A Happier Life by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Robin’s Rave Reviews 2024

Yes! Another perfect book for your beach bag this summer! A HAPPIER LIFE by Kristy Woodson Harvey, part historical fiction, part mystery, part women’s fiction, part romance, is told in a dual timeline: present day with Keaton Smith, and in 1976 with her grandparents Rebecca “Becks” and Townsend St. James.

Summary

Keaton, a young professional in NYC, has lost her job and her condo. While she figures out her next move, her mother asks her to clear out Keaton’s grandparents’ house in Beaufort so it can be sold. Keaton knew they died in a car accident before she was born, but this is the first she’s heard of the historic house on the North Carolina seaside. Her mother and uncle have held onto the house for nearly fifty years. Keaton agrees and takes her dog Salt along for the trip. (Who doesn’t love a story with a dog? And this dog is based on Kristy’s own dog named Salt!)

Keaton isn’t prepared to walk into a 1970s time-warp. It looks like Becks and Townsend just stepped away, including dishes left on the dining room table from one of Becks’ famous dinner parties. As Keaton is adjusting to the shock, Anderson, a ten-year-old, boy pops in. He lives next door with his divorced, grumpy, hot dad, Bowen.

While Keaton struggles with the enormous cleaning job, she connects more deeply with the locals. Keaton learns that everyone knows everything in a small town, so different from NYC. She becomes friends with the Dockside Dames, a group of older women who get together every morning for coffee and gossip. Their stories of her grandparents help Keaton connect with family she never knew. Keaton sees what life could be like here. She’s faced with comparing her fast-paced, workaholic life in NYC to what small town life on the ocean with Bowen and his son could be like.

The story of her grandparents dying in a car accident begins to have some holes. Although her grandparents’ car was found submerged in the water, their bodies were never recovered. When Keaton discovers her mother and uncle have suspicions that their parents were actually murdered, Keaton better understands why they never returned to the house. But what really happened to Becks and Townsend?

We go back in time for Becks to tell her love story. Becks was disowned by her parents for marrying Townsend, the love of her life. She focuses on making life easier for others and throwing her famous dinner parties while Townsend starts his doctor practice in Beaufort. Although Becks journals all her entertaining tips for her daughter, her granddaughter Keaton is the one to find it nearly fifty years later. It helps her connect with the grandmother she never knew.

Trying to decide what to keep and what to discard from her grandparents’ life and mother’s childhood is more difficult than Keaton expected. Keaton finally convinces her mother and uncle to come look through some things and get closure. Becks and Townsend left multiple clues behind, leading the family to learn the truth of what happened to them.

My Thoughts

There’s a lot here for readers of several genres including romance, women’s fiction, and mystery. It’s a multi-generational story of family relationships and how we deal with damage done in the past. It’s about forgiveness and reconciliation, about valuing the past and the family who came before us, and about romantic love and second chances. It reinforces that we shouldn’t judge the happiness of someone else’s life because people define happiness differently. What’s right for one isn’t for another. Perhaps when you determine you’ve lived a life worth living, you’ve found true happiness.

I loved A HAPPIER LIFE by Kristy Woodson Harvey. May I suggest you purchase A HAPPIER LIFE here at Bookshop.org? This online bookstore supports mom and pop bookstores nationwide!

Kristy Woodson Harvey, author

If you like…

If this book appeals to you, check out these Kristy Woodson Harvey books I’ve previously reviewed and recommend: The Summer of Songbirds, The Wedding Veil, Under the Southern Sky, Feels Like Falling, and the whole Peachtree Bluff series.

Drop me a comment below! What are you reading that you’d recommend? Who are your favorite authors? Ask me a question about books and/or writing. I’d love to hear from you!

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@author.robin.shelley

June 28, 2022

The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Robin’s Rave Reviews – 2022

The best book I’ve read so far this year?

The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey! I’m so excited to encourage you to pick this one up!

This dual timeline story has something for almost everyone. The Wedding Veil is women’s fiction, contemporary romance, and historical fiction all in one book. It has wedding stories (wins and fails), family drama, multi-generational stories, younger and older characters, tradition – and breaking tradition. The story travels from the ocean side of North Carolina to the mountains surrounding the grand estate of Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina to the ocean side of St. Thomas. I am truly impressed that Kristy Woodson Harvey wrote two equally strong storylines, an especially difficult task when the fictional modern story has to compete with the story of the Vanderbilt family.

In the present day, the story focuses on Julia Baxter and her grandmother, Babs. Julia plans on wearing a wedding veil that has been passed down in her family. The stranger who gave it to Julia’s great-grandmother told her it has been a symbol of good luck in her family. Women in Julia’s family have worn the veil, a symbol of happy marriages, ever since. The wedding weekend festivities have already begun, but Julia has reason to believe she is making a mistake, and she doesn’t want to be the one to break the good luck of the veil. Panicked, she escapes to the Virgin Islands for a honeymoon for one. The events there change the course of her life. Meanwhile, Babs, who is grieving the loss of her husband, leaves the emptiness of the house they shared and moves to a retirement community. She doesn’t expect a romance story of her own to begin.

