The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey

While her earlier novels are solid fiction about Southern women, her latest, The Wedding Veil, leaves behind the Hallmark-type stories as this historical fiction offering is Kristy Woodson Harvey’s masterpiece. Blending a modern-day romance with the story of heiress Cornelia Vanderbilt’s wedding veil, Harvey’s well-researched tome includes biographical detail about the Dresser and Vanderbilt families as well as the history of the Biltmore, the largest home in America.

This North Carolina writer has blended the story of the wedding veil over two distinct timelines encompassing the early 1900s and present day starting with the ill-fated wedding of Julia Baxter who learns at the bridesmaid’s breakfast at the Biltmore that her intended has been unfaithful. In contrast, Edith Vanderbilt’s story begins with the death of her husband and the huge responsibility of keeping the Biltmore estate financially healthy in 1914 as she prepares to pass it on to her daughter Cornelia on her 25^th birthday.

The chapters alternate between different points of view as well as different years as both Julia and Cornelia  sort out their feelings about love and their roles in life. The stories become linked with the beautiful veil that Edith’s family had passed down from one Dresser female to another as well as to Cornelia Vanderbilt herself.

Kristy Woodson Harvey lives with her family in Beaufort, NC. She writes standalone novels as well as the Peachtree Bluff series, now being adapted into a one-hour drama for NBC.