Thank you for the opportunity to pre-read The Last Empress of France by Petie Kladstrup (with Evelyne Resnick)… what an extraordinary read!

I was absolutely blown away by this deep dive into the life of Eugénie de Montijo, a Spanish-born countess who became the last Empress of France and arguably one of history’s earliest feminists. This biography brought her fully to life… not just as a glamorous fixture at Napoleon III’s court, but as a passionate, visionary leader who argued for women’s rights, education, healthcare, and even climate-conscious urban design!
Eugénie emerges as what I can only call a badass… she pushed to open schools to girls, funded health initiatives and orphanages from her own fortune, and lobbied to allow a woman to receive a baccalauréat diploma… long before such ideas were normalized in 19th‑century Europe. While reading, she reminded me so much of Marie Antoinette… not in personality, but in potential. Had Marie Antoinette had the tenacity, vision, and platform that Eugénie wielded, how different her legacy… and fate… might have been.
One thing that particularly impressed me: Eugénie’s forward-thinking interest in architecture and public space. She advocated planting trees in Paris to cool the city… a proto‑climate change strategy straight out of the 1860s. (Hello, modern urban planners… can we please do more of that today?)
What Kladstrup and Resnick have accomplished here is the revival of a woman too long relegated to the margins of history. Instead of a fashion icon in Winterhalter gowns, Eugénie showed herself to be a politician, patron of the arts, and regent of France in her husband’s absence… consulted daily by Napoleon III on state affairs.
The writing impressed me too… richly atmospheric without ever drifting into dry academic terrain. Like your best history books, this one kept me turning pages late into the night. The narrative balances vivid personal detail, political intrigue, and global context so seamlessly that I found myself aching to ask Eugénie a million questions across the barrier of centuries.

If you’re fascinated by French history, women in power, or cultural innovators who reshape their worlds, The Last Empress of France is a must-read. Eugénie de Montijo was far more than an “ornament of the throne”… she was a force. And her legacy, finally reclaimed, is nothing short of revolutionary.

Considering her importance (and quite frankly, her likability), we spend startlingly little time discussing Empress Eugénie as a significant historical figure.

Why? I’m sure the easy answer is the usual “because men,” but there has to be more to it than that, and I’m glad to see this exceptional woman finally getting the attention she deserves.

Certainly this is a biography in the strictest sense, but it is notably more readable and narrative-minded than most historical biography. The Empress herself obliged by being an unusually interesting subject, but credit the authors as well for writing a biography that reads like fiction.

To that end, it’s important to note that this book focuses on the best of the Empress (and really, the Bonapartes and their families in general). This is not to suggest that any of this is inaccurate, merely a warning that if you’re looking for a more critical examination of the Second Empire, look elsewhere.

Instead, this is a lovely and informative tribute to a remarkable woman who should be celebrated for the exceptional positive change she affected in France, especially for women and other marginalized groups.

This is a fascinating time period in French history and the Bonapartes are a fascinating family, but the authors of this book really brought something extra to the subject.

In all, an excellent read that is both fun and informative.

I’ve only read two celebrity memoirs, and I liked them because they read like a story with dialogue, character development, and a beginning, middle, and end. This one read more like a history book. More straight forward, factual, and a bit boring.
- asexual/demisexual rep

Enjoyment: 4
Start: 4
Characters: 3
Setting: 5
Plot: 3
Ending: 5
Style: 3
Rating: 3.75 (3.86)

While I was fascinated by the Empress and everything she'd done for France during (and after) her time on the throne, I feel like this book falls flat on and shows more of what the author wanted us to see about her. I've no doubt Empress Eugenie did everything it says she did, but this book seemed to focus more on what she did for women and children than what she did as a whole. The time frame was also weird. After the chapter mentioning the birth of her son I didn't expect to hear about that time point again, but it was brought back up several times in following chapters. The author also seemed to make Empress Eugenie more girl boss than she really needed to be. I was fascinated by the mentioning of names I've heard all my life (Churchill, Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, etc), but there were times when this book wasn't even about the Empress or her family at all, which lessened my enjoyment of it.

