Two Empresses

Purdy (The Secrets of Lizzie Borden) brings two characters to life as she takes the reader back in time to the late 18th century. Fourteen-year-old Rose and seven-year-old Aimee are cousins living in Martinique in 1777. Rose dreams of marriage, and she is thrilled when she is chosen as Alexandre de Beauharnais’s wife and journeys to France to wed him. But their marriage is not a happy one, and when Alexandre leaves her for his mistress, she is forced to take lovers to ensure her survival. Aimee journeys to France to spend her formative years in a convent school only to have her ship captured by pirates on the trip back to Martinique. After Aimee is sold by the pirates to a Turkish sultan, she tries to adjust to life in the harem despite the other women’s dislike of her blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty. And Rose survives the tumultuous days of the French Revolution to become the object of affection for Napoleon, who reinvents her as his Josephine. Purdy deftly explores the lives of the two women with rich, vivid historical detail and a captivating, page-turning plot. (Feb.)