Review: Portrait of a Scotsman, by Evie Dunmore
I swear to God these books just get better the further we get into the series (although having said that, A Rogue of One's Own remains my favourite of the three).
This is going to be a short review because basically I'm just going to talk about all the things I loved about this book.
I loved the bonkersosity of the story's plot - Hattie Greenfield is one of five children in a banking family; her father wants some shares that Lucian Blackstone, a rival banker with underworld connections and a shady origin story, has; Lucian wants into high society. He orchestrates a situation in which he and Hattie are caught in a compromising position and he has to marry her, trading the shares to her father in the process. The setup of the 'marriage of convenience' trope being explored in this novel (Bringing Down the Duke is enemies-to-lovers, A Rogue of One's Own is a combination of friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, and second-chance romance, and there has been absolutely no word about what the fourth book will be about, but it will be Catriona's book, obviously - though I don't know who the male romantic lead will be in that!), but once you accept the premise and enjoy the development of their love story and their marriage, it's a very, very enjoyable romance novel.
The only thing I would have enjoyed is perhaps a more even distribution in the POV sections between Hattie and Lucian - Hattie was the main narrator and Lucian gets a couple of pages here and there; and a big part of why I think A Rogue of One's Own was so enjoyable as a book is because the POV chapters alternated pretty evenly between Lucie and Tristan's so it felt like a more complete book than this one did, in parts.
Also there are very few appearances by the characters from the two previous books, and absolutely no hint about how the fourth book will unfold, and I could've used a few more glimpses into the world that Evie Dunmore had previously created or what she's planning next.
Anyway, without further ado, here are all the things I loved:
Bonkers story
Excellent, very hot sex (kink! Foreplay! Role-playing! Be still my fiery loins!)
Wonderful narrative pacing and subplots!
Lucian is such a wonderful romantic lead! Dark and brooding and tortured! Would I want to date him? No, absolutely not, he's an emotionally repressed nightmare! But boy is he hot about to read in a book!
Hattie's head was such a kind, restful, peaceful place to exist in while enjoying this book.
So there you have it- a wonderful romance, a great series, please read this immediately. I immediately reread the first two books upon finishing this one and all of them hold up and are just so good.
Highly highly recommend.
Happy reading,
Amélie xx
