The Vanderbilts and the Gilded Era have always been interesting to me and I was excited to read this book. I don't think the book Alva ever interested me as much as the real life Alva did. It's clear the author did her research, I just struggled to invest in this fictionalized account of Alva's life.

Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont is #AWellBehavedWoman. The book by Therese Anne Fowler is part of a growing trend of fictionalizing lives of historical figures. I do wish the book's focus had been flipped. It ends almost as Alva's true contribution to this nation's history begins. This story takes the history and makes it about money and marriage rather her work. It does lead me to research that contribution but unfortunately fails to capture it in the book itself.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2019/10/a-well-behaved-woman.html

Reviewed for #NetGalley.

Written about a time where women’s behavior was the epitome of good breeding, there’s Anne Fowler describes the life of Alva Vanderbilt who establishes herself within her family as essential to their good name. Yet the betrayals she discovers allow her to break out of the expectations of the early 1900’s society. In a well written book which was clearly researched from multiple sources, the reader develops an understanding of the struggle women had if they desired more than an ownership by husbands. A fascinating view of what it was really like to be the wealthiest family, and seeing just what money can or can’t do for a person.

A Well-Behaved Woman is a glittering glimpse into the lives of the Vanderbilts in the Gilded Age in New York. A must read!

In a world of wealth, social climbing, jealousy, Alva Smith is unabashedly her own person and not willing to bow to the cultural norms that anyone tries to constrain her with.

This wasn't the most riveting book but it was interesting to learn more about Alva Vanderbilt. This story starts out with Alva looking for a husband, particularly one that is rich, since her family is poor. She sets her sights on William Vanderbilt and soon they get married. The story follows them through their riches, infidelities, children, and Alva's crusades. Although, Alva was a pioneer in many ways, she also comes across as a typical wealthy woman--snobby, rude, and money hungry. Although, this is not something I would read again, it was interesting to read once.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this to be a fascinating historical novel about Alva Vanderbilt, a woman that I was not familiar with. She was unite progressive for the time and I learned a lot about her as well as about society in general during the Gilded Age. This would be a great choice for book clubs.

I love the way this author writes....you can tell she has done her research. Besides the name and the beautiful homes I knew little about The Vanderbilt family. I enjoyed learning more. I wish the book was a little longer to include the suffragist movement more and also because I didn’t want it to end!

If you read Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and loved it, then you need to grab this book, settle down, and prepare to be transported to the world of the Vanderbilt's.

To read a Therese Anne Fowler book is to know that:

(1) It's going to be well researched. And like, really well researched. She must get so engrossed by these people and their lives that she is able to make you feel like you are reading journal entries rather than fiction.

(2) She doesn't shy away from complex, messy characters. She highlights women who are three dimensional - women who are able to stand-up for themselves, who make mistakes, who aren't always kind and good. She wants us to relate to the person who lived these things.

(3) She knows how to weave a tale - using real people and making the story jump from the pages and fill the room (or simply your imagination).

I knew nothing about Alva Vanderbilt, née Smith, prior to picking up this book. But this story pulled her into my life - it made me want to read up on her and see what other tidbits I could find.

This is the story about a woman who fought for what she had - and maybe what she ended up with was that much greater than what we have, but you see her struggles, and the hardships and betrayals. You endure a difficult marriage and hope for another romance.

All I can say about this is that if you love sweeping historical fiction - pick this up. If you like to read WELL WRITTEN novels - with a solid plot and strong, three dimensional characters - read this book. Therese Anne Fowler is always an author I highly recommend. Her books are beautiful and stay with you long after you finish reading them.

Highly recommended read. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I didn't know anything about this woman prior to reading this book so it was a fascinating read. Overall, I enjoyed it and the quiet determination of the main character, Alva. The Vanderbilt's most definitely loved differently than you and I.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Excellent chronicle of the life of Alva Smith, a southern upper class woman who marries into one of the richest families of the Gilded Age, The Vanderbildts, A well Behaved Woman is a must-read for anyone who loves historical fiction and reading about women who were ahead of their time.

I just kept waiting. Alva Vanderbilt is one of those women history remembers for fighting back despite her lofty station and for making great strides for American women as a leader in the suffragette movement. She was the first to push for an integrated women's rights movement in the US, insisting that black women were just as capable of their white counterparts. Was any of this in the book? Nope.

