The Empress, Griffis - B+

              In 1853, two sisters, Helene and Elizabeth, both Duchesses of Bavaria, travel to Austria to meet the young Franz Joseph.  The emperor's imperious mother, Sophie, has invited her nieces to meet the emperor with the expectation that he will select the elder to be his bride, empress, and mother of the future sovereign. However, Franz is overburdened by the pressures and strictures of his life and the expectation that he will always do what the family wants.  He is immediately smitten by the impetuous and adventurous younger sister, Elizabeth.  His marriage proposal to her annoys his mother, shocks his aunt and destroys Helene. Marrying into the oldest dynasty in Europe is complicated and filled with roadblocks set out by Sophie, Helene, and Maxi, Franz's troubled younger brother.  Nonetheless, Franz and Elizabeth joyfully wed in a marriage of love in what will be the final Hapsburg marriage of a sitting emperor.  This novel is the basis of season one of the eponymous Netflix series.