The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey – a Review

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Description:
Four women. One family heirloom. A secret connection that will change their lives—and history as they know it.

Present Day: Julia Baxter’s wedding veil, bequeathed to her great-grandmother by a mysterious woman on a train in the 1930s, has passed through generations of her family as a symbol of a happy marriage. But on the morning of her wedding day, something tells her that even the veil’s good luck isn’t enough to make her marriage last forever. Overwhelmed and panicked, she escapes to the Virgin Islands to clear her head. Meanwhile, her grandmother Babs is also feeling shaken. Still grieving the death of her beloved husband, she decides to move out of the house they once shared and into a retirement community. Though she hopes it’s a new beginning, she does not expect to run into an old flame, dredging up the same complicated emotions she felt a lifetime ago.

1914: Socialite Edith Vanderbilt is struggling to manage the luxurious Biltmore Estate after the untimely death of her cherished husband. With 250 rooms to oversee and an entire village dependent on her family to stay afloat, Edith is determined to uphold the Vanderbilt legacy—and prepare her free-spirited daughter Cornelia to inherit it—in spite of her family’s deteriorating financial situation. But Cornelia has dreams of her own. Asheville, North Carolina has always been her safe haven away from the prying eyes of the press, but as she explores more of the rapidly changing world around her, she’s torn between upholding tradition and pursuing the exciting future that lies beyond Biltmore’s gilded gates.

In the vein of Therese Anne Fowler’s A Well-Behaved Woman and Jennifer Robson’s The Gown, The Wedding Veil brings to vivid life a group of remarkable women forging their own paths—and explores the mystery of a national heirloom lost to time.

Review:

The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey is another one of her wonderful standalone novels.  The story revolves around four women in two different time periods.  There is a lot of Historical and Fiction in this storyline, with the wedding veil being the key to this story, which was originally created by the Vanderbilts, only later years to be given away to another family. 

In 1898, Edith Dressler married George Vanderbilt, and lived in the newly built Biltmore Mansion, in Asheville, North Carolina, which was very much like a castle, with 250 rooms.  Edith stepped into the role of the famous and wealthy Vanderbilts, and was determined to help the workers and town of Biltmore Village; two years later she gave birth to a baby girl, Cornelia.  When George unexpectedly died, Edith made sure to keep up the Vanderbilt legacy, as she continued to take charge of the mansion and surrounding village. As Cornelia gets older, Edith prepares her for the time when she will inherit the Biltmore legacy, which in later years becomes a major challenge, with the depression and difficulty to manage the estate.

In the present day, Julia and Babs (her grandmother) take center stage, as we meet Julia, who is getting married, planning to use the magical wedding veil that has been passed down to each bride in the family.  When Julia spots a picture of her soon to be husband kissing another girl, she decides run away and clear her head, to determine if she wants to marry him, and ends up in the Virgin Islands; which was to be her expected honeymoon.  Babs has recently lost her beloved husband, and decides she wants to move out of their house, and go to a retirement community, which will allow her to meet new friends, and leave all the work of keeping up the house.  Babs surprisingly meets an old flame, and it will take Julia to convince her to maybe take a second chance at love.  Julia will also meet someone, who will make her realize that she made the right choice to not go through with  the marriage.

What follows is a wonderful story of two families in the past and present, as we watch how life changes over the years, with the wedding veil that was always intended to bring good luck in their marriages. Cornelia will marry Jack, and have two children, but things will change, as she has issues dealing with difficult choices, as well as not being able to handle her inability to always being in the spotlight as a Vanderbilt. Julia will eventually, with the help of someone new in her life, to resume her wanting to be an architect; as well as convince her grandmother to allow herself to be happy, even in an older age.

The Wedding Veil was so very well written by Kristy Woodson Harvey.  I wholly suggest you read this wonderful story. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher