Poor, poor Sisi. That's all I could think as I read this novel--the poor girl (and then woman) could never seem to catch a break! The novels begins at Sisi's childhood home when she is about 15 years old. Immediately, the reader understands that this little duchess has had a different upbringing than most upper-class children--she rides horses and plays outdoors with her siblings most of the day. 
 When she accompanies her sister and mother to the Habsburg court so her sister can marry Emperor Franz Joseph, he chooses Sisi instead. This doesn't bode well for Sisi because her new mother-in-law (who is actually her aunt) wants to run the show. This is a blatant rebellion in her eyes by her son and her son's silly new bride. 
 Every single time Sophie (Franz Joseph's formidable mother) spoke, inserted herself in her son's and Sisi's affairs, or prevented Sisi from doing something that made her happy, I wanted to scream. Thank goodness she eventually fades away by the end of the book (well, she doesn't go anywhere but she does stop trying to control every aspect of Sisi's life) because I'm not sure I could have taken her for much longer. 
 I was really interested in how Pataki intertwined Sisi's obsession with her appearance and weight with her inability to control anything else in her life. This part of the story, to me, was so realistic--because Sisi had no say in other aspects of her life, she channeled that frustration and need to control into her beauty routine. 
 Overall, I think this novel was very well done and I'm looking forward to the next installment, Sisi: Empress on Her Own.