When I first read about Empress Eugénie in Nancy Goldstone's "Rebel Empresses", Eugénie fascinated me. The daughter of an un-traditional Spanish grandee married to one of the most powerful men in Europe, Emperor Napoléon III. But Eugénie was so much more than an Empress. Nearly every aspect of France and society was left touched be Eugénie's ingenuity, kindness and generosity. She was at the forefront of fashion, philanthropy and architecture in France - pioneering haute couture (working with Worth to make spectacular gowns with sartorial touches). She set up schools for girls and the underprivileged and pioneered many charitable projects and hospitals that still exist today. From her trunk maker Louis Vuitton to her "sister" Queen Victoria, to Winston Churchill to Kaiser Wilhelm to Edward VII, Eugénie's story is populated with nearly everyone who was anyone in the expansive ninety-four years of her life. Never far from sorrow, outliving her husband, son and most of her family, Eugénie turned sorrow into travel and memorials, cutting plants and transplanting them from places of old to places of new. I believe Eugénie would have been touched by the portrait the authors have painted of her, and she remains one of my favourite queens of all time.
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I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review from @netgalley .

Thank you to the publisher for this arc!
This book is about Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III. This is a period that I think is super interesting but unfortunately I think this biography falls flat. Weirdly the book wasn’t really about Eugenie and the page count definitely felt padded with lots of unnecessary info. It also felt very… girl bossy to me? Eugenie is responsible for all of the good and none of the bad during her husbands reign etc etc
Unfortunately this is the first American biography about her bur hopefully another will come out in the future
3 stars

The Last Empress of France by Petie Kladstrup and Evelyne Resnick is an amazing book! It is Non-Fiction but has so many incredible events written about in it that it would be easy to think it is Fiction. I have a degree in Teaching French and have been to France numerous times but I had never heard, or read, anything about Empress Eugenie until this book. She was married to Napoleon III who ruled France during the Second Empire and respected her intelligence so much that he treated her as an equal in leading the country. Furthermore, she was a woman born in Spain in 1826 and lived until age 94 - experiencing almost a century of significant inventions and advancements in medicine and technology. It was also a life of almost a century of being acquainted with most of the powerful rulers in the world.. It is a fascinating read to learn of this remarkable woman's childhood, her dreams for the future, her relationships, and the historical events she lived through that included pomp and cirumstance, adulation of the masses, tragedy, war and heartbreak. For fans of France, world history, women's rights, I strongly recommend this book. It is never stuffy or boring! I received an ARC from Harlequin Trade Publishing via NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

This biography of Napoleon III’s wife, Eugénie de Montijo, reveals her to be more than an empress. She was a visionary who championed women’s rights, advanced education, and shaped modern France.

The book is engaging and informative, bringing Empress Eugénie to life. She was an amazing leader and ahead of her time, wielding her power with a feminine style that won hearts during a chauvinistic age.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

The Last Empress of France by Petie Kladstrup and Evelyne Resnick is a nonfiction about the life and rule of Empress Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Emperor Napoléon III. When Eugénie is chosen by the future Emperor to be his wife, the rest of his family and France is resistant to this Spanish-born woman being Empress, but her progressive attitudes helped shape the France that we know today.

Before reading this, I was unfamiliar with Eugénie and her husband. The only Napoléon I was familiar with was the first one and I learned quite a bit about his stances on women from this book and how Eugénie and her husband combatted that. It amazed me how little rights women had in France at that time because one ruler seemed to believe that women should only be wives and mothers and do nothing else yet provided very few safety nets. Eugénie, on the other hand, improved safety nets for women and helped to create the haute culture industry.

One thing I appreciated was the text’s acknowledgement of Queerness as a possibility without saying anything definitive. Many of Eugénie’s biographers have referred to her as ‘frigid’ based on what her contemporaries said, but the authors here suggest that asexuality or demisexuality are also possibilities because plenty of people close to the couple implied that there was romance and passion in their marriage, it just might not look like how we might expect in a heteronormative society.

The chapters are fairly short and they detail a lot about Eugénie, her marriage, and the things she did as well as the culture at the time and the long-term impact she had. Because of the length, I would say that this moves at a fairly brisk pace and is easily digestible while creating a lot of connections and helping to humanize Eugénie. I think it accomplishes what a biography should do: why is this figure important to the past and us now?

