Social Graces — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Renee Rosen
Published Year: 2021
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 400

I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): In the glittering world of Manhattan's upper crust, where wives turn a blind eye to husbands' infidelities, and women have few rights and even less independence, society is everything. The more celebrated the hostess, the more powerful the woman. And none is more powerful than Caroline Astor—the Mrs. Astor.

But times are changing.

Alva Vanderbilt has recently married into one of America's richest families. But what good is money when society refuses to acknowledge you? Alva, who knows what it is to have nothing, will do whatever it takes to have everything.

Sweeping three decades and based on true events, this is a gripping novel about two fascinating, complicated women going head to head, behaving badly, and discovering what’s truly at stake.

First Impressions

I read Park Avenue Summer by Rosen and was a little surprised by how much I enjoyed it. When her newest book was offered to me, I knew that I had to read it. the idea of more modern historical fiction appealed to me and I don’t personally know much about the Vanderbilts so I was immediately into it.

What I thought

While this book did have a dip in the middle, I enjoyed it overall.

Caroline Astor comes from old money is the queen of Society. Alva Vanderbilt is nouveau riche and wants nothing more than to be welcomed into Society. This story tells the tale of how modern day high society came about as well as the uprising of the Vanderbilts.

I really enjoyed the first and last thirds of this story. The first third intrigued me and I was fascinated by Alva and how she had pulled her way up out of poverty and into one of the richest families of the time. It was also fascinating to read about the rivalry between old money and new money in society.

The middle third, however, was so boring and I almost put the book down because of it. Once Alva worked her way kind of sort of into society, nothing happened. I know that it’s historical fiction and so you can’t make up stuff that didn’t happen to make a story interesting, but I think maybe less time could’ve been spent on those middle years.

Alva’s life as she got older was intriguing. I learned a lot about her that I admired and had no idea. For example, she was very passionate about the women’s sufferage movement and was known to contribute a lot to it. I am now curious about the rest of the Vanderbilts, since this really only focused on Alva, but I probably won’t go looking too far into it. In case you are curious though, Alva is not Anderson Cooper’s grandmother. She would’ve been his great aunt and the story didn’t touch on his side of the family other that vague mention of his parents in passing.