The Queens Fortune - Allison Pataki

As the French Revolution ravages her country, Desiree Clary faces the life-altering truth that the world she has known and loved is gone-and it's fallen on her to save her family from the guillotine.

A chance encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambitious and charismatic young military prodigy, provides her answer.  When Desiree's beloved sister, Julie, marries his brother Joseph, Desiree's and Napoleon's futures become irrevocably linked.  Quickly entering into a passionate, dizzying courtship that leads to their own secret engagement, they vow to meet in the capital once Napoleon's career has been secured.  But Desiree's newly laid plans turn suddenly to heartbreak, thanks to a rising star in Parisian society, Josephine de Beauharnais.  Once again, Desiree's life is turned on its head.

Swept into the glittering halls of the French capital, Desiree enters the inner circle of the new ruling class, becoming further entangled with Napoleon, his family, and the new empress.  But her fortunes shift once more when she meets Napoleon's confidant and star general, the indomitable Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte.  As the two men in Desiree's life become political rivals and military foes, one question arises: Must she choose between her love of her new husband and the love of her nation and its emperor?

From the lavish estates of the French Riviera to the raucous streets of Paris and Stockholm, Desiree finds herself at the center of the rise and fall of an empire, navigating a constellation of political giants and dangerous, shifting alliances.  Evolving from an impressionable girl into a fierce young woman, she discovers that to survive in this world she must learn to rely upon her instincts and her heart.