"An epic love story...irresistible reading."
-Chicago Tribune

To be young, in France, and in love: fourteen year old Desiree can't believe her good fortune. Her fiance, a dashing and ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte, is poised for battlefield success, and no longer will she be just a French merchant's daughter. She could not have known the twisting path her role in history would take, nearly breaking her vibrant heart but sweeping her to a life rich in passion and desire.

A love story, but so much more, Désirée explores the landscape of a young heart torn in two, giving readers a compelling true story of an ordinary girl whose unlikely brush with history leads to a throne no one would have expected.

An epic bestseller that has earned both critical acclaim and mass adoration, Désirée is at once a novel of the rise and fall of empires, the blush and fade of love, and the heart and soul of a woman.

"This is a fascinating panorama, from the blood-and-sawdust reek of Robespierre's guillotine to the final collapse of the Hundred Days."
-New York Times

What Readers Are Saying

"An absolutely marvelous story about a courageous woman in a difficult time who made difficult choices... one of the best books I have ever read."

"Désirée seems to come alive when I read, and I become her. This book is so romantic, so colorful and full of adventure."

"This book has meant so much to so many women."

"History has never before been as human as it is here, told through the pages of Désirée's (fictitious) diary."