What does it take to be: A Well-Behaved Woman

A Novel of the Vanderbilts

by Therese Anne Fowler

Historical fiction offers readers the opportunity to imagine other lives, places and contexts. It provides a way to immerse one’s self in a past world that offers the reader escape but, also many times, insight into current times. This novel gives readers all of this as it tells the story of Alva Smith Vanderbilt. She did not begin life with the proverbial silver spoon but, of course, that all changed. Follow the story of her life here; the clothes, the houses and the ostentation…but also, the striving for acceptance as one of the newly rich. It was a tricky world to navigate.

Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this title. It contains all that readers of this genre could want.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.