Lisa Goodmurphy's Reviews > The President’s Wife

An interesting, informative historical novel about Edith Bolling Galt who married widower Woodrow Wilson during his first term as President of the United States. The novel begins with their meeting and courtship and continues through the election, his second term in office, and his health issues that led to Edith all but taking over the running of the country and concludes with an epilogue several decades later.

The President's Wife is very well-researched and I enjoyed learning about Woodrow Wilson's perspective on the war in Europe, his 14 points statement of principles, the establishment of the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles. It was also interesting to learn more about the state of US politics early in the 20th century particularly as it related to racism and to women's rights. I had a hard time getting engaged with the story though and felt like the courtship went on far too long (close to 1/3 of the novel) when it was really Edith's role in the Wilson presidency that I was most interested in. I found Edith unlikeable due to her opposition to women's rights so that likely contributed to my ambivalence toward her story.

Overall, this was an average read for me - strong on history but not as strong on weaving the facts into an engaging story. It was a bit disappointing as I had loved the author's previous book, The Engineer's Wife, and had hoped that I would enjoy this one as much.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.