This was an interesting story about the woman who loved the Prince of Wales before Wallis. This takes place during the 1920’s and the 1930’s between England and America. The story is mainly about Thelma and her life before she me met David, Prince of Wales. It also centers around her sisters trial in America for the custody of her daughter against their mother and a Vanderbilt. I wanted to feel sorry for Thelma’s sister, Gloria, but it was hard to do when she was trying to live the life of a jet setter. I found it hard to put down because I knew nothing about these people. I definitely did not agree with their lifestyle. I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins Publishing for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Woman Before Wallis

Author: Bryn Turnbull

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4.5/5

Recommended For...: romance, political intrigue, historical fiction, royal scandals

Publication Date: July 21, 2020

Genre: Historical Ficiton

Recommended Age: 18+ (romance, slight sexual content, affairs, and political intrigue)

Publisher: MIRA

Pages: 400

Synopsis: This novel is the fictionalised story of the American divorcée who captured Prince Edward’s heart before he abdicated his throne for Wallis Simpson.

In the summer of 1926, when Thelma Morgan marries Viscount Duke Furness after a whirlwind romance, she’s immersed in a gilded world of extraordinary wealth and privilege. For Thelma, the daughter of an American diplomat, her new life as a member of the British aristocracy is like a fairy tale—even more so when her husband introduces her to Edward, Prince of Wales.

In a twist of fate, her marriage to Duke leads her to fall headlong into a love affair with Edward. But happiness is fleeting, and their love is threatened when Thelma’s sister, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, becomes embroiled in a scandal with far-reaching implications. As Thelma sails to New York to support Gloria, she leaves Edward in the hands of her trusted friend Wallis, never imagining the consequences that will follow.

Review: Overall, this was a well done novel and it seems like it was well researched. The book is intriguing and it felt like reading someone’s private diaries. The book had a lot of well done world building and it’s the perfect book if you’re a fan of the royal family of England.

However, this book had a lot of characters and it became confusing for me to keep them straight. I also felt that the characters weren’t well developed and they just became a name.

Verdict: Worth the read!

Thank you for the opportunity to read The Woman Before Wallis. Unfortunately, this book was not for me. Thanks again.

There's nothing like a juicy bit of gossip to take you away from it all, and that's kind of what The Woman Before Wallis feels like to me. It's kind of like the world stands ready to soak it up every time a royal or the elite messes up, and that's where this one takes us. The story moves along at a good pace, it's well-written, and it's an entertaining way to while away a weekend. I don't read a lot of historical fiction because I get irritated when too many liberties are taken. That said, Bryn Turnbull explains the liberties she took with this story, but even if she hadn't, this one is a bit out of my wheelhouse, so I wasn't looking for said liberties. Honestly, I would say don't read it for the historical accuracy. Instead, read it for the entertainment, the feeling of looking inside the messes made by the rich and powerful, the intriguing characters, love them or hate them (and there are some of both), they are intriguing. All in all, it's an interesting bit of historical fiction that kept me interested til the very last page.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin MIRA for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you also to Harlequin for the opportunity to be part of the blog tour.

Set in two different time periods, The Woman Before Wallis takes place in Paris in 1925, which provides Thelma's backstory, and alternates with the 1934 storyline where Thelma goes to New York City to help her twin sister, Gloria. My only criticism is that I think the narrative should've been linear, in chronological order, versus alternating timelines.

Although it is a love story, it is not a royal romance per se. It is an intimate look at the love between sisters: Thelma supported her sister in an age when being gay was seen as unacceptable except, as Gloria points out, in high society. And there is also less of the scandal that was advertised—perhaps because we all know what happened with Wallis, and this wasn't her focus. Instead, Turnbull focuses on the trial of Gloria Vanderbilt, and even then the detail was rather sparse.

And can we just appreciate the cover for a moment?