I would recommend this to fans of biographies about the French royal family and readers looking for nonfiction about nineteenth century France

3.25 stars

Empress Eugenie is not a historical figure I was familiar with prior to reading this book. I went into this book thinking I was going to get a riveting story of a rebellious and changemaker of a royal woman. Instead, I found myself mired in a deluge of historical data from this time period. Instead of focusing on Eugenie, the book centers on historical events around her, some chapters offering only brief insights into her influence and experiences. The first chapter and last few chapters were my favorite, due to them primarily focusing on Eugenie and actual incidents in her life.

My greatest complaint about this book were chapters 2-5 (approximately). Rather than tell Eugenie’s story in a chronological order, these chapters covered the same timeline, from marriage to the birth of her son, but each chapter focused on a different project Eugenie worked on during that time. There was only about her building a girl’s school and alienating people by overspending and nitpicking the architecture and design. A chapter was about her personal health struggles getting and staying pregnant and her pregnancy and difficult birth of her son. One focused on her starting a hospital. Another was about her interest in fashion and couture. While this is one method to tell a story, it made for a confusing reader experience. I kept expecting that the story would continue from the point the last chapter left off, only to find it started almost where the last one began. If the years or time period covered was highlighted at the beginning of that chapter, or when it changed, it would have helped with the comprehension of the sequence of events.

Aside from the confusing timeline during the earlier part of the book, the middle felt like it dragged on. This felt like more of a historical fact book, than a human nature story where one can feel a sense of connection with a person from the past. While I learned a great deal about this period of time in France, Spain, England and surrounding areas, I wasn’t drawn into this story enough to really feel any great emotion when tragic events took place.

This is a great book for someone looking for a greater understanding of this time period and the longstanding impact of Empress Eugenie. The authors did a great job recognizing Eugenie’s legacy by highlighting which buildings and services she put in place that are still in use today.

Thank you to Petie Kladstrup, Evelyne Resnick, NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Hanover Square Press for an advanced copy of this eBook.

This was the first time I read a biography about Empress Eugénie, and I didn’t realize how little I actually knew about her. I had no idea how much of an impact she had—not just as Napoleon III’s wife, but also in politics, fashion, and European society. Her life was way more interesting than I expected. The book was really well written and kept my attention.

I rate this 4.5 out of 5.

I want to thank NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for review.

Eugénie de Montijo was not a historical figure on my radar until I picked up the recent dual biography (The Rebel Empresses) of her with Empress Elizabeth of Austria (aka Sisi) by Nancy Goldstone. After reading that work I became fascinated by Eugénie and started looking for work focused on her specifically. Luck for Kladstrup and Resnick delivered.

This book had everything that I love about biographical works. There is a clear reverence for the subject, but they do not shy away from the fact that she was indeed human and subject to mistakes and poor decisions. The scope of the work examined Eugénie as an Empress, but also as a wife, mother, and friend. In many ways, this work felt as if you were watching Eugénie's life unfold rather than simply reading words on the page. The authors use many sources to weave a vibrant and well-written portrait of Eugénie's life and her impact.

Eugénie's impact on culture and social programs throughout Europe was one of the most interesting parts of the book for me. It's clear that she had a thirst for knowledge and that she wanted to see women thrive in society. Her joy at Marie Currie's Nobel win and the development of several schools highlighted this. In many ways, I think this highlighted how some of her own experiences within the government impacted her approach to things.

I do wish that there had been just a little bit more about her involvement in the attempt to force European rule in Mexico. She played such a major role in that expedition and while Kladstrup and Resnick do not hide the fact that she was very involved and that it led to disastrous consequences it did feel as if the political interworkings of those events were a little less explored.

This book is a fascinating glimpse into a young Spanish noblewoman who rose to the heights of imperial power in France. Throughout the authors examine a woman who befriended artists, suffragists, and politicians, as well as Empress Elizabeth of Austria and Queen Victoria; a woman who had a deep interest in the life of Marie Antoinette and loved to sail; and a woman whose life was peppered with tragedy. Highly recommend.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of a parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic
The medical content involves not only the discussion of kidney stones but also the physical injury sustained by Eugénie during the birth of her son.

A comprehensive, chronological biography of Eugenie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III and Empress of the Second French Empire. This is more of an overview than an in-depth analysis, but that's great for a famous figure who you normally read about in terms of her relationship with her famous husband and not as her own person. Eugenie ruled France from the 1850s to the 1870s and didn't pass away until 1920, meaning that she was a witness to most of the changes of the 19th century. Recommended if you're interested in this time period and want a clear, straightforward description of it from this specific perspective.

