Shana Abe specializes in historical fiction. An American Beauty (affiliate link) by Abe focuses on the life of Arabella Huntington, once the wealthiest woman in the US.
Arabella Huntington, An American Beauty
This is my second book by Abe, after having read The Second Mrs. Astor. I like historical fiction and Abe does a lot of research for her books.
This spring, I became aware of the name Huntington because our son had a cubing competition in Huntington, WV. While there, I researched the city a bit and came to find out it was named after Collis P. Huntington, the railroad magnate.
This same Collis married Arabella after the death of his first wife, even though they were decades apart agewise. Their marriage followed the scandal of their long-term adulterous relationship, so high society did not accept them as man and wife.
They were happy together though and had a son. This story details the life and decisions made by Arabella. If you pull her picture up online, you will see she was, indeed, an American beauty. But Arabella Huntington was not just a pretty face. She learned how to invest in real estate and how to make a profit out of it. As a strong woman, too strong for her time, she rubbed many people the wrong way, men and women alike.
Overall a book full of lessons and interesting facts about the way the American wealthy lived in the Gilded Age, I highly recommend An American Beauty (affiliate link).
