I was disappointed in this historical biography about Ava Smith Vanderbilt Belmont. The book lacked detail, description, and character development. I started skimming the book by the halfway point because it just wasn’t interesting. Thank you #NetGalley for the arc, all opinions are my own.

A very enjoyable Historical fiction book about the Vanderbilts
partly based on truth..The heroine of the story is a young lady who married for money,instead of love,to take care of her sisters when her parents died.
The story is filled with balls,coming out parties and many social events that took place in the late 1800's.
The book is also filled with family cruelty and indifference,as all members try to outdo each other with their inherited wealth.
It all sorts itself out in the end but this fast paced book will have you enjoying every page.
I love Historical novels and this one is thoroughly entertaining.I
enjoyed it immensely and would highly recommend.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and leave my honest review on "A Well Behaved Woman ."

The impoverished Alva Smith wins William, the scion of the nouveau riche Vanderbilts, through social connections and ambition; a social connections portrait of an unconventional woman in a conventional marriage.

The Gilded Age, The Vanderbilts, and one strong independent woman who will stop at nothing to achieve her dreams. 💫 Alva needs money to help support her family and improve her family name. She sets her sights on becoming a Vanderbilt and soon her dreams become a reality. She nails down a proposal from William, a sought after bachelor in the Vanderbilt family. This story arcs from Alva setting her sights on him, through the wedding, through babies, and all the way through to the end of her life. 💫 I truly enjoyed reading her story through the different time periods and how Alva forged her way as a leader. I enjoyed the authors note at the end, detailing why she chose to write this and Z, a novel about Zelda Fitzgerald. She details why she chose these strong, independent women and that she wanted their stories to be more than just a blip in a history book. I learned a lot about the illustrious Vanderbilt’s and about Alvas life. This was a well written, intriguing story. My only complaint, and also about Z when I read it, was that it’s much too long. Entire sections could have been removed without detracting from the story or the authors purpose. For me, A Well-Behaved Woman was ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars. Thank you @stmartinspress for this advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

Therese Anne Fowler's A Well-Behaved Woman is a masterful evocation of a period in American history which almost certainly enthrals us all: the Gilded Age. Just seeing the phrase surely evokes in nearly all of us (even in myself, a Brit who can barely name any of the American presidents) an image of extremes - in wealth, in politics, in beauty. An, as Mark Twain so astutely hit the nail on the head, era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding.
Therese Anne Fowler captures all of these extremes through the rise of Alva Vanderbilt into one of the richest and well-known families in the world, through a loveless and stifling marriage, and it is a stark and honest meditation on the benefits and pitfalls of seemingly having it all. Because, sure, there is excess and scandal, love affairs and some of history's most beloved architecture, but A Well-Behaved Woman also shines on a light on the areas of society that, even the women in the world who had absolutely everything, were still barred from.
It was limiting, stifling, narrowing - no matter a women's social status, they were relegated to solely the domestic sphere, and this book is one that truly captures that unending struggle between women of the time and their untapped capacity to do so much more. This leads the tone of the novel to be a sort of melancholy happiness, one that can only be soothed by looking towards the future; knowing that, thanks to the twists and turns of history, Alva Vanderbilt did eventually find fulfilment and happiness and even a pinch of feminism.

In the Gilded Age you needed two things to get (or stay) ahead in society: money and an established family lineage. A person simply did get by with one or the other.
William Vanderbilt and his family are ripe with “new money” but find that the “respectable” social circles of New York City aren’t open to new money. Alva Smith has the necessary lineage to maintain a respectable position in society, but her father’s finances are running out and her family is desperate for salvation. In marrying, Alva and William provide each other with that which they most desperately need, and the result lives in infamy through tales of the Vanderbilts, and the wealthy impact they left behind.
Alva Smith Vanderbilt pushed the norms with regards to being a “well-behaved” wife of a wealthy man. Not content to sit back and hand out money, or to smile and nod at the ideas of men, she became actively involved in charities and issues that mattered to her, and contributed her own thoughts and ideas as to Vanderbilt activities.
While she was perhaps a bit of a radical in her opinions and activities, she was also a woman moored by the social norms of the times, and that can be a bit tough to read. At times I wanted to scream at Alva, “Who cares about that old hag Astor. Do your own thing, girl!” But ultimately, I appreciated the vivid detail of the writing and I think that my discomfort with the women’s behavior is a result of a genuine representation of what life was like for women during this time.
In A Well-Behaved Woman, author Therese Anne Fowler, provides an indulgent trip through the glitz and glamour of the Guilded Age. If you’re looking for a strong social statement about the accumulation of wealth to the detriment of the working class, or the psychological damage that accompanies ambition, this isn’t it. But, if you’re looking to be swept up in a tale about a strong female during the rise of one of America’s most infamous families, and to get lost in a vivid portrayal of this sparkling moment in history, then this is the perfect choice.

