Not a particularly effective work of historical fiction; Moran is one of those authors who likes to dress up her romantic fiction in the trappings of history. She has events and dates, and quotes from letters, but there is no attempt to portray these actual historical persons within the context of their time and place. Instead we have paper dolls who act and speak very much like the characters in any modern romance: the dysfunctional Bonapartes, particularly Napoleon and his sister Pauline; Napoleon's beautiful but barren first wife, Josephine; her replacement, the Hapsburg princess Marie-Louise whom Napoleon demanded as the price of peace with Austria-Hungary; and an assortment of courtiers and hangers on.
So if you enjoy romantic fiction and like to fantasize about the scandalous private lives of the Bonapartes, this may provide distraction on a hot and muggy summer Sunday afternoon.
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