I really liked Alva and the book in the beginning. I appreciated her pragmatism and her intelligence at an age when romanic fancy typically rules but then the story, and the protagonist, changed. By the one-third mark of the book, I was no longer enjoying it. The story became a mind-numbing recitation of balls, parties, dresses, recreation, houses, and other amusements of the rich at the time. And the social snubs! So many of those were discussed that I couldn't distinguish one from another. There was no real character development for Alva or those around her (if anything Alva seemed to regress until the last few chapters of the book) and there was not much of a plot to speak of. It was very slow reading. I was bothered to see Alva be so one-dimensional and that her one trait of intelligence that everyone remarks on seems to be woefully blind only in the direction of her husband.

And that was my biggest issue with the book. For me, it made no sense that a women remarked on as intelligent would somehow miss her husband's indiscretions. Affairs of wealthy men are discussed regularly in the story (including by Alva), several people attempted to enlighten her, and William's largely absent from her life; therefore, I couldn't suspend my disbelief that Alva didn't know, or at least suspect enough to admit it to herself. Maybe she didn't know with whom but if she's as smart and as good at reading people as she was written to be, I couldn't accept that she didn't know something about William. This made the climax of the book underwhelming.

To me this book was much more women's fiction with some historical dressing rather than the usual historical fiction. There was so much discussion of balls and debutantes and much, much less of the upheavals occurring around her society at that time. I hate to leave such a review because Alva Vanderbilt Belmont is a great historical figure but this story focused on the bits of her life that I think Alva would've said were less important, and less interesting, than the work of her later years. My hope is that readers of this book will be curious enough to seek out her Wikipedia entry and learn about the progress she pushed for in the women's movement.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher St. Martin's Press, and the author Therese Anne Fowler for the opportunity to do so.

Alva Erskine Smith was a resourceful young woman. Her successful parents were socialites and raised their daughters to be educated, independent and worldly. After her mother unexpectedly passed away, her father quickly succumbed to his own illness and loss. The girls were left with very little. All they had was each other and their superior family bloodline. It was up to Alva to marry well and get their family back on their financial feet. She managed to seduce William Kissam Vanderbilt. Their family fortune was growing steadily but the Vanderbilt name was not yet considered amongst the higher ranks of New York. They could help each other. And for the next twenty years that is precisely what they did. While William spent money and wooed various women behind her back, Alva was out to make sure the Vanderbilt’s name would be set in stone. Alva was forward thinking, generous and intelligent. Author Therese Anne Fowler takes us on another incredible journey through time. New York City comes alive in our imaginations as history is made. This well written, interesting and enjoyable read is a must for anyone who loves historical fiction.

The Marble House and Belcourt mansions were always my favorite mansions in Newport. I was amazed to learn that Alva Vanderbilt Belmont lived in both mansions when I first toured them. This is the fictionalized story of Alva and her determination for a good life for herself and her family. There was a bit of a lull in the middle of the book, but I really enjoyed when the construction of Marble House began.

This book was amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know about the Vanderbilt's - even told in this kind of setting.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for a copy of A Well Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler for review.

The story of Alva Vanderbilt was not one that I was aware of. I like that Therese Anne Fowler tells the story of a woman behind the scenes of a well known man. Similar to her other book Z, which tells the story of Zelda Fitzgerald, this is a historical fiction based on a real woman.
I did find this one slow going at parts. Alva is remarkable woman but 1900s society ladies are just not always very interesting to read about. A lot of in fighting about status and petty grudges, etc. The Vanderbilts are newer money at the time so Alva is fighting for status and influence and often it’s not that interesting for me to read about all the details.
I did like the history of the time and her attention to details, I just might not have been in the mood to read every single snub by Mrs. Astor and how outraged she was.
Written very similarly to “Z”, if you liked that novel or historical fiction about early New York society, this is an amazing choice. Well written and very detailed.

4.5 well done historical stars

They say you can never have enough money. They say that money can't buy happiness. They say that money is the route of all evil.

Alva Vanderbilt to the world had everything. She was married to one of the richest men in the world and could do whatever she wanted. She married William Vanderbilt, not because she loved him, but because her family was becoming destitute and Alva believed that in marrying William she would achieve two things, getting her family out of debt and eventually falling in love with William. The former happened, but the latter never did.

