The Fortune Hunter By Daisy Goodwin

[amazon_link id=”0755348095″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’The Fortune Hunter’ is the latest book by Daisy Goodwin.

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 comes looking for excitement and she 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.

I initially found ‘The Fortune Hunter’ a bit of a hard book to get into. Purely because of the amount of characters and I found myself getting confused with the Royalty characters, figuring out who was a Countess and Empress, but once I got over that hurdle (pardon the pun), I was flying and suddenly found myself captivated by this piece of Historical fiction.

The book is seen through the eyes of the main characters, Charlotte, Bay and Empress Sisi during the time that Sisi travelled from Austria to Britain. As an avid horse rider, she longs to take part in the great British hunts and asks Captain Bay Middleton, an accomplished rider to accompany her as her pilot. Whilst heiress to her family’s fortune, Charlotte is an wild spirited and independent young woman who is about to start her first season to find a suitor under the watchful eye of her aunt and sister-in-law to be Augusta. But handsome Bay has caught her eye and Charlotte finds herself in an exciting new relationship even though people warn her that he’s a fortune hunter and only after her wealth. Meanwhile Bay finds himself drawn between two women as he is attracted to both Charlotte and Sisi.

This book is quite a complex one, as I don’t often read Historical fiction, this was a bit of a new genre for me and one that I enjoyed immensely. An interesting fact about this story is fact all the characters are real as the author researched them all but the events surrounding them are entirely fictitious, which I thought was quite genius of the author.

The three main characters are particularly fascinating, but it was Sisi who I was mostly drawn to. An intriguing lady who enjoys nothing more than horse-riding. She is self-conscious of the fact that she is growing old and shy’s away from people and tries to hide from scrutiny of the spotlight. Surrounded by helpers and friends, she leads a mysterious life where everyone wants to know more about her but in truth, she seems a bit of a lonely character. Bay is the gentleman that men and women both admire, but are always dubious off as he doesn’t come from money and think that money is the only reason young Charlotte has caught his eye.

Charlotte is a delightful woman, bursting with youth and wit, she feels at home taking photographs and hates pressure of settling down and the responsibility of being a heiress.

‘The Fortune Hunter’ is an exciting love story filled with drama and I enjoyed it immensely. A riveting and intricately written and detailed book of both fact and fiction, with absorbing characters that grips the readers attention.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0755348095″ target=”_blank” ]The Fortune Hunter from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.