The Wedding Veil

Kristy Woodson Harvey

• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781668025307
• eBook ISBN:
  9781982180737
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Historical Fiction
• Index: Literature

This “masterfully woven…literary home run” (New York Journal of Books) follows four women across generations, bound by a beautiful wedding veil and a connection to the famous Vanderbilt family from the New York Times bestselling author of the Peachtree Bluff series.

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, 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 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 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—despite her family’s deteriorating financial situation. But Cornelia has dreams of her own, and 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 is “a sparkling, fast-paced joy of a book that celebrates love, family, and the right to shape one’s own destiny” (Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author).

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Prologue: Magic: June 5, 1879
• 1. Julia: Follow the Rules: Present Day
• 2. Edith: My Solemn Vow: June 2, 1898
• 3. Julia: Fractured Fairy Tale
• 4. Edith: A Lady: March 6, 1914
• 5. Julia: Getaway Car
• 6. Babs: Cattle Prod: Present Day
• 7. Julia: Off Schedule
• 8. Cornelia Laid to Rest: March 6, 1914
• 9. Julia: Buy a Ticket
• 10. Edith: All Men Are Ghosts: April 11, 1914
• 11. Julia: The Finest Places
• 12. Edith: Higher Ground: July 16, 1916
• 13. Julia: Soggy Dollar
• 14. Edith: Swept Away: July 21, 1916
• 15. Julia: The One and Only
• 16. Babs: Infatuation
• 17. Cornelia Called to Serve: November 21, 1918
• 18. Julia: Two Halves of a Whole
• 19. Babs: Young Life
• 20. Julia: A Part of the Sky
• 21. Cornelia Queen of the Nile: March 24, 1923
• 22. Babs: Swingers
• 23. Julia: A Professional
• 24. Cornelia A Vanderbilt: April 29, 1924
• 25. Julia: Permission
• 26. Edith: A Line in the Sand: July 27, 1925
• 27. Julia: Until We Meet Again
• 28. Cornelia Mistress of Biltmore: August 22, 1925
• 29. Babs: Lease on Life
• 30. Edith: A Leap of Faith: October 22, 1925
• 31. Julia: The Vanderbilt Veil
• 32. Cornelia A Place for Strangers: November 30, 1929
• 33. Babs: Fugitives
• 34. Cornelia Work and Creation: March 15, 1930
• 35. Julia: A Shock
• 36. Cornelia A Rotten Egg: October 9, 1933
• 37. Babs: Love Is Blind
• 38. Edith: The Helm: March 21, 1934
• 39. Julia: Love and Luck
• 40. Cornelia The Feminine Divine: March 30, 1934
• 41. Edith: Between Two Worlds: March 30, 1934
• 42. Julia: It’s You
• 43. Cornelia Companions to the Death: March 31, 1934
• 44. Babs: A Sky Full of Stars
• Author’s Note
• Acknowledgments
• ‘The Summer of Songbirds’ Teaser
• About the Author
• Copyright