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.

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.

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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