To my in-laws and my second family of Levys, I love you all and I am so fortunate that you came in the package when I got Dave.
I am truly blessed to have such supportive friends and loved ones from childhood, school, college, my time working in news, my hometown community, as well as the wonderful network of pals and colleagues in the writing world and beyond—much heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to all of you.
To Lacy Lynch, Dabney Rice, and the team at Dupree Miller: thank you for your advocacy, expertise, enthusiasm, and humor at every turn on this fascinating and exhilarating road. Lacy, I would be hard-pressed to find someone who does more to support storytellers, and so this story of an incomparable woman is dedicated to you.
To Kara Cesare, it is my great fortune to call you both editor and friend. Thank you for believing in me, and for believing in Desiree. And to the entire team at Penguin Random House: you are not only the best at what you do, but you also infuse every step of the publishing process with your enthusiastic support and expertise: Gina Centrello, Kara Welsh, Kim Hovey, Jennifer Hershey, Susan Corcoran, Jen Garza, Michelle Jasmine, Leigh Marchant, Debbie Aroff, Taylor Noel, Rachel Kind, Loren Noveck, Jesse Shuman, Virginia Norey, and so many others, thank you.
To the book sales reps, the librarians, the booksellers, the book bloggers, the book club members, the filmmakers who bring books to the screen, and all of the readers: thank you so much for allowing this lifelong book nerd and in-my-head-story-maker-upper to call this work every day. I can never sufficiently convey my gratitude for what you do to support my books, or my joy that we get to connect through stories.
And finally, to Dave and my girls: you are my story. I thank God that we get to write it together every day. And I thank you for the love, laughter, support, and lessons.
* * *
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I am indebted to many biographers, historians, editors, and memoirists—the individuals who distilled the complex and copious historical material that provided the inspiration for this novel. For the reader who would like to enter further into the fascinating world of the French Revolution and French Empire, here are some titles (fiction and nonfiction) to satiate the encore:
Bernadotte: Napoleon’s Marshal, Sweden’s King, by Alan Palmer
Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts
Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte, by Kate Williams
French Revolutionary Infantry: 1789–1802, by Terry Crowdy
The French Revolution: A History, by Thomas Carlyle
The French Revolution and Napoleon, by Leo Gershoy
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, by Tom Reiss
Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artist: Art, Politics, and the French Revolution, by Warren Roberts
Origins of the French Revolution, by William Doyle
La Révolution Française: Les Années Lumière (film series)
La Révolution Française: Les Années Terribles (film series)
A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
The Traitor’s Wife
The Accidental Empress
Sisi
Where the Light Falls (with Owen Pataki)
Beauty in the Broken Places
Nelly Takes New York (with Marya Myers)
Poppy Takes Paris (with Marya Myers)
About the Author
ALLISON PATAKI is the New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife, The Accidental Empress, Sisi: Empress on Her Own, Where the Light Falls, the nonfiction memoir Beauty in the Broken Places, and the children’s books Nelly Takes New York and Poppy Takes Paris. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. A former news writer and producer, Pataki has written for The New York Times, ABC News, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Fox News, and other outlets. She has appeared on the Today show, Fox & Friends, Good Day New York, Good Day Chicago, and MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Pataki graduated cum laude from Yale University with a major in English. A member of the Historical Novel Society, she lives in New York with her husband and children.
allisonpataki.com
Facebook.com/​AllisonPatakiPage
Instagram: @allisonpataki
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