Title: The Fortune Hunter

Author: Daisy Goodwin

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press 2013

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 473

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; In Case You Missed It - 2013

Empress Elizabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, is the Princess Diana of nineteenth-century Europe. Famously beautiful, as captured in a portrait with diamond stars in her hair, she is unfulfilled in her marriage to the older Emperor Franz Joseph. Sisi has spent years evading the stifling formality of royal life on her private train or yacht or, whenever she can, on the back of a horse.

Captain Bay Middleton is dashing, young, and the finest horseman in England. He is also impoverished, with no hope of buying the horse needed to win the Grand National—until he meets Charlotte Baird. A clever, plainspoken heiress whose money gives her a choice among suitors, Charlotte falls in love with Bay, the first man to really notice her, for his vulnerability as well as his glamour. When Sisi joins the legendary hunt organized by Earl Spencer in England, Bay is asked to guide her on the treacherous course. Their shared passion for riding leads to an infatuation that jeopardizes the growing bond between Bay and Charlotte, and threatens all of their futures.

Another absolutely disappointing book! I was hoping that we would get a glittering portrayal of the Empress of Austria complete with expansive descriptions of time and place. I wanted a more glamorous version of Downtown Abbey. Instead, we focus more on Charlotte and Bay than Sisi and plod through their ridiculous “relationship.” I was thoroughly disgusted with Bay’s treatment of both Charlotte and Sisi and could not imagine what either woman saw in him. He’s nothing special at all. He spends all his lamenting his station in life and expressing love for his horse. Why would an heiress and the Empress of Austria covet a man like that? And there’s the fact that we get little to no information about Sisi throughout the book. She has a tiny waist, likes to hunt, and has ridiculously long hair. None of those things are personality traits and definitely none of those things make her an interesting figure. I really should have just off loaded this book, but you never know until to read it. At least it’s off my shelves.

Next up on the TBR pile: