Throughout this book, I tried to keep historical details accurate, since that’s part of the fun, of course, of reading historical novels. In a few instances, though, such as with the express train from New York to Washington, I took small artistic licenses: the elegant Royal Blue actually left from another station in New York besides Grand Central Depot, but I chose the Depot for its location and because, as the precursor to Grand Central Station, it would have more resonance with readers.
Finally, thank you so much to the book clubs and individual readers who’ve brought your own stories and insights to thinking about my earlier books and this one. It’s always one of my favorite parts of the often-isolated writing life when I get to visit with readers in person or over social media. A thousand thank-yous always.
Book Club Discussion Questions
Have you ever visited Biltmore Estate? If so, what elements of its history stuck with you? Did you see some of those reflected in this story? Were there particular parts of the story you connected with in a different way for having been there in person?
A number of the characters in this novel are based on actual people. (Please see the section of this book entitled Historical Notes for more information.) Which characters from this novel did you wonder about and possibly look up? How do you reconcile the good and evil in some of these characters?
The author embeds a number of allusions to other novels and plays, which seemed especially fitting since George Vanderbilt was quite the bibliophile and scholar and was personal friends with a number of authors, including Edith Wharton and Henry James, both of whom later would stay at Biltmore. Did you catch the connection of the character Lilli Barthélemy with Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth? What allusions to Shakespeare and other literary works did you notice? Here’s an obscure one, for example: the hunting dog Gurth, while fictional, was named for a character in Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe to fit alongside the historical canine Cedric, whom George Vanderbilt named for a character in the same novel.
What did you think of Lilli’s final decision regarding Sal and George Vanderbilt?
The Ligue Nationale Antisémitique de France mentioned in the novel was an actual anti-Semitic group operating at the time and was influential in the Dreyfus Affair. Are you familiar with the group or their influence?
Did you find yourself more attracted to the Gilded Age characters or the Appalachian characters and why? Which aspects of their lives did you find most appealing or, perhaps, off-putting?
How did the American version of Gilded Age wealth as depicted in this novel differ from, say, the British version you may have read about or seen in such television shows and movies as Downton Abbey?
Did you find yourself angry along with Kerry and the other mountain people that their land was changing so quickly, or did you take a more practical stance that things simply change? Have you faced cultural changes in your lifetime that have initially made you bitter or resentful but to which you have eventually adjusted? When is it important to push back against change and when is it wise to adapt or be willing to think differently?
Did it surprise you to learn or be reminded that people of Southern Italian and Chinese descent were among the groups discriminated against in the 1890s? Were you familiar with the lynchings of 1891 in New Orleans or the Chinese Exclusion Act from this era? Did any of the characters’ challenges from this novel connect directly with you and your own family background?
Were there aspects of cultural debates from the novel’s setting in the 1890s that struck you as similar to cultural debates of our time, including wealth inequality? What can we learn from this particular decade in history and its aftermath?
Kerry struggles to forgive her father. Her mother, brother, sister, and aunt all respond differently to Johnny MacGregor. Does the family’s journey toward forgiveness connect in any way with friends or family in your life?
About the Author
Joy Jordan-Lake is the author of eight books, including A Tangled Mercy, a #1 Amazon bestseller and also an Editors’ Choice recipient from the Historical Novel Society; Blue Hole Back Home, which won the Christy Award for First Novel; and the children’s book A Crazy-Much Love. Raised in the foothills of the Appalachians, she spent several summers in and around Asheville, North Carolina, where the Biltmore Estate is located. She continues to love the Blue Ridge Mountains and drags friends and family there with her whenever possible. Jordan-Lake holds two master’s degrees and a PhD in English and has taught literature and writing at several universities. Now living outside Nashville, she and her husband have two daughters, a son, and a ferocious ten-pound rescue pup. To learn more about the author and her work, visit www.joyjordanlake.com.