This book starts off slow, but be patient, it is meticulously crafted and worthy of your time. Given that it is historical fiction, Turnbull has taken some liberties, but she strikes the right balance between fact and fiction. If you binge watched The Crown, then I highly recommend this book!

I do enjoy a good historical fiction book and this one really sounded interesting.



I did like this book but was it one I just couldn't put down. I found some parts of this book just dragged on. I did like the author's writing style though.



I give this 3 out of 5.

The Woman Before Wallis is Bryn Turnbull’s debut novel. It is well written and clearly heavily researched. The novel covers two decades in Thelma Morgan Converse Furness’ life.

The Transatlantic scandal must have rocked the world, or at least, the smallish circle of high society that Gloria Vanderbilt and her sister, Thelma, travelled in. I didn’t know Gloria Vanderbilt had a twin sister, let alone that her twin was the one-time mistress of the Prince of Wales.

Thelma’s (and Gloria's) story is very interesting, and Ms. Turnbull’s dramatic period piece truly does their story justice. Social norms on the 1920s and 1930s make it hard to envy these women despite the romanticized version of them dripping jewels, dressed in gowns and traveling in posh style. Multiple divorces, affairs, a betrayal, and an ugly custody battle coupled with the flamboyant and frivolous behavior of the wealthy make for a sizzling, compulsive read. It is the type of juicy scandal that once it hits the tabloids, (current day) celebrity/royal followers couldn’t get enough of it.

I enjoyed learning about both Thelma and Gloria. Beyond their scandal-filled lives, their story is also about their bond and support of one another. Having just binge watched The Crown, I found The Woman Before Wallis to be a fascinating historical fiction.

Thelma and her twin sister Gloria are daughters of a diplomat and are a big part of the 1920s social scene. Thelma has an affair with Edward, Prince of Wales. Gloria is the widow of a Vanderbilt and becomes ensnared in the child custody case of the century.

Oh wow! This book is full of history and famous people. I have said this before and I will say it again…I LOVE A BOOK WHICH HAS ME RESEARCHING! And boy…this one had me looking up all kinds of stuff, The Prince of Wales, Gloria Vanderbilt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. I knew a good bit about the people in the novel but, there is so much in this story and I just wanted to know more.

Now, let me say, I am giving this 5 stars but it has a few problems. It is a bit wordy in places and it is too long…in my opinion. But, this is a story about a woman in history which I knew very little about. So, I was captivated from the start. This novel is very well researched and wonderfully crafted! And isn’t this cover absolutely gorgeous!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Like most people I was aware of the abdication of King Edward, but mostly told from the perspective of the impacts to Queen Elizabeth and her father; The Crown on Netflix, etc. I love reading about English Royalty from authors like Phillipa Gregory and have occasionally read some about the modern royal family (The Gown, etc). What appealed to me about this story was how an American family, the Vanderbilts, intersected with the Royal Family.

This book isn't for fans of the Wallis Simpson story; she's "supporting cast" in this story because, as the title suggests, this book precedes her with Thelma's time with the future King. The story focused much more on the Vanderbilt Custody battle of "Little Gloria" (who is the niece of the main character Thelma) than I anticipated it would. If you've seen the Anderson Cooper documentary about his mother you might be familiar with the broad strokes of that part of history and this takes a much deeper dive.

My only frustration with the book was that the shifts in timeline were a clunky. The author seemed to rely purely on dates at the top of each chapter which frankly was hard to follow particularly as the two timeline moved closer together. The best authors who do the timelines in my opinion do so through a feeling of "environment" in the book or maturity in voice. For example, you know the feel of "during the war" vs. after or modern day. There wasn't that same sense of time in this book or even a shift in voice from a younger Thelma to older. Instead, I had to refer to the dates each time there was a shift which was a bit clunky.

he Woman Before Wallis takes a bit of the classic “poor little rich girl” trope, mixes it with a splash of royal scandal, stirs it with more than a dash of the over-the-top behavior of the rich and famous and splashes into a punch bowl of history’s froth. It’s the kind of gossipy, scandal-ridden story that is easy to eat up with a very large reading spoon, because it’s just so delicious and decadent.

