First published 2014
Empress Sisi of Austria arrives in England in 1875, fleeing the suffocating protocols of the Habsburg Court and her predictable marriage to Franz Joseph. She seeks the thrill of the hunt and finds something far more dangerous. Captain Bay Middleton becomes her riding companion, the sole man in Europe capable of matching her skill in the saddle. Bay is ten years her junior and promised to the wealthy Charlotte, but neither he nor Sisi can resist their growing attraction. Their reckless pursuit of each other defies every rule of duty and station. Sisi possesses beauty, athleticism, and intelligence, yet happiness eludes her. Bay risks his future and his engagement for a woman who can never truly belong to him. Their affair becomes a battle between desire and obligation, passion and responsibility. The Empress and the cavalry officer discover that some forces prove impossible to deny, even when the cost threatens to destroy everything they should hold dear.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, historical-romance, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-love, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Austria, England, Europe, Habsburg Court
Period: 1875
473 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press