4.5. A fabulous read and great historical fiction of the Gilded Age and Alva Vanderbilt. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I truly enjoyed this novel about Alva Vanderbilt, the daughter of a destitute Southern plantation owner who fell on hard times during Reconstruction after the Civil War and later the wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt, a grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, the business magnate and railroad baron who was the wealthiest American at the time of his death. This is a wonderful snapshot into the Gilded Age and lives of the upper crust of New York society from the post Civil War times to the early 20th century. But the book is really about Alva’s resolve and strength to become a formidable woman who accomplished a great deal although initially shunned because of her roots, and later as a member of the “scandalous” Vanderbilt clan. In her way, largely driven by her “impoverished” young years, Alva Vanderbilt was a trailblazer and not one to be dominated by the traditional male oriented culture. Among other things, Alva was able to get the wealthiest family in America (who had been snubbed by the Astors and others) accepted into the upper echelons of New York society. By her intuitive and shrewd insights, architectural acumen, feminism, and sponsor of many charitable causes for the poor and unloved, Alva was a game changer. That is not to say she had an easy life, even after marrying into the Vanderbilt family. She had many disappointments and setbacks, but that didn’t stop her. A great read!

A Well-Behaved Woman:
A Novel of the Vanderbilts


A fascinating and fabulous story of a strong, independent woman well ahead of her time.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Alva Smith’s mother was deceased, her father was ailing and her family was quickly becoming destitute. Her family‘s good name was useless on its own. She needed to quickly marry someone with money. Alva, with the help of her best friend Consuelo Yznaga, was able to secure a proposal from the young William K. Vanderbilt. The hope from the Vanderbilts was that Alva, because of her name, would put the Vanderbilt’s in good stead with the Astor’s. The matriarch of the Astor family, Caroline, known as the “queen of the elite” turned a cold shoulder to Alva upon their first introduction.

After their marriage in 1875, Alva worked tirelessly on recognition and acceptance by the Astor’s. Her success came at a 1883 costume ball, at Alva’s newly constructed Fifth Avenue Mansion. Caroline Astor acquiesces to attending for her daughter’s sake. It was a huge coup for Alva Vanderbilt, who was raising three children and involved in countless good causes. Alva built a second mansion at Newport, while William was off playing at being rich. Alva was determined to marry her only daughter to England’s most eligible duke and stops at nothing to make it possible. Alva means to do right by all, but sometimes a well-behaved woman has had enough. Sometimes being well-behaved is just not the right thing to do.

“A person might easily come to think that this ball, this house, Alva’s efforts to improve culture and to beautify New York, were only about Alva wanting to elevate herself, with the Vanderbilt family getting the secondary benefits of her rise. One might conclude that she put personal ambition above all else in order to feed an insatiable vanity. Well, let them, she thought. And intelligent woman in this world takes her chances where she finds them.”


REVIEW

A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN is a fascinating and fabulous historical fiction read. Both the writing and the story are delightful. Alva Smith Vanderbilt was portrayed as the epitome of a strong, independent woman well ahead of her time. Her ability to make things happen and her vulnerabilities were both evident in the book, making her come alive on the page.

My favorite part of the story was when Alva confronted the Vanderbilts at a family dinner and proposed they each build a new mansion on Fifth Avenue with the design of their choice that will stand as a work of art that can be admired by all. She argued with the Vanderbilt men that the benefit would be beautifying New York and employing hundreds of artisans, stonemasons, and carpenters, at a time when unemployment was at an all time high. It was a brilliant strategy.

