SISSI: THE LAST EMPRESS

by Danny Saunders

Nothing preordained Elisabeth of Wittelsbach, known as “Sissi”, to become Empress of Austria at the age of seventeen. It was, in fact, despite herself that the young Bavarian duchess, who had always been somewhat rebellious and untamed, was courted by the Emperor of Austria, one of Europe’s most powerful men, whom she finally accepted to marry. Attempting by all means to get away from the Imperial Court, this Hungarian queen of legendary beauty will carry the weight of the Crown of the Habsburgs throughout her adult life. Sissi does not adapt well to the strict etiquette of the imperial life, and the several moments she spends away from her husband are difficult. A romantic liaison with an enemy count will serve as a rare source of comfort for the empress. An unhappy sovereign, Sissi is nevertheless idolized by her people and becomes the main unifying actor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Alone at the head of a kingdom and hounded by her admirers, she will die a tragic death at the hands of a fanatic.

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2015

About the author

Danny Saunders is a true European history enthusiast. He has always been keenly interested in royalty. Danny holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and also pursued communication studies at the university level. He has worked as a journalist for various written and electronic media.

Sissi: The Last Empress is his second historical fiction novel.

Danny Saunders is a member of The Marie Stuart Society, the Historical Novel Society, The Alliance of Independent Authors, and The Independent Author Network.

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was just awful. Not only does the book need a heavy does of editing, but the author forgot what previously happened in the book when writing about other events; for instance, Sissy's dead daughter is all of a sudden alive again when Sissy's health continues to decline, and she speaks to Franz. At first, I thought perhaps the book was intended for children because it is so repetitive in its language and phrasing, so sparsely researched, and not descriptive and juevinile in language, but it must be intended for adults based on the descriptions for the couple's wedding night and other amorous happenings. I nearly gave up reading multiple times, I'm not sure why I finished it.

[Rania Melhem · Rating 1 out of 5]

In dire need of proof reading

In the first few pages we are treated to several errors, first baroness of Walden is wrong the governess of the children of duke maximising was named baroness Walden no of. Then we have Sis I being born with " A tiny teeth" And duke Max GRINDED his teeth.
Finally in a blatant anachronism we have success Ludovika referring to her husband as "my man".
I'll keep on reading just to ferret out more errors, since its pretty obvious this was never looked at by a proof reader let alone an editor.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book free in return for my honest review.

I enjoyed this novel, I didn't know anything about the Empress of Austria before this and since reading the book have googled her. I felt like I was getting a good feel for who this woman was and her tragic life. I enjoyed the paragraphs in the book which described the real people or events that this book depicted. I liked the writing of this author, I will definitely keep an eye out for his future books.

[Pat Holloway · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Disappointing Biographical Novel

Its surprising this book ever found a publisher. Very poor grammar and sentence structure make it difficult to understand what the author is trying to day. This author needs to take a refresher course in English composition.

[Brandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Who edited this book? It reads like it was either translated or written by ChatGPT.

[Danny Henkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good account of Empress Sisi's life and death, but editing let this story down. Many grammar and spelling mistakes throughout the story really detracted from the storytelling.

[Marge Holt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oops!

While I did enjoy the wholesome, tactical approach that the writer took, and the obvious research into accuracy efforts, to an English major, there were far too many grammatical errors which soon detracted from the substance. It became irritating then annoying. Like the proverbial busman on holiday, seeing careless driving ruins the family trip for him or her, the bumping into errors in syntax, plural vs singular verbs, and punctuation, made me put it down. Sorry, but I don't have patience to overlook more than a few.

[Ritu Nagpal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very immature writing

After reading this book I did learn a lot about Sissi, but truly speaking writing lacked emotions. It was just a scrip with no soul. I wish writer could make more alive rather than just a narration.