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Publishers Weekly: Starred Review for ‘Beauty in the Broken Places’

In this powerful and immersive memoir, Pataki relives the harrowing year that followed her husband’s stroke in June 2015.

“Does my right eye look weird?” 30-year-old Dave Levy asked his pregnant wife, novelist Pataki (The Accidental Empress), during a flight to Hawaii. Levy soon fell into a coma; he awakened the next day outwardly unchanged, but a part of his brain that coordinated mental activity had been severely damaged. Suffering from amnesia, he seemed like a different person to Pataki.

“It was scary to see my brilliant husband’s body and mind kidnapped by this new, helpless, disoriented foreigner.” She began writing him daily letters to her husband…Click here to read the full review on Publishers Weekly.

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Allison Pataki

Allison Pataki

Allison Pataki is a New York Times Bestselling author with a passion for telling the stories of leading ladies lost in history. Her debut novel, The Traitor’s Wife, came out in 2014 and her second novel, The Accidental Empress, came out in February 2015. Allison’s third New York Times Bestseller, Sisi: Empress on Her Own, hit shelves March 2016. In 2017 her fourth historical novel, Where the Light Falls, was published. Beauty in the Broken Places was released in 2019, a Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience. In May 2019 she published her first children’s book, Nelly Takes New York. Her latest and fifth historical novel, The Queens Fortune, releases February 2020 and her second children’s book, Poppy Takes Paris releases May of 2020.
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An epic reimagining of the remarkable life of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the American heiress and trailblazing leader of the twentieth century.
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The Queen's Fortune
A sweeping novel about the extraordinary woman who captured Napoleon’s heart, created a dynasty, and changed the course of history—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife, The Accidental Empress, and Sisi.
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The real life of Marjorie Merriweather Post—cereal heiress, style icon, philanthropist, and internationally recognized hostess—inspired this delicious new novel from bestselling author Allison Pataki. It’s a character study of a larger-than-life character whose truth was most certainly stranger than fiction, and whose influence can still be felt today.