As Marie Antoinette took her last breath as Queen of France in
Paris, another formidable monarch-Antoinette's dearly beloved
sister, Charlotte-was hundreds of miles away, in Naples, fighting
desperately to secure her release from the revolutionaries who
would take her life. Little did Charlotte know, however, that her
sister's execution would change the course of history-and bring
about the end of her own empire. "You are the queen. You are the
queen that Antoinette wanted to be." Austria 1767: Maria Carolina
Charlotte-tenth daughter and one of sixteen children of Empress
Maria Theresa of Austria-knows her position as a Habsburg
archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, her
family, and her cherished sister, Antoinette, whose companionship
she values over all else. But not yet. The Habsburg family is
celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte's older sister, Josepha, has
been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and will soon take her
place as queen. Before she can journey to her new home, however,
tragedy strikes. After visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts
smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an
unthinkable new reality: she must now marry Ferdinand in her
sister's stead. Bereft and alone, Charlotte finds that her life in
Naples is more complicated than she could ever have imagined.
Ferdinand is weak and feckless, and a disastrous wedding night
plunges her into despair. Her husband's regent, Tanucci, a
controlling and power-hungry man, has pushed the country to the
brink of ruin. Overwhelmed, she asks her brother Leopold, now the
Holy Roman Emperor, to send help-which he does in the form of John
Acton, a handsome military man twenty years Charlotte's senior who
is tasked with overseeing the Navy. Now, Charlotte must gather the
strength to do what her mother did before her: take control of a
country. In a time of political uprisings and royal executions and
with the increasingly desperate crisis her favorite sister, Queen
Marie Antoinette, is facing in France, how is a young monarch to
keep hold of everything-and everyone-she loves? Find out in this
sweeping, luxurious tale of family, court intrigue, and power.
Includes a Reading Group Guide.
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