Portrait of a Scotsman
- Evie Dunmore
- Albany, WA
- March 1, 2023
GOODREADS BOOK BLURB:
London banking heiress Hattie Greenfield wanted “just” three things in life:
1. Acclaim as an artist.
2. A noble cause.
3. Marriage to a young lord who puts the gentle in gentleman.
Why then does this Oxford scholar find herself at the altar with the darkly attractive financier Lucian Blackstone, whose murky past and ruthless business practices strike fear in the hearts of Britain’s peerage? Trust Hattie to take an invigorating little adventure too far. Now she’s stuck with a churlish Scot who just might be the end of her ambitions….
When the daughter of his business rival all but falls into his lap, Lucian sees opportunity. As a self-made man, he has vast wealth but holds little power, and Hattie might be the key to finally setting long-harbored political plans in motion. Driven by an old revenge, he has no room for his new wife’s apprehensions or romantic notions, bewitching as he finds her.
But a sudden journey to Scotland paints everything in a different light. Hattie slowly sees the real Lucian and realizes she could win everything—as long as she is prepared to lose her heart.
Going toe-to-toe with a brooding Scotsman is rather bold for a respectable suffragist, but when he happens to be one’s unexpected husband, what else is an unwilling bride to do?
1. Acclaim as an artist.
2. A noble cause.
3. Marriage to a young lord who puts the gentle in gentleman.
Why then does this Oxford scholar find herself at the altar with the darkly attractive financier Lucian Blackstone, whose murky past and ruthless business practices strike fear in the hearts of Britain’s peerage? Trust Hattie to take an invigorating little adventure too far. Now she’s stuck with a churlish Scot who just might be the end of her ambitions….
When the daughter of his business rival all but falls into his lap, Lucian sees opportunity. As a self-made man, he has vast wealth but holds little power, and Hattie might be the key to finally setting long-harbored political plans in motion. Driven by an old revenge, he has no room for his new wife’s apprehensions or romantic notions, bewitching as he finds her.
But a sudden journey to Scotland paints everything in a different light. Hattie slowly sees the real Lucian and realizes she could win everything—as long as she is prepared to lose her heart.
Going toe-to-toe with a brooding Scotsman is rather bold for a respectable suffragist, but when he happens to be one’s unexpected husband, what else is an unwilling bride to do?
SERIES / GENRES:
FIRST WORDS:
As she hovered on the rain-soaked pavement in front of the Chelsea town house she was about to infiltrate, feeling hot beneath her woolen cloak, Hattie Greenfield couldn’t help but think back to the last time she had run from her protection officer. It had resulted in an altercation with a toad of a policeman and a dear friend being held at Millbank prison. She supposed all the most perilous adventures began with escaping dour Mr. Graves. All the best ones, too.
MY REVIEW:
almost perfect:
☆☆☆☆☆ 4.5/5
I know I’m probably an outlier, but Portrait of a Scotsman is my favourite of this series so far.
Hattie did not make much of an impression in the first two books, so I didn’t have high hopes for Portrait of a Scotsman. Thankfully, she’s a character that only gets better with time. In the beginning, she’s a little flighty and naive, but by the end, she’s an entirely new woman with incredible complexity and depth. Unfortunately, the same can’t quite be said for Lucian. While he does become more interesting than the scheming Scottish pirate he first appears to be, his change comes more from revealing his past than from evolving within the narrative. I found it much more compelling to see Hattie become a new person over Lucian revealing an old one.
As in previous instalments, the side plots often overwhelm the romance, but there were fewer characters to distract from Hattie and Lucian; when you travel to the middle of nowhere for most of the book, only so many other people are available to draw focus. It did start to feel like we would never leave this mining town, but it was a good backdrop to mould this relationship.
It’s been a few days since I finished Portrait of a Scotsman, and I still catch myself thinking that when I pick up my kindle, I’ll be right back in this story. It’s always nice when a book ends and you’re left wanting more without feeling the story has been left incomplete. I only wish I didn’t have to wait until December for The Gentleman’s Gambit to come out.
Hattie did not make much of an impression in the first two books, so I didn’t have high hopes for Portrait of a Scotsman. Thankfully, she’s a character that only gets better with time. In the beginning, she’s a little flighty and naive, but by the end, she’s an entirely new woman with incredible complexity and depth. Unfortunately, the same can’t quite be said for Lucian. While he does become more interesting than the scheming Scottish pirate he first appears to be, his change comes more from revealing his past than from evolving within the narrative. I found it much more compelling to see Hattie become a new person over Lucian revealing an old one.
As in previous instalments, the side plots often overwhelm the romance, but there were fewer characters to distract from Hattie and Lucian; when you travel to the middle of nowhere for most of the book, only so many other people are available to draw focus. It did start to feel like we would never leave this mining town, but it was a good backdrop to mould this relationship.
It’s been a few days since I finished Portrait of a Scotsman, and I still catch myself thinking that when I pick up my kindle, I’ll be right back in this story. It’s always nice when a book ends and you’re left wanting more without feeling the story has been left incomplete. I only wish I didn’t have to wait until December for The Gentleman’s Gambit to come out.
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