Author THERESE ANNE FOWLER descriptions were vivid and I felt as if I was in the receiving line with Alva at her 1883 Costume Ball as the various guests ascended the red carpet entry and discussed their costumes with the hostess. The most outrageous costume was a woman dressed as a cat. With rows of white cat tails made into a overskirt and an actual cat’s pelt, head and all fashioned into a hat.

Overall A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN is an enlightening and entertaining read, one that may even have you researching historical pictures as you read. I just had to see what Alva’s glorious mansions of the gilded-age looked like. If you enjoy reading books about strong, independent, forward-thinking, cause-oriented women, Alva Vanderbilt’s story should not be missed. She did so much for so many. Fowler is a New York Times best selling author of numerous novels including Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“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.”

Publisher St. Martin’s Press
Published October 16, 2018
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

An interesting look at a prominent American family and the Gilded Age. I would have liked to seen more of Mrs. Vanderbilts life as a social activist.

As a thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced readers copy. I shall give an honest review of this novel. A Well-behaved woman was the first novel by Therese Anne Fowler I have read and it certainly will not be my last. The novel is set around the late 1800’s and enters the Gilded Age in American society. The novels pace was comfortable for I felt it seemed like that of authors to that period ex. Edith Wharton and Henry James. Like her predecessors she examined not only the society featured but the individual themselves. The characterization of Alva I felt was done well. She was relatable but distinctive in personality compared to the others. She had a dynamic sense of self and this intrigued me throughout the novel. The overall pace and tone seemed familiar to turn of the century novelists I have been accustomed to and enjoyed the characterization to figures of history who have lived. From the beginning, Alva’s mission is to provide for her family who has recently experienced financial difficulties. She can provide for them in the sole approach women at this time took and that was to marry into money. Enter Old and New money. The relationship between Alva and her sister at times brought this character down to earth. By establishing early on this close bond the reader was reminded that she was simply a young woman desperately wanting to assist her family. Unfortunately, the price she paid for security would be one that would shape her life completely. As Alva grows into Womanhood she defines her place in New York society a feat in which she experiences social scorn, betrayal, friendship, and love. This woman held many hats whether that was as a philanthropist, architect or activist in the woman’s suffrage movement. Mrs. Alva Smith Vanderbilt – Belmont led a charmed life definitely one I would love to learn more about. Overall this novel examined social ambition similarly to Madame Bovary, but whose leading lady holds more heart and grit. I recommend this novel to lovers of Edith Wharton, Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Henry James. I gave this novel four out of five stars.

I’ll admit that I had never heard of Alva Smith/Vanderbilt/Belmont before I came across this fictionalized version of her life. In fact, the only thing I knew about the any of those families was that one Vanderbilt built a ridiculously large mansion called Biltmore somewhere in North Carolina. (Truth be told I only even knew that because of the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast). Despite this, it didn’t take me long to get caught up in the lives of Alva and her set in the Gilded Age of New York society.

A Well-Behaved Woman begins when Alva Smith is in her early twenties, grieving the untimely death of her mother, watching her father slowly die from his own illness, and struggling to stave off poverty. In an attempt to save herself and her sisters, Alva and her friend Consuelo decide to stage a marriage conquest on one William K. Vanderbilt. The rest is history.

Although I had known nothing about Alva before starting the book, by the end I was counting her as one of my personal heroes. She made a lot of difficult decisions in her lifetime and always stood firmly by those decisions. I do admit there were a couple choices she made that I did not agree with. One the whole, however, Alva comes across as a strong-willed, spirited, and intelligent woman who is determined to live her life on her own terms. I admire that.

If you enjoyed “Z,” “Downton Abbey,” or “The Masterpiece,” you should definitely try this one!

*I received a free digital copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This masterfully crafted biographical novel takes us credibly into the mind and heart of a Gilded Age matron more often reviled than praised..

A Well-Behaved Woman follows Alva Vanderbilt Belmont from her own family's downfall through her unhappy marriage to Willie K. Vanderbilt and on to her years at the forefront of America's women's rights movement. It's a long journey, made faster by judicious leaps over years where not much was changing - or not much that she knew of at the time it was happening. While much of Vanderbilt history is generally known from the obsessive tabloid coverage of the late 1800s, and more from the many biographies written since about various family members, Alva was primarily known for her apparently cruel interactions with her daughter, Consuelo.

