For Napoleon's stepdaughter, nothing is simple - especially love.Paris, 1798. Hortense de Beauharnais is engrossed in her studies at a boarding school for aristocratic girls, most of whom have suffered tragic losses during the tumultuous days of the French Revolution. She loves to play and compose music, read and paint, and daydream about Christophe, her brother's dashing fellow officer. But Hortense is not an ordinary girl. Her beautiful, charming mother, Josephine, has married Napoleon Bonaparte, soon to become the most powerful man in France, but viewed by Hortense at the outset as a coarse, unworthy successor to her elegant father, who was guillotined during the Terror.
Where will Hortense's future lie? it may not be in her power to decide.
Inspired by Hortense's real-life autobiography with charming glimpses of life long ago, this is the story of a girl destined by fate to play a role she didn't choose.
In 1798, 15-year-old Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon Bonaparte's stepdaughter, attends an exclusive boarding school, dreaming of her brother's fellow officer Christophe, unaware of the role she is fated to play. Inspired by Hortense's real-life autobiography, from the author of the adult trilogy about Josephine Bonaparte.
"Gulland, who’s clearly done her research, includes plenty of documentedmoments and people from Hortense’s life, which cultivates a rich sense of atmosphere . . . een fans of historical fiction fascinated by the period will findplenty to appreciate here." -
Booklist"For history buffs" -
Kirkus 
