I am SO excited to announce my Spring 2022 novel, The Wedding Veil! My first hardback–and my first historical, contemporary story, this is a book I have been researching for a couple years about two real-life, incredible North Carolina women and two straight from my imagination! I hope you love it!
The Wedding Veil Back Cover Copy
The New York Times bestselling author of Under the Southern Sky and the Peachtree Bluff series brings “her signature wit, charm, and heart” (Woman’s World) to this sweeping new novel following four women across generations, bound by a beautiful wedding veil and a connection to the famous Vanderbilt family.
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.
Join Me Tomorrow on Instagram with @thebookenddiner
Have you been following along with the Uplit Reads/Peachtree Bluff Series Read-a-long? If not, stay tuned for more details about our The Secret to Southern Charm reading schedule. And TOMORROW night at 5:30 pm, join me with @thebookenddiner on Instagram where Chase and I will be discussing the first book in the series, Slightly South of Simple, which we read in July! I will be giving away several copies of Christmas in Peachtree Bluff and The Southern Side of Paradise to attendees! Have questions about Slightly South of Simple or The Peachtree Bluff Series? Leave a question in the comments here and we’ll answer them during our chat!
Highlands and Cashiers, NC, Come See Me!
Friday, August 6, Albert Carlton – Cashiers Community Library, 249 Frank Allen Rd, Cashiers, NC 28717; (828) 743-0215, 3pm, Bookseller – Books Unlimited, Suzanne Harouff, suzanne@booksunlimitednc.com, Free and open to public. More information here.
August 6, Friday, The Chattooga Club, 1 Pavilion Way, Cashiers, NC 28717; (828) 743-3640, 5:30pm, Bookseller – Books Unlimited, Open to Members and Their Guests.
Saturday, August 7, Highlands Hudson Public Library, 554 Main St, Highlands, NC 28741; (828) 526-3031, 12:30pm (confirmed), Bookseller – Books Unlimited, Suzanne Harouff, suzanne@booksunlimitednc.com; Free and Open to the Public. More information here.
Coming Up on Friends & Fiction
Next week we are honored to welcome #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline. Christina is the award-winning author of eight novels, including ORPHAN TRAIN, which spent more than two years on the NYT bestseller list, including five weeks at #1. She joins us to discuss her latest novel THE EXILES which was an instant New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Indie Next bestseller Join us as we welcome Christina on Wed 7/28 at 7pm ET via Facebook Live on the F&F group page or on our YouTube channel. See you then!
Christmas in Peachtree Bluff Freebies!
Preorder Christmas in Peachtree Bluff between now and October 26 and fill out the form to get a free I Read KWH ornament, a signed book plate and a fun bookmark, while supplies last.
So much exciting stuff going on right now! Thanks for being a part of them all! Hope to see you tomorrow on Instagram!
Exciting times!