I tandem read and listened, which was a great choice for me. Narrator Jilly Bond has a cut glass, upper crust British accent, which was probably a great choice to depict Eugenie's aristocratic circles.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the book.

Kladstrup & Resnick really drew me in with the vivid descriptions of Eugénie's childhood and the political turmoil that brought her father to prominence. I cannot imagine the early struggles Eugénie faced as Empress. On one side, the French didn't think she was quite good enough. On the other side, the Spanish didn't think Napoleon III good enough for her. Although the chapters dealing with her early and middle years were certainly interesting (being struck by Sultan Abdülaziz’s mother is a hilarious little highlight), I really got swept away reading about her later years. Eugénie had a long life, saw so many changes in the world, and ushered in many of her own.

The authors do a terrific job of extracting the essence of Eugénie's personality through her actions and the available sources. What I found most remarkable is how desperately I wished I could reach through the pages and the barriers of time to ask this woman so many questions. The pages of The Last Empresses of France are filled with admirable feats, but also recognition of the fact that Eugénie was a complicated woman. Allowing her this nuance made for a compelling read that really humanized the subject.

The Last Empress of France by Petie Kladstrup pulled me in right away. I’m not usually super into historical fiction, but this one kept me hooked with its mix of history and drama. The way Kladstrup brings the era to life made me feel like I was stepping back in time, and I appreciated all the little details that made the story feel authentic without getting bogged down.

The main character felt complex and real, caught between her duty and her personal struggles. I liked how the book didn’t just focus on the big historical events but also on the emotional side of her life. It made the whole story feel more human and relatable.

If you’re into history with a good dose of personal drama, this book is a solid pick. It gave me a fresh perspective on a time and place I thought I knew. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who likes stories about strong women navigating tough times.

Title: The Last Empress of France
Authors: Petie Kladstrup & Evelyne Resnick (@everesnick)
Publisher: @htpbooks
Release Date: July 8, 2025
Rating: 5 ⭐️


SYNOPSIS:
The untold story of Eugénie de Montijo, who rose from the daughter of a Spanish nobleman to the last Empress of France. An intrepid adventurer, the mother of haute couture, the champion of women’s rights, the mother and wife. A woman who by all means should have multiple chapters in our history books but is mostly forgotten.

REVIEW:
I devoured this brilliant narrative non-fiction in just under two days, a rarity for me with non-fiction! It usually doesn’t capture me as completely as The Last Empress of France did. WHAT A WOMAN! Y’all she is the reason for haute couture and Louis Vuitton! But that’s just the surface of her. When Haussmann was recreating Paris, she fought for a school for underprivileged girls, understanding that education and gainful employment would save the lives of so many. Her work with hospitals, with charity, with politics. I don’t understand how she isn’t a household name.

Kladstrup and Resnick drew Eugénie out from history and into a vivid and moving picture of an unstoppable force, filled with heart and passion. This is an unmissable biography. It has me wanting to learn everything I can not just about Eugénie but about Napoleon III as well. I don’t usually say this about non-fiction, but I’ll be reading this at least a second and third time so that I can really soak up everything about the last Empress of France. Thanks to the authors, she may be my new hyper-fixation.

Thank you @htpbooks and @netgalley for the ARC

The last Empress of France is a lively and interesting recount of the life of Eugénie de Montijo. Authors Petie Kladstrup and Evelyne Resnick masterfully transform a historical enumeration into an almost-novelization.

This was a fantastic read, especially for history lovers and those moved by the power plays of women. I had never heard of Eugenie prior to this so I went into her biography absolutely blind. I’m kind of glad I did because it was so fun and fascinating to learn about the woman she was.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this! I knew nothing about Eugénie de Montijo and she sounds like an.... interesting woman.

This was such a great book! It was so good that it read more like a story than a biography.

Empress Eugenie was a woman ahead of her time that lived an almost fairy tale like story. Growing up she was surrounded around people who cultivated her into the person she was. Eugenie was a force to be reckon with.

I could not put this book down! I didn’t even know that France had another empire after King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. So this book was informative and helped broaden my history knowledge.

Eugenie was a wild child of her generation with ideas that tended to clash with the French governing body at that time. She was a woman who refused to stay silent and stand in the shadows.