A review by ravensandlace
The Queen's Fortune by Allison Pataki

emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

If you aren’t aware, I absolutely adore anything historical fiction. And Allison Pataki is one of my favorite historical fiction writers. She wrote the books Accidental Empress and Sisi, the wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. I asked for this book, The Queen’s Fortune, for Christmas and I got it, thanks to my dad and his girlfriend. 

Imagine my disappointment when I rated this book 3.5 stars. I liked the book, don’t get me wrong, but it was just so slow. The main character, Desiree, was boring. She didn’t have that much of a personality besides moping about Napoleon or how much she misses France. It got incredibly old after a while. I also didn’t care for her selfishness. She did only what was best for her and didn’t think about her son, husband, sister or anybody for that matter. That just didn’t sit right with me. 

The plot itself was about Napoleon, experienced through the eyes of Desiree. Boy, I did not like this guy. He was such a braggart and so full of himself. I learned a lot about him though or as much as I can with a historical fiction account of famous people. I learned that this guy just uses women and he thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread. A lot of the plot was also about France during the revolutionary period. I found that I didn’t quite care for this particular time period but I’m willing to learn more about it. 

Overall, this was a bit of a miss for me. I normally love Allison Pataki’s work but this one just wasn’t it. It was just too slow with an MC that was a bit too boring compared to Sisi. I’m glad I read it though and I can’t wait to read another book by her that I recently got.  
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