The Fortune Hunter
A Richard & Judy Pick
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4.0 • 9 Ratings
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- £3.49
Publisher Description
From the script writer of the epic TV drama, VICTORIA comes Daisy Goodwin's THE FORTUNE HUNTER for readers of MY LAST DUCHESS (THE AMERICAN HEIRESS) and any novel by Georgette Heyer
*A Richard and Judy Book Club title*
'Pure, light-hearted, unpretentious entertainment' Sunday Express
In 1875, Sisi, the Empress of Austria is the woman that every man desires and every woman envies.
Beautiful, athletic and intelligent, Sisi has everything - except happiness. Bored with the stultifying etiquette of the Hapsburg Court and her dutiful but unexciting husband, Franz Joseph, Sisi comes to England to hunt. She also comes looking for excitement and finds it in the dashing form of Captain Bay Middleton, the only man in Europe who can outride her. Ten years younger than her and engaged to the rich and devoted Charlotte, Bay has everything to lose by falling for a woman who can never be his. But Bay and the Empress are as reckless as each other, and their mutual attraction is a force that cannot be denied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Goodwin's second novel (after The American Heiress) travels the difficult protocols of Victorian-era fox hunting, as well as the even more complicated protocols of love and marriage in the era, especially for an intelligent young woman with a fortune. England, 1875: Charlotte Baird is the eligible heiress to "the Lennox Fortune." Her lovely, reckless mother was her father's second wife, and she died young in a hunting accident, leaving her fortune to Charlotte. Charlotte's brother, Fred, is engaged to Augusta Crewe, an ambitious woman from a good family who'd rather settle for Fred than stay unmarried (and she covets the Lennox diamonds). Charlotte is more interested in photography especially composing unusual portraits and developing the plates and prints herself. When Bay Middleton, an expert horseman and friend of Fred, arrives for hunting season at Melton, Augusta's family home, he and Charlotte form an unlikely alliance that turns into love. Fred and Augusta believe Charlotte can do better. Further confusing matters is the arrival of the Empress of Austria, who comes to a nearby estate and appoints Bay as her "pilot" for the hunts; she later decides that Bay can provide her happiness beyond horseback. Charlotte and Bay are faced with listening to their hearts, or falling victim to the machinations and customs surrounding them. Goodwin manages to take the reader deep inside the characters' longings and flaws in a way that makes the reader root for them. An enchanting, beautifully written page-turner. First printing of 150,000 copies.
