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“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:

Enchanting, sentimental, and heartfelt!

The Wedding Veil is a a captivating, uplifting tale that takes you on a journey to the early 1900s, as well as present-day, and into the lives of four main characters, Edith Vanderbilt, a young widow and mistress of the exquisite Biltmore Estate, Cornelia Vanderbilt, a mother of two with seemingly everything but who yearns for something more, Babs Carlisle, a grandmother extraordinaire with a lot of spunk and a heart of gold, and Julie Baxter, a soon-to-be bride with a beautiful locale, a family veil with a mysterious past and a history of its own, and a fiancé who unfortunately can’t seem to keep his hands to himself.

The prose is charged and intriguing. The characters are independent, kind, reliable, and supportive. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel effortlessly into a charming tale of drama, emotion, secrets, loss, duty, heartbreak, familial dynamics, self-reflection, passion, tradition, taking chances, moving on, and finding new love.

Overall, The Wedding Veil is an evocative, moving, nostalgic tale with compelling characters that I devoured from start to finish. As most people know, I’m a huge fan of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s writing, and now with this first exceptional endeavour into my favourite genre, historical fiction, I might have become an even bigger fan if that’s even possible.

This novel is available now.

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