And both the fun of it and the tragedy of it is that we already know how it ends, because the worst excesses of the story are part of history.


Thelma and the Prince in 1932
Thelma Morgan Converse Furness was a secondary character in not one but two of the great society scandals of the 1930s, one on each side of the Atlantic. In England, as her marriage to the Viscount Furness was in the process of falling apart, she became one of the Prince of Wales’ many lovers. That she was the one who introduced him to her friend and fellow American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson is the stuff of which tragic romances are made – both hers and theirs.

At the same time, she left England and “David” to Wallis’ not-so-tender mercies in order to go to New York and support her twin sister, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, in what at the time was considered the custody trial of the century, referred to in the tabloids as “The Matter of Vanderbilt”. Thelma’s little niece, Gloria Vanderbilt (yes, THE Gloria Vanderbilt) was kidnapped by her aunt, the artist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who sued Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt for custody of the little heiress and won, based on some rather questionable evidence provided by members of both families who seem to have hated the mother much more than they cared what was best for the child. Little Gloria seems to have been a pawn of the older women in her life until she reached adulthood.

That the same person was a secondary player in both of these history-making scandals makes Thelma an ideal candidate for a salacious, gossipy, scandal-ridden story of epic proportions.

This is her story, from her ring-side seat to history. And it’s a juicy one.

Escape Rating B: I have mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand, it’s a very juicy story of debauchery and decadence, a gossipy melange of well-known historical figures with a whole lot of dirt and scandal.

On the other hand, as glitzy and glittery as this story is, the people covered in that glitz feel shallow. I think we’re meant to feel that both Thelma and Gloria, the twin Morgan girls, were in the end somewhat hard done by. That they loved and lost and didn’t have nearly enough control of the circumstances under which they lived or the choices they made. Poor little rich girls who made one hell of a lot of mistakes.


Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt with her daughter at age eight
In the end, it felt like the only person really hard done by in this story is little Gloria, whose custody and whose fortune end up being the prize in a long-running battle between her mother, her aunt and her grandmother over who hates whom the most and who can throw the most muck at whom fast enough to win. The problem with this kind of muck-racking fight is that no one emerges from it either clean or unscathed. And so it proved in this case.

Thelma, in the end, feels like a secondary player in her own life, supporting her twin sister at the cost of her own happiness. And that’s after ending her second marriage to have an affair with the Prince of Wales, only to be abandoned in favor of Wallis Simpson when the scandal of her sister’s custody trial began to turn in her direction – and his.

That all adds up to very mixed feelings. The book is compulsively readable, and I enjoyed the portrait of life among the rich and famous in the years just before and after the start of the Great Depression. But there’s a sense of “fiddling while Rome burns”, that there’s just no there there under the glamour.

I can’t help but think of the true definition of the word glamour, however. That a glamour is, according to Merriam-Webster, “An exciting and often illusory and romantic attractiveness.” By that definition, this story is glamorous indeed.

'The Woman Before Wallis' is a debut novel from a Canadian writer. This historical fiction book is set in 1929 and 1934 and follows the life of Thelma Morgan, who is the twin sister of Gloria Vanderbilt (mother of Gloria Vanderbilt and grandmother of Anderson Cooper). Thelma had a years long affair with Prince Edward (who became King Edward VIII before abdicating)and this story is detailed in the novel. The book also chronicles the famous custody fight for Little Gloria...'the poor little rich girl'. This fascinating look at the lives of the rich and famous is a wonderful recommendation for historical fiction fans.

4.5 stars

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While everyone knows about the scandal surrounding Edward VIII’s abdication in order to marry Wallis Simpson and their subsequent antics as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, I knew less about the women he was associated with prior to getting together with her. And while The Woman Before Wallis is in part about Edward’s relationship with Thelma, it’s just as much about who she was in her own right.

