Say the words “family keepsake,” and anyone in earshot will likely know what you mean. We humans have been passing down heirlooms to our children and our children’s children and their children for centuries. Often, it’s not the keepsake itself that is of value, but rather what it symbolizes to each person who inherits it — strength, fidelity, love, integrity, valor, honor, resolve or any number of other qualities society has long admired.
Family keepsakes remind us of what we cherish and don’t want to see end. We also tend to think that the keeping of them will work a little magic on the Fates. Wanting success in our life endeavors, we hold onto them for good luck.
In her warm and winning way, Kristy Woodson Harvey has created an insightful dual-timeline story of four women, separated by generations and, in some cases, time, whose hopes and dreams and lives are all impacted by one lacy family keepsake. It’s a story about the connection between these women and the way they pursued life to its most meaningful zenith. The Wedding Veil (Gallery Books) is her first work that combines historical fiction (loads of lovers of this genre are going to want more from her) with a contemporary storyline, but everything about this novel is what devotees already love about her style.
In the present day, Julia Baxter runs away from her own wedding, and the only one who understands why she bolted is her grandmother Babs, who, after being a widow for a few years, is suddenly facing tough choices of her own in the romance department. The bridal veil that Julia ditched had belonged to her mother and to Babs before that. A hundred or so years earlier, heiress Edith Vanderbilt is suddenly running the famous Biltmore Estate in North Carolina while raising the one and only Cornelia Vanderbilt without her beloved husband by her side. Julia and Babs are inventions of Kristy’s creative mind; the Vanderbilt women are not.
I loved that about this book; how Kristy dovetailed the lives of two historic women living on a renowned North Carolina estate with the fictional quests of a granddaughter and her grandmother in the present day, all threaded together with a wedding veil that had been pinned to their heads when they were just setting off to find their destinies.
You’ll laugh; you’ll get teary; you’ll want to cheer; you’ll want to ponder. You might even want to consider the impact a family heirloom has had on you. Has it empowered you to live your most meaningful life or kept you from venturing beyond the safe family fences? The Wedding Veil entertains for sure, but it also gently asks its reader that question.
And it lets you know it’s okay if you’re still trying to figure that out.
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