“Yet she understood a truth she could never say aloud: this ideal life was still deficient. She was not wholly content. Perhaps she should be, but contentment, she had learned, lay beyond money's considerable reach.”

Growing up and having my family on Long Island, New York, I had many opportunities to visit the one of the summer homes of the Vanderbilt's, called Eagle's Nest. It was a beautiful home located on the water on sprawling acres. My girls went to classes there on geology and marine science and today it is a museum owned by the county. The house remains as well as the planetarium and a museum dedicated to the findings and explorations of William and his sons. As we often did the tour we learned about Alva, whose portrait hung prominently in one of the main stairwells, and the picture the tour guides painted of Alva was often none to complimentary. We were told she was a bit of a tyrant making her daughter, Consuelo's life miserable sticking a rod and a back brace on her to correct her posture, and doing all within her power to see she married European royalty.

However, in this book, Ms Fowler constructs a more humane portrait of Alva. We see her as a young girl being primed to marry wealthy, to push her family up the ladder of social rungs, to be something she thought she might like to be though never really wanted to be. This is a story of excess, of money beyond belief, and of the unhappiness many of the gilded age experienced not only in their lives, but also in their need to be people recognized by other people, to be in a social strata that they clamored for.

Ms Fowler did a wonderful job bringing Alva to life and showing us what a strong courageous woman she really was. She became, for many, a beacon of strength and a woman who fought not only for woman's suffrage, but also for equal rights.

I recommended this book to those who love reading about people of wealth, to those who enjoy a well done historical fiction book, and to those who will, in their search for money, find that it does not guarantee happiness.

Thank you to Theresa Anne Fowler, St Martin's Press, and NetGalley for a copy of this intriguing book.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4*.

A Well-Behaved Woman is the first book of Therese Ann Fowler's that I have read and I was impressed! I requested a digital ARC based on the short blurb teasing historical fiction from a female protagonist-based on real-life events. I'm so glad I did, although I'm sorry I waited so long to read it!

Well-researched and written, A Well-Behaved Woman (title garnered from the popular, though impossible to attribute with any confidence quote "A well-behaved woman rarely makes history") is the story of Alva Smith Vanderbilt, the wife of WK Vanderbilt, and a critical player in Manhattan history-socially, financially, and architecturally.

I have not done a lot of reading from a factual background of the players in this book but was reminded of another book I really enjoyed "The Swans of Fifth Avenue".

At a time when women had very little control over choices, their bodies or their families, Alva was a force to be reckoned with. Armed with just her good family name-she manages to claw her way into the highest echelons of society and impact decisions made by her husband, father-in-law and many other important women of the day.

Good fun, even if not entirely historically true! Definitely recommended to my friends who enjoy historical fiction or a good Real Housewives from way back when!

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

I love historical fiction and this did not disappoint. Well written and great story! Highly recommend.

As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to read it again! I love reading about The Gilded Age and Alva Vanderbilt was one of its main characters. This beautifully-written novel certainly does her justice.



The novel starts when Alva, one of several sisters, is struggling to cope with financial and social problems, and faced with an uncertain future when her beloved father dies. Her good friend, Consuelo Yznaga, introduces her to William Vanderbilt, who is seemingly the answer, although not that wealthy and not in the higher echelons of New York society. Alva impressed young William with her wit and charm, and her 'hustling' soon make her family leading lights in New York. However, this practically arranged marriage doesn't bring Alva happiness and she has to cope with many difficulties in an old-fashioned patriarchal society. Soon her daughter, the beautiful Consuelo, will have her own mighty struggles...



This captures the atmosphere of the Gilded Age, and Alva is an engaging and sympathetic character. The novel also shows Alva and Consuelo's relationship in a very different light than usual, and this is explained at the end, and probably largely correct. However, I am not sure whether a major part of the story is true - I can't find any evidence for it, and it may have been added for dramatic effect. It is not beyond the realms of possibility. Also, I am not sure about the characterisation of
Winthrop Rutherfurd.



This is a must-read for fans of historical novels, especially those who love the Gilded Age.



I received this free ebook from Net Galley in return for an honest review.