Review: An American Beauty

An American Beauty by Shana Abe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

April 25, 2023 publication date

I loved Ms. Abe's first novel The Second Mrs. Astor, but An American Beauty didn't sway me as much as the first novel did. Perhaps I am more of a prig than I had thought because this couple, Arabella and Collis Huntington, were portrayed as lovers rather than being in love. I did some research myself and found that what I found (although I admit that I didn't dig very far) didn't support much of what this author wrote - hence historical fiction. And this knowledge disappointed me.

I know that things like this go on all the time-poor very young girl in dire straights makes a career choice that is questionable at best, meets a very much older, RICH man, and leaves everything (for instance, her son by the old man) so she can live the life of ease. Apparently, it was common then as it is common now.

This is just not my favorite theme. I like less duplicity and more truth-telling. However, with the lack of information on Arabella, I can see why the author took so many liberties.

It really is a good book that will satisfy those who love the Gilded Age era and those who love to read books about an impoverished woman pulling herself up by her bootstraps and making the best of things.

This will be a great summer beach read.

*ARC supplied by the publisher Kensington Books, the author, and Edelweiss/ATTL.

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SYNOPSIS: "For fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age and readers of Marie Benedict, Karen Harper, and Ellen Marie Wiseman, this sweeping novel of historical fiction from New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author Shana Abé is inspired by the true story of Arabella Huntington—a charismatic, complex woman born to poverty who became one of the most powerful and wealthy figures of her time.

1867, Richmond, Virginia: Though she wears the same low-cut purple gown that is the uniform of all the girls who work at Worsham’s gambling parlor, Arabella stands apart. It’s not merely her statuesque beauty and practiced charm. Even at seventeen, Arabella possesses an unyielding grit, and a resolve to escape her background of struggle and poverty.

Collis Huntington, railroad baron and self-made multimillionaire, is drawn to Arabella from their first meeting. Collis is married and thirty years her senior, yet they are well-matched in temperament, and flirtation rapidly escalates into an affair. With Collis’s help, Arabella eventually moves to New York, posing as a genteel, well-to-do Southern widow. Using Collis’s seed money and her own shrewd investing instincts, she begins to amass a fortune.

Their relationship is an open secret, and no one is surprised when Collis marries Arabella after his wife’s death. But “The Four Hundred”—the elite circle that includes the Astors and Vanderbilts—have their rules. Arabella must earn her place in Society—not just through her vast wealth, but with taste, style, and impeccable behavior. There are some who suspect the scandalous truth, and will blackmail her for it. And then there is another threat—an unexpected, impossible romance that will test her ambition, her loyalties, and her heart . . .

An American Beauty brings to vivid life the glitter and drama of a captivating chapter in history—and a remarkable woman who lived by her own rules."