THE ACCIDENTAL EMPRESS

In 1853, Emperor Franz Joseph shuns his mother's plan and chooses the 15-year-old Elisabeth, duchess of Bavaria, to become his Empress of Austria. Narrator Madeleine Maby's careful pacing aids listeners in keeping track of the many characters and time shifts in this detailed novel loosely based on historical events. As a simple period romance, it's entertaining, but the historical facts are manipulated to fit the story's arc, and conversations sound too casual to be an accurate reflection of the Habsburg court. Listeners will come away with no real sense of the people and forces at work in this pre-WWI arena. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2015]