For decades, all anyone knew of Alva herself was what appeared on the outer side of this intensely private woman: that she was a Southern belle by upbringing, that she was intensely competitive with her sister-in-law, Alice Vanderbilt,' in the matter of houses, that she forced a fragile Consuelo to marry England's most eligible duke despite the girl's pleas, tears, and refusals, that she scandalously instituted a divorce from Willie K. over his near-constant adulteries, and - almost unheard of at the time - came out of it a wealthy woman in her own right.

This author takes us into the inner layers, credibly revealing a young Alva desperate to recoup her family's fortunes by a good marriage before she and her sisters are left homeless by the death of their near-destitute father. How that early insecurity fed her societal obsession is a recurring theme. Along the way there are glimpses into the constriction of young Society women's lives, from what they wore at each time of day or season through the types of charitable works that were considered suitably genteel to the kind of instruction (or lack of it) they were given about their expected role in the marital bed. While a few infelicitous historical facts about Alva's deeds are glossed over or set hastily aside without much effort to excuse or explain, overall the author succeeds in humanizing a woman long seen through less compassionate lenses, and adds convincing psychological underpinnings to the documented rapprochement between Alva and Consuelo following the ill-fated ducal marriage.

If you like reading about America's Gilded Age, or about women faced with challenging choices and limited acceptable tools with which to extricate themselves, this book may well engage you as deeply as it did me.

Alva Vanderbilt has been portrayed unfavorably because of how she forced her daughters into loveless marriages. In this latest book by Therese Fowler, Alva is shown in mostly a sympathetic light. Alva is idealistic, ambitious, and smart. She wants the best for her family. I also thought this novel was well-written, and the characters were developed. I highly recommend this for those who are interested the Gilded Age and the Vanderbilts. This novel is perfect for The Paris Wife, Circle in the Sun, and Carnegie’s Maid.

I feel blah about this book. Alva is a described by the author as a radical but honestly she’s pretty conventional. It’s hard to know what is real and what is the author’s imagination. That taints the story for me as well. This just felt lackluster when it could have been better.

I really enjoyed this book. Though slow in some places i found Vanderbilt's life to be very fascinating

I normally love novels on strong women, especially when they are done so well, but I'm going against the grain because I didn't love A Well Behaved Woman.

I love everything that Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont did and stood for, but there was just something lacking for me. It started out slow and I never got hooked and wasn't dying to pick up my kindle to continue which made me overall feel just meh about this book.

One of the reasons I love to read historical fiction is because it mentally transports me to a different place and time - a place and time I love to read about and visualize but so happy I wasn't apart of. I couldn't even imagine being forced to marry someone just because of their lineage.

I wasn't very well-versed on the history of The Gilded Age and the Vanderbilts before I read this book. I have to say, this was the most thrilling and enjoyable history lesson I've ever had. Every word on every page was put there with a purpose and it was such a pleasure to read this book. Everything was described to perfection, from the amount of intricate detail on one's gown to the furnishings in one of the Vanderbilt's Petit Chateau.

It took me almost my entire Sunday to read it from the first page to the last but it was well worth it. As a character, I admire Alva for what she had to endure and overcome. As a real-life historical figure, I was completely moved by her story and her resilience.

I have been reading a lot of novels that are based on real people and have been loving them! This book about how Alva Smith became Alva Vanderbilt and one of the wealthiest women in the world. I love how she married into "new money" and forced her family into being accepted by a society that didn't accept people that weren't born wealthy. I loved this book and am going to read more by this author!

We live in some interesting times. From Hollywood to the Hill the balance of power that kept people from coming forward when they were sexually misused or abused has been shifting. More and more people are beginning to realize that if we all stand together, we can hold each other up when times get hard or scary.

And what a fantastic political climate to read A Well Behaved Woman, written by Therese Ann Fowler (author of Z: A Novel of Zelda, which is one of my favorite historical fiction books, and I also highly recommend that one.) The book follows the life of Alva Smith Vanderbilt, as she navigates the world of American Royalty: the New York "Old Rich." The High Society that basically sculpted New York City into what it is today, was similar to the English and French courts in the hierarchy they followed. Alva is a member of a well looked upon family (although not one of the "Best", which is basically the 1% of the 1% of that time. Does the name Astor ring a bell?) trying to make the most advantageous marital match she can. Her family is destitiute and while they are currently able to hide that fact, it is getting hard and harder do so. She has her sights set on William K. Vanderbilt, second born son to the first born son, William Henry, of the famous railroad tycoon Cornelius "the Commodore" Vanderbilt. He seems affable enough on the few occasions she has met him, not that it matters, because if she doesn't make this match, her dying father and two sisters will also be shit out of luck like her.

Do you know who this woman is? This woman is a FUCKING legend. Here's a quick greatest hits on Alva Smith-Vanderbilt-Belmont's life:

She not only married a Vanderbilt, but she managed to trick the fucking ASTOR FAMILY into accepting the Commodore and his family into Best Society, where they felt they rightly belonged.
When she found out that her husband was being unfaithful and making a fool of her, instead of doing what society expected and saying "Boys will be boys" while shaking her head, she laid out the terms of the divorce SHE served her husband, ensuring that she got one of their houses, money for the rest of her life to live off of, custody of their children, money for the children for the rest of their lives, and he had to admit to having been adulterous.
After taking Vandy to the cleaners with the divorce, she then started dating AND EVENTUALLY MARRIED his close friend Oliver Belmont.
Once her second husband had died, she then joined the women's suffrage movement in England and the US becoming a huge name behind the eventually successful campaigns.
She rocked in a way that most famous women in power now still can't rock. One of her best quotes is "Just pray to God, she will help you." She had zero tolerance for patriarchical bullshit and was not about to sit quietly and let it continue to happen to her and all of her friends.

There, I just gave you the biggest flash card points from her life, and if you don't already have an absolutely burning desire to immediately read this book then LET ME GO ON...

Fowler is an incredible writer. Her style is smooth without feeling overly glossed. Events unfold organically so that before you know it you've read a quarter of the book and are in desperate need of sustinance. I've loved her since I first read her, and she has such a fantastic way of telling about famous events "from around the corner", so to speak.

We need more books like this. There are SO. MANY. BOOKS. about Henry VIII and the entire Tudor/ Lancaster drama fest that is English history. (I love those, do not get me wrong, Phillipa Gregory probably made a house payment just from my money alone.) Our history is JUST as effed up as Britain's and we need some really powerful female writers to give us that same style of sweeping multi volume sagas that England is overflowing with.

So, the Final Breakdown:

The Book
God, this woman is just the spirit animal we need right now. And the story of her life, the will power she used to create her destiny is just so... epic!
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

The Writing
Fowler is just incredible. I never seem to find fault with her technique.
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️

Readability
There were times, which I think is just a pitfall of the genre, where the story gets a little boggy. But overall those parts are few and far between in this work, there's plenty of action to keep you interested.
🕰️🕰️🕰️🕰️

Alva Smith Vanderbilt sets her sights on William Kissam Vanderbilt out of pure necessity. With her father gone and little beyond her looks and an old family name to recommend her, Alva has to marry very well or else see her sisters starve. Initially shunned by the Astors and the rest of the Knickerbocker set, Alva beats them at their own game, creating stunning homes, staging society balls, and marrying her daughter to the future 9th Duke of Marlborough (the cousin of Winston Churchill). She succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, becoming one of New York's premier society matrons and gaining access to unthinkable wealth upon the death of her father-in-law. Money doesn't buy happiness, however, as Alva discovers when William's many adulterous dalliances come to light. But divorcing William and creating a new life with Oliver Belmont means breaking all of society's rules, and by doing so, Alva risks nearly everything she has scarified to get there.

An interesting look into the life of a complex woman. Alva was known for her support of many charitable efforts as well as a pioneer of women's suffrage. However many believe she forced her daughter Consuelo into a loveless marriage with the duke, not at all unlike the primarily financial bargain she made when marrying William. Consuelo eventually became distraught and disillusioned too, as she eventually divorced her husband just as Alva did. This story shines more prior to Alva's marriage than after, as Alva seems to lose her drive as a married woman. Also, the dissonance between the betrayed women's rights advocate and the woman who was doing all she could to propel her daughter into the British aristocracy seemed underemphasized. All in all, a good first glance into a woman whose story is usually restricted to parties and buildings rather than what she did for society.