In 1914, Edith Vanderbilt became a widow when her husband, George Washington Vanderbilt, II, died, leaving Edith with a thirteen-year-old daughter, Cornelia, and America’s largest home, Asheville, North Carolina’s Vanderbilt Estate, to care for. This novel of generations of strong women is tied together by the wedding veil shared by Edith and Cornelia. The novel’s secondary plot is connected only by the fact that Babs passes another wedding veil that she believes looks like that of Edith and Cornelia down to her grand-daughter, Julia Baxter, who decides, at the last minute, to escape her wedding. "The author easily switches between the time periods to locate momentous events in the characters’ lives and connect each story line with the veil at the center. Harvey, ever a fine storyteller, manages to keep the pages turning."—Publishers Weekly. "Finding inspiration in the true story of Edith Vanderbilt and her mysteriously disappeared wedding veil, Harvey intertwines a veil's generations-spanning journey, the lives of the women who wore it, and the strength required to remove the veil and follow one's heart instead."—Booklist. “Woodson Harvey’s latest is a knockout—a perfect blend of historical fiction (two generations of Vanderbilts and their iconic North Carolina mansion) and modern love (a runaway bride and her grieving grandmother). Her masterful intertwining of the storylines makes
New York: Gallery Books, 2022. 416 pages. Hardback in dust jacket.