The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore

The Splendor Falls:
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?


Rosemary Clement-Moore wrote an incredible book filled with Southern history and the mysteries that go along with it, each time it seems Sylvie gets closer to figuring out what happened in the past and what it has to do with what is happening now, something comes between her and the solution. From the very first page I was immersed in Sylvie’s world, and the incredible recovery she undergoes is more than just the physical healing of her body. I loved Gigi; Sylvie’s long-haired Chihuahua, she felt like another character in the book, her antics and six pounds of protective fury made her just that much more lovable. Because of Gigi, at first people only see Sylvie as a spoiled Yankee foisting herself on relatives while she ‘dries out’. But soon Sylvie proves to be more than a city socialite and Gigi is the one constant in her life, and really the only constant affection Sylvie receives. Sylvie’s entire world was destroyed because of The Accident and finding her way back to a purpose for her life takes her to a whole new level of beliefs. Strange things begin happening around the old house as she becomes more immersed in her family’s history, and the expectations for her and Shawn open her eyes to similar events in the past. Although Rhys is keeping his own secrets, Sylvie finds herself inexplicably drawn to him. As the mysteries unfold they must learn to trust each other in order to save those around them from the mystical dangers that surround them.