The Queen's Fortune by Allison Pataki

December 25, 2019

The Queen’s Fortune by Allison Pataki

I managed to hurt my back a couple of days before Christmas and spent most of Christmas Day in bed reading this highly entertaining historical novel.  There are worse ways to spend the day. 

Desiree Clary was the 16 year old daughter of a wealthy silk merchant when she met 24 year old Napoleon Bonaparte (or Napoleone Buonaparte, as he was known at that time), a Corsican soldier.  After a quick courtship, Napoleon asked Desiree to marry him; she agreed and Napoleon told her that he would send for her to join him in Paris to get married as soon as he established himself.  But once in Paris, Napoleon quickly fell for glamorous Viscountess Josephine de Beauharnais and abandoned Desiree to marry Josephine.  But Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte married Desiree’s sister Julie, so Napoleon and Desiree were destined to be connected for the rest of their lives.  Napoleon became the Emperor of France, but surprisingly Desiree went on to become the Queen of Sweden through her marriage.

Desiree Clary Bernadotte is a fascinating but little-known historical figure.  Pataki’s novel is well-researched and overall historically accurate.  Inaccuracies are mostly in the form of omitting certain details (such as how much time Desiree spent away from her husband, residing in France for most of her married life while he was living in Sweden) and the story is a little over-romanticized.  However, this is a great historical guilty pleasure read:  interesting characters, reasonable historical accuracy, royal gossip, lots of banquets, clothes, and palaces.  The writing is excellent and the story is fast-paced – it’s pretty hard to put down.  And the cover is gorgeous.  I had read about Desiree years ago in Annemarie Selinko’s novel Desiree.  I fell in love with her story then and enjoyed getting reacquainted with her.  Readers who enjoyed Philippa Gregory's Tudor queen series will enjoy The Queen's Fortune.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.