Title: The Accidental Empress

Author: Allison Pataki

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: hardback book

Series: Sisi (#1)

Star Rating: 5 stars

This book started a love affair with two things: Allison Pataki and everything related to Empress Sisi. I am so obsessed with everything related to her now all thanks to this book. To be honest, when I started this book, I didn't know who Empress Sisi was. The only thing that I knew about the Austrian Empire and the Habsburgs was that the assassination of Emperor Franz was one of the reasons World War I started. So needlessly saying, I went into this book pretty blind. 

I was not disappointed. This book was written remarkably well. It's a narrative but you can tell the amount of work the author put into researching it. I felt so bad for Sisi. To be forced to be married at 15 years old is terrible. Her mother-in-law hated her and wouldn't let her care for her children. Her husband cheats and ends up getting Sisi incredibly sick. She truly didn’t have a great life and I felt truly awful for her. But I also admired her strength and her courage to go on, which I will elaborate on more in the next paragraph. 

I admired Sisi and her determination to live the best way she knew how. This wasn't the life that she had signed up for but then again, in those days, who lived the life that they wanted to? She tried to make the best of a bad situation. At least she had won the hearts of the people that she ruled over. I think life would have been more difficult for her if the people of Hungary-Austria hadn't been behind her. I loved that she truly cared about her citizens. I think she would have made a good ruler on her own and it’s unfortunate she had the husband she did. 

Sisi's life is sad though and not just because she got married to a horrid person. It's clear while reading the book that she had an eating disorder of some sort with some possible mental illness. She is obsessive about her weight and looks, even before she makes it to the throne. I feel like eating disorders and other mental health problems were pretty rampant during this time. I feel like Allison Pataki handled this part of Sisi’s life as delicately as she could while also showing just how hard it was for her. 

Overall, in case it was not obvious, I loved this book. I am so glad I found Allison Pataki. I think she is a great writer and I’m so glad she wrote this book. I truly enjoyed it so much and I loved learning about Empress Sis. She was a fascinating person and I can’t wait to read more books about her.