While it did take a bit to get into the ebb-and-flow or the story, as it goes back and forth between 1934, after the demise of Thelma’s marriage and as her affair with Edward is crumbling and following her sister Gloria’s custody battle, and the years leading up to it, exploring both her marriage and the good times with Edward as their relationship began, I found it ultimately rewarding. I like that it centered her relationship with her sister and mother, thus helping to shine a light on how her family shaped her worldview, especially in regards to men and money.

It is also interesting to see how Turnbull approaches both Edward and Wallis from Thelma’s perspective. I was intrigued that the two associated with each other during Thelma’s relationship with Edward, although ultimately not surprised, given the way high society people tend to restrict themselves to an insular set. Wallis’ aspirations to rise socially, and the altering nature of her interactions with Thelma are well done, foreshadowing a shift in the dynamic as time goes on. And while abdication was likely not something seriously considered until 1936, I love how, even though she is in love with him, Thelma does convey a sense of Edward’s weakness and lack of suitability to step into the role as king, in comparison to his younger brother.

This is a masterful work of historical fiction, conveying real life events of notable people from the perspective of someone who may not be as well known to the average person, aside from a supporting player in others’ stories. If you love historical fiction about the Royal Family, the Vanderbilts, and historical women who aren’t that well known, then I recommend this book highly.

THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts and Royal Scandal by Bryn Turnbull is a historical fiction book that I have been waiting anxiously to read and it did not disappoint. This is the story of the American divorcee who captured Prince Edward’s heart before Wallis Simpson.

Thelma Morgan is divorced and has no prospects until her identical twin sister Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and her husband, Reggie introduce her to Viscount Duke Furness. After a whirlwind romance, she is married, becomes the Viscountess Furness and is immersed into the decadent and wealthy life of the British aristocracy.

When Thelma learns Duke is having an affair, she is devastated, but her friends counsel her to live her own life and ignore it. At a party she is introduced to Edward, Prince of Wales. She finds him charming and soon the two are embroiled in a love affair.

Gloria Vanderbilt is fighting a terrible custody battle against her own mother and Gertrude Vanderbuilt in New York. The scandal sheets are posting terrible stories, so Thelma decides she must sail to American to stand by her sister and niece. As Thelma leaves England, she asks her trusted friend to watch over Edward. Wallis Simpson.

I love all the characters in this story. I believe that the author did a wonderful job of bringing them all to life; foibles and all. It is always interesting to read about the rich and famous and realize the social, political and/or personal pressures they live with and their money does not really make them happy. Even though I knew what would happen with both Gloria and Thelma, and this is not a history book, but historical fiction, I could not put the book down. It pulled me into the intrigue and scandal of their lives.

This is perfect for all the Anglophiles out there that can never get enough!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Bryn Turnbull's THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS is a startling debut novel. Turnbull's writing is crisp, the story is well-researched, the dual timelines are masterfully intertwined, and the plot is mostly engrossing. I'm a sucker for good historical fiction, and WOMAN is excellent historical fiction.

Lady Thelma Morgan Furness, the woman who came before Wallis Simpson, played a pivotal but much overlooked role in two of the biggest scandals of the 1930s: the Vanderbilt custody trial and Edward VIII's abdication of the British throne. Sister to Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and mistress to Edward before his coronation, Thelma had a front row seat to history. The novel follows Thelma in two timelines. The first progresses from the glitz and glamour of the late 1920s, to Thelma's marriage to Lord Marmaduke Furness, and finally through her affair with David, Prince of Wales. The second timeline covers Thelma's return to New York City for the custody trial of her niece, Little Gloria Vanderbilt. Turnbull's pace is strong and her characters are well-drawn. Thelma's fears and frustrations felt real - her joys a little less so (I think this comes down to my own biases about the way high society live, though). Ultimately I was left marveling over what a fascinating life Thelma lived.

