Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Title: Ambitious Madame Bonaparte Author: Ruth Hull Chantilien Publication Date: December 2, 2013 Publisher: Amika Press Paperback: 484 pages ISBN: As a clever girl in stodgy, mercantile Baltimore, Betsy Patterson dreams of a marriage that will transport her to cultured Europe. When she falls in love with and marries Jerome Bonaparte, she believes her dream has come true—until Jerome’s older brother Napoleon becomes an implacable enemy. Based on a true story, The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte is a historical novel that portrays this woman’s tumultuous life. Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, known to history as Betsy Bonaparte, scandalized Washington with her daring French fashions; visited Niagara Falls when it was an unsettled wilderness; survived a shipwreck and run-ins with British and French warships; dined with presidents and danced with dukes; and lived through the 1814 Battle of Baltimore. Yet through it all, Betsy never lost sight of her primary goal—to win ...

Scandalous Women is pleased to welcome author Lauren Willig this week to talk about the scandalous life of Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837). The only daughter of the infamous Josephine and step-daughter to Napoleon, Hortense was married off to his brother Louis and made Queen of Holland. But she was in love with another man, the Comte de Flahaut, rumored to be the illegitimate son of Talleyrand. During the Hundred Days, her support of her step-father meant that she was banished from France. She died at the age of 54 in 1837. She never lived to see her son Napoleon become the Emperor of the French as Napoleon III. Please tune in to Scandalous Women, tomorrow, April 1 at a special time, 6:00 p.m. A native of New York City, Lauren Willig has been writing romances ever since she got her hands on her first romance novel at the age of six. Three years later, she sent her first novel off to a publishing house—all three hundred hand-written pages. They sent it back. Undaunt...

Hearts Divided (1936) Warner Bros. Studios Director: Frank Borzage Screenplay by: Laird Doyle & Casey Robinson from the play "Glorious Betsy" by Rida Johnson Young Cast: Marion Davies as Elizabeth Patterson Dick Powell as Captain Jerome Bonaparte Charles Ruggles as Senator Henry Ruggles Claude Rains as Napoleon Bonaparte Edward Everett Horton as Senator John Hathaway Arthur Treacher as Sir Harry Henry Stephenson as Charles Patterson Clara Blandick as Aunt Ellen Patterson John Larkin as Isham Walter Kingsford as Monsieur Pichon Etienne Girardot as Monsieur Du Fresne Halliwell Hobbes as Cambaceres George Irving as President Thomas Jefferson Beulah Bondi as Madame Letizia Bonaparte Synopsis:  Napoleon (Claude Rains) needs money in order to continue his quest for world domination in Europe so he wants 20 million dollars for the Louisiana Territory in the United States. To help the negotiations, he sends his brother, Jerome (Dick Powell), to the U.S. on a...

DESIREE by Annemarie Selinko Sourcebooks, October 1, 2010 From the back cover:  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. My thoughts:  It somehow seems fitting that Sourcebooks wou...

It is Napoleon Week here on Scandalous Women focusing on three women in the Emperor's life; his sister Pauline, his mistress Marie Walewska, and his sister Elizabeth Patterson. Anyone who leaves a comment on either post will be eligible to win a copy of Cupid and the King by Princess Michael of Kent. The winner will be announced on May 23rd, 2008.