Pataki, Allison

Recommended for those who enjoy American history and appreciate larger-than-life figures.

Fans of memoirs and novels about the Gilded Age should enjoy this well-researched book and its fascinating subject.

The indefatigably imaginative Phillips, whose works range from Prague, about Budapest, to The Tragedy of Arthur, which contains a Shakespearean play written by Phillips, offers historical fiction with aching contemporary overtones. Highly recommended, especially for those knowledgeable about the period and for anyone who enjoys a truly original yarn. [See Prepub Alert, 7/21/19.]

Readers of Pataki's first book will want to know the rest of Sisi's story, but this novel stands on its own for historical fiction fans.

Sisi's story is still popular in Austria but is less well known outside of it, and this novel offers an engrossing introduction to this colorful 19th-century personality. Even historical fiction readers who have grown weary of "royal marriage" plots will find much to savor here in the striking depictions of the Viennese court and intriguing descriptions of the political maneuvers between Austria and Hungary. Highly recommended for fans of both Michelle Moran and Philippa Gregory. [For another fictional interpretation of Sisi's life, see Daisy Goodwin's The Fortune Hunter.—Ed.]