The other timeline follows Edith Dresser, the woman who married George Vanderbilt. As a child, Edith often tried on her mother’s magic wedding veil. Her mother told her it would bring a fairy-tale life to all who wore it. Readers experience what life was like for Edith at Biltmore, a majestic home her husband built in the mountains of North Carolina. Edith and her daughter Cornelia had so much and yet hard financial times fell on the Vanderbilts through George’s premature death, war, flooding and the depression. Trying to make the estate self-sustaining to keep George’s legacy alive was no easy task for the Vanderbilt women. On her twenty-fifth birthday, Cornelia became the legal owner and new mistress of Biltmore. Less than a year later, Cornelia wore the family veil for her wedding to John “Jack” Cecil. Cornelia’s husband became a great help to Edith as they modernized processes to save money, but Cornelia struggled with being tied down to the estate, not the life she wanted for herself.

I want to tell you so much more, but I won’t spoil the story for you! Let’s just say Kristy skillfully connects the modern story with Vanderbilt history. Read my reviews of other novels I’ve enjoyed by Kristy: Under the Southern Sky and Feels Like Falling.

Kristy Woodson Harvey, author of The Wedding Veil

I was able to visit Biltmore a few years back. This book brought back wonderful memories and made them richer. Now Biltmore seems like so much more than a beautiful mansion preserving a time in history. The Wedding Veil brought the people who lived and worked there alive for me, making the experience more personal. When Kristy described where the family sat down for breakfast the morning after Cornelia’s birthday parties, I pictured the banquet hall with the immense table and enormous tapestries hanging on the walls. When Kristy described Edith sitting in George’s library, talking to his spirit as she smoked a cigarette, I remembered seeing the walls of books, smelling the leather and old paper, and admiring the ceiling painting worthy of any museum.

While visiting Biltmore, we drove around the grounds, getting a sense of how complex it was to keep the estate running – the mansion, the gardens, the farm, the dairy, and more modern additions – the vineyard and winery. The Vanderbilts needed a small army to run the estate, so they built a town on their property where their workers lived and raised their families. Even though Edith Vanderbilt could have simply enjoyed her great wealth, she had a passion to help lift the community.

The balcony has a panoramic view of the mountains.

If you are interested in the history of Biltmore, you’ll enjoy how Kristy brings it to life. Pick up your copy of The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey! And if you haven’t visited Biltmore, put it on your bucket list! To learn more about Biltmore, go to the Biltmore Estate website here. Also check out this short video of the Biltmore Estate .

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@author.robin.shelley

June 8, 2020

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is one of those books that has stuck with me for weeks after reading it. I recommend this coming-of-age story mixed with a murder mystery.

Kya’s family has abandoned her in their remote shack in the North Carolina swamp in the late 1960s. This ten-year-old’s struggle to survive in the harsh swamp tugs at the heart-strings, while the reader is also delighted by the marsh’s beauty as seen through Kya’s eyes. Her life is hard, but Kya values the marsh, she understands it, and living a simple life in nature suits her. Most of Kya’s experiences involving the nearby town are negative, so she remains reclusive out of self-preservation. Known as Marsh Girl, no one in town cares about the well-being of this wild child.

Kya grows into a young woman with a natural beauty that catches the eye of two boys from town. Tate Walker gradually earns her trust and friendship until he abandons her to attend college. Kya longs to connect to someone, but being immature both in social norms and in love, Kya get used by Chase Andrews. Then, when Chase ends up dead, Kya becomes the number one suspect.

Where the Crawdads Sing is both a New York Times Bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Reese loved the book so much, she is going to produce the movie version along with Lauren Levy Neustadter. Fox 2000 owns the rights. It is still too early in the process to know who will be cast in the film or when it might be released, but as of fall 2019, Owens stated the screenplay’s first draft was nearly completed although she couldn’t comment on who was writing it.

February 5, 2019February 1, 2019

Kindred Spirit Mailbox

Hi shells! My last post was about the Arctic Blast that came through, and since I’m sure many of us are fighting the mid-winter blues, today let’s turn to warmer thoughts.

The shores of North Carolina have a lot to offer. Wonderful beaches, fun water sports, interesting wildlife, dazzling sunsets, warm weather, and an intriguing mailbox. Yes, a mailbox that is intriguing. On Bird Island near Sunset Beach but off the beaten path about a mile and a half walk from anywhere, this lonely mailbox pops out of the dunes. The lettering on the outside of the box simply says Kindred Spirit. As its location and purpose have become more well-known, it has become a destination for visitors of the area.

The peaceful walk along the shore may put you in a contemplative mood, readying you for what the mailbox provides. Open the box and you will find notebooks written in by many visitors. Strangers share private reflections on their lives and their loves, successes and failures, hopes and dreams, and mainly what they are thankful for. Many write in the notebooks left in the mailbox. Others bring their thoughts already written down to leave in the box. Visitors leave cards, photos, and items – from baby toys to old jewelry. Go ahead. Sit on the bench for a spell and read what others have written or contribute your own thoughts, stories, or poems.

Yes, please. I just convinced myself. I want to go. What a wonderful way to slow down in life and reflect on where you’ve been and where you’re going. It’s a place to relax, to think, to pray even. But how did it get there? No one knew until recently. Continue reading “Kindred Spirit Mailbox”