression gets sent to her deceased fathers family home in rural Alabama. She struggles to adapt to the southern way of life (Meat! Desserts! Pickup trucks! Y'all!), but she discovers a connection to her dad in the place he spent his childhood summers, and also comes face to face with things she always thought were myth. Al...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read_and_review, ya_fantasy

Sylvie is totally unmoored when her mother ships her from New York to Alabama to stay with her father's cousin. Her father died recently and she just suffered an accident that ended her promising career as a soloist with the American Ballet Company. Sylvie's father never talked about his family, so she knows nothing about Bluestone Hall or the importance of the Davis family to the surrounding towns. Investigating local history and restoring the garden are ways she hopes to connect to her father...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Sammee (I Want to Read That) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found myself immersed in this story from the first page. I really enjoyed the character Sylvie and found myself connecting to her straight away. I really liked her voice - she came across as strong yet vulnerable and I loved the fact she questioned everything that happening, including her sanity! I also found myself really drawn to Rhys - I even missed him when he wasn't in the story And I completely adored her dog Gigi!

The story itself is an intriguing one. There was a lot of detail included...more

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Mar 07, 2010 Amber Skye rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 b...more

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Feb 20, 2010 Emma rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was recommended if you liked paranormal romance etc.

I was very interested in the blurb on the back - your usualy good boy and bad boy and the different storyline with Sylvie the main character breaking her leg and destroying her ballet career.

I wanted to like this book so much, but I felt it was too long - situations were dragged out for much longer than necessary most notably Sylvie and Rhys and telling each other what was happening. A lot of the time I felt it plodded along, and it really...more

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Feb 16, 2010 Shelley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Gothic/old magic fans, possibly also fans of Shadowed Summer

Shelves: fantasy, youth

How's this for praise: 500 page book with a mystery and I wasn't even tempted to read the ending ahead of time, like I do for practically every book. I read the first 250 pages in one sitting, was so annoyed to have to put it down to go to bed close to midnight. So of course I had to finish it tonight. Props on atmosphere - I was sufficiently creeped out by the blend of evil and foreboding to be nervous about continuing, but so hooked on the story and characters that I couldn't stop. (Of course,...more

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Feb 08, 2010 Wicked Walker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. This book wrapped me in and I stayed up until 3 am to finish it!! Sylvie was a pretty likable character even if a little self absorbed at times. She was unhappy to say the least when she was sent off to Alabama to a cousin she had met once while her mom and new "step-shrink" went on their honeymoon. As she gets there she meets two guys that she has totally different reactions to...not to mention starts seeing ghosts and hearing sounds!

This book is like an old gothic ghost story with a touch...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Midnight Visitor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: supernatural, romance, single

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...more

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Jan 08, 2010 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-books

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...more

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