The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin

The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin- 512 pages – ARC from St. Martin’s Press

Book Blurb:

In 1875, Sisi, the Empress of Austria is the woman that every man desires and every woman envies. Beautiful, athletic and intelligent, Sisi has everything — except happiness.
Bored with her dutiful Empress life in Vienna she comes to England to hunt. She comes looking for excitement and she finds it in the dashing form of Captain Bay Middleton. Then years younger than her, Bay has everything to lose by falling for a woman who can never be his, for he is promised to Charlotte. But Bay and the Empress are reckless as each other, and their mutual attraction is a force that cannot be denied.

My Review: 3 stars

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Note: Reviewed by Carly M.

As a History major and avid reader, I was drawn to this book for its promise of romance, adventure and Austro-Hungarian history (which seems to be often overlooked in favor of English and French history). I was definitely expecting this book to be similar to the gripping, well-researched historical fiction that Phillipa Gregory writes, but was presented with a quick-paced and predictable book. Charlotte, the protagonist, was a likeable character with quirky charm, but she fell into the annoying stereotype of an eager girl desperately trying to win the affections of a playboy. The love triangle this story revolves around becomes more frustrating than intriguing as the book progresses, but the complicated nature of the relationships between characters allows the book to flow from chapter to chapter. Overall, I enjoyed this book as a quick-read romance, but I do wish the characters had more depth and that the historical background of the story was more pronounced.