(thank you to Netgalley.com for providing an early copy)

We all think we know the Emperor Napoleon: his ego, his military ability, and his self-centeredness. But what we don’t know and what Michelle Moran gives us in the well researched, historically accurate and very entertaining book The Second Empress is insight into his personal life, which at times can make the Emperor Nero look tame.

The story is told from several points of view: his second wife (and the second empress) Marie-Louise of Austria, his sister Pauline, his step-daughter Hortense, among others. Each has a different point of view, and recounts different stories, helping to create a complete picture of a very complex man, and the people who surround him.

At the time of the story, Napoleon rules most of Europe, and he desperately needs an heir to carry on. In what seems to be a somewhat odd choice, given that it wasn’t that long before that the monarchy had been overthrown, and her aunt Marie Antoinette had lost her head, Napoleon chooses Marie Louise. Marie has little choice in the matter, believing that if she says no, Napoleon will take revenge on Austria. She leaves her home, her family and her lover and enters the exceedingly strange world of Napoleon.

Pauline, the Countess Borghese, is no friend to Marie Louise, wanting her brother for herself, to rule Egypt as brother-sister monarchs, as in the days of the Pharaoh’s. Pauline’s mores are as strange (although less deadly) than Napoleon’s, and her lovers are legion.

Napoleon is brilliant in matters military, but is bizarre in how he treats women in general, including those he marries and is related to, and can be deadly when crossed. Moran gives us insight into the kind of man who would lose more than a half a million men in Russia, and still think it was the right thing to do.

The characters and time period are well documented, and many of the incidents in the book are real, unbelievable as they may seem. The story moves quickly and is a very good read. This is a great view of the time period, with a lot of detail that isn't necessarily well known.