—Book Review—
Title: Antoinette’s Sister
Author: Diana Giovinazzo
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Historical Fiction
At just the age of fifteen, in the year of 1767, Maria Carolina Charlotte the sixteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria finds herself forced to leave her home, family and beloved country to an arranged marriage to King Ferdinand IV of Naples to become queen. All because her sister Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. This also means her closest sister, Antionette, will be next in line and will be married off to become Queen Marie Antionette of France.
Charlotte and Antionette are close and all throughout the book exchange letters to each other keeping informed on births of children, politics and family affairs. These letters are precious to Charlotte and she keeps them in a special wooden box. I really liked the addition of letters in the book as a way to tell this story. Overall I found the author’s writing to be very easy to read and vivid & detailed. The story jumps off the page. Or maybe I jumped into the pages. I felt like I was right there.
As the story goes on we reach the point in history where France uprises, Antoinette goes into hiding, tries to escape, is captured, and later killed. This devastates Charlotte and gives France a chance to take advantage of her not being at her best and her usual shrewd self.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I loved this book, however it did drag on in a few parts for me. Charlotte was a bad-ass queen. I loved her! She didn’t want to go to Naples or marry Ferdinand, but she fell in love anyway. I loved learning about the Habsburg family overall. I highly recommend this one.
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