WOMAN really is an excellent novel. It would have been a five-star read if just a few more things had been fleshed out:
- Turnbull says the novel is a love story for sisters, but I actually felt the sisterly bond was a little tenuous in the narrative. Gloria and Thelma spent the rest of their lives together after the trial, but there was little in the novel to make me believe that Thelma would give up her life to take care of her sister.
- Turnbull acknowledges that she played with the timeline of Thelma and David's relationship.
I wonder if the author knows what really drew Thelma and David apart (if not the trial, David's reticence to get involved, Thelma's sense of responsibility to her sister)? I would have appreciated that closure, even if in the author's note.
- A lot of the book takes place in David's home of Fort Belvedere. It would have been nice to know what happened to the Fort on David's abdication. (I did some googling on this one myself to find the answer: it stayed in the Crown Estate and is currently home to private tenants. Notably, it was also the location of David's actual abdication in 1936.)

In summary, WOMAN is an incredibly well-researched and well-written debut historical novel. I would highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction, women's fiction, or royal history.

Scandal on both side of the Atlantic! I'll admit that I was, before reading this, completely unaware of Thelma, Lady Furness, while I did know the story of Wallis Simpson and the outlines of the Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt custody battle over young Gloria Vanderbilt (mom of Anderson Cooper among other things.). This is the story of the elder Gloria's twin, who lived quite a vivid life of her own. Alternating between the 1920s, when Thelma met Lord Furness and the 1930s when she returns to the US, it's an interesting outline of a woman who hasn't received much attention. Her affair Edward, well, that's just one more thing I didn't know abut him. This isn't particularly in depth (it's a big life to cover) but if you're a fan of the Crown this might be right for you. I spent some time googling various people for more info. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. For fans of historical fiction.

The Woman Before Wallis is the fictionalized story of Thelma Morgan who had an affair with Edward, Prince of Wales before he abdicated his throne for Wallis Simpson.

The daughters of an American diplomat, Thelma and Gloria Morgan were stars of New York social scene in the early 1920s and both married into wealth and privilege. Gloria married Reggie Vanderbilt and Thelma to a viscount who she later leaves for Edward, the dashing Prince of Wales. The girl’s perfect lives are dashed by Gloria’s custody trial. Gloria is sued by members of her late husband's family on charges of negligence, unfit parenting, and homosexuality, and Gloria needs her twin's support more than ever. But as her sister gains international notoriety, Thelma fears that her own dreamlife will end.

I had a hard time getting into this book. While the book is lynch pinned around the Vanderbilt trail, the story is told in rotating time periods. It is only about halfway through the book that the scandal comes to light for the readers in a way that draws them in. It also takes this long to get through Thelma’s previous two husbands and get to her relationship with Prince Edward. These two stories are what drew my attention, and I feel the author spent too much time on the past events that could have efficiently been told in a more succinct manner.

The other issue with the novel is the historical parts are left to the Author’s Note. The outcome of the trail and Thelma’s relationship with Edward isn’t concluded within the story and that’s a loss especially with it being a historical fiction novel. I would have expected the novel to have the history and give the closure to the stories Bryn Turnbull set up.

I’ve been hard on this book, but I did enjoy a portion of it immensely. I enjoyed reading about Thelma and Edward and how she worked with him and kept him on an even keel. I enjoyed the bond between the two sister and Thelma’s great sacrifice for Gloria.

But over the entire good portion is trapped between boring prose and a lack of a true conclusion.

The Woman Before Wallis was a very unexpected book for me. It started off with a bit of a pretentious vibe which felt true to Thelma and Gloria's lives. Gloria seemingly is the more stable of the two with her wealthy husband, child and nanny in tow. Thelma is more of a dreamer and experiences traveling, marriages, affairs and more. Unfortunately, things aren't always what they seem and secrets begin to spill out as their lives slowly become unraveled.

It's a different perspective (for me) to read about the lives of the truly wealthy. This book packs a lot of love, heartbreak, avoidance of the truth and a hard dose of reality into one book. If you like to read about the lifestyles of the rich and the well-known figures of world history, this is definitely a book you'll want to read!</p>

Thank you to the publisher, MIRA Books, for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Gist

Give me stories about the nobility. Give me stories set in London, the countryside or with a Mediterranean flair. Give me complex characters that try to make their way through life without losing hope. Give me all that and I am yours as a loyal reader.

I thought this book would totally be my cup of tea. I imagined myself tearing through its digital pages, not paying attention to much else until I finished it.

Alas, I imagined incorrectly. Now, I’m sad. I’m very warm in this persistent heat wave we are having and sad, which is not a good combination.

On top of that, this story has left me without the satisfying feeling a good summer read usually does.
Let’s dive into the particulars. Shall we?

The Details

The protagonist confused me. I sort of understand why she sometimes acted the way she did.

I also understand that the author tried to capture the social norms of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, which, generally speaking, didn’t do women and their rights any favours.

That doesn’t excuse the lack of personality. As the protagonist, Thelma should be able to convey more than just a giggle here and there, act indignant when social protocol calls for it and spend a lot of time judging her own actions, but then going through with them anyway.

Many opportunities in the story offered great chances for an in-depth look into her character and her personality traits, but she stayed elusive throughout the story. I found that very unfortunate.

The male characters were awful. This may again be partly, because the author wanted to portray the social roles and relationships standards of the 20’s and 30’s. However, if the reader already has to deal with a flat and one-dimensional protagonist, throwing a handful of chauvinistic men into the mix just makes for a less than joyful reading experience.

I usually don’t comment on the formatting of the ARCs I read, since I know these are ARCs and still have to go through the final polish before there are ready for publication. In this case, I wasn’t sure, if the jumps in time were due to the unpolished nature of the ARC or the writing style.

The story jumped a lot. One paragraph mentions dinner plans the protagonist has that evening. The very next paragraph can jump up to a couple of weeks ahead in time. It was very confusing and threw me out of the flow of the story.

I had to stop, backtrack and double check to make sure I hadn’t skipped a page by accident. Since this occurred throughout the entire book, it is evident that this was part of the writing style.

Other than that, I enjoyed the author’s writing. It was quite beautiful and very skilled in describing the landscape and creating the mood that fit the scene.

The Verdict

Overall, I thought I was going to enjoy this story a lot more than I did. Historical fiction novels are usually my cup of tea, but this one just didn’t hit the spot.

The title threw me off as well. Why was the word “scandal” used in the title when this is evidently the story of an extramarital affair?

I know. Back then an affair was a great scandal, especially when the Royal Family is involved. Things have changed, though, and this should be reflected in the word choice for the title.

I’m not saying this, because I was hungry for some juicy gossip, like an attention-craving desperate housewife. I was just thrown by the title and the unfolding plot.

I can definitely see, why other readers enjoyed this story and I’m glad they did. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

I would recommend it, to readers looking for a quiet read, curled up on the sofa.

LOVED IT! The main character was relatable and sympathetic. The historical setting and characters were well-researched and accurate, which is fantastic for historical fiction. I will be recommending this book everywhere.

Kudos to Bryn Turnbull for writing such an engaging novel about a character I did not know much about. There were some very interesting twists and turns in the life of Thelma (Lady Burness) and it was fascinating to watch Wallis growing closer and closer to the Prince of Wales. Not only was Thelma a society icon in Great Britain, she was also twin sister to the original Gloria Vanderbilt. Thus, a sizable chunk of the narrative covers the epic court battle for custody of little Gloria. Being a twin myself (although not identical) I found it very compelling to watch the two sisters maintain their relationship and how they supported each other emotionally and financially. Hobnobbing with the rich and famous is enlightening. The chickens come home to roost despite the money and power they wield. This will make a fabulous book group pick. The edition I read includes book group questions and an interview with the author.

Thank you to Harlequin Books and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.