Portrait of a Scotsman was my first foray into Evie Dunmore's writing, and I must say the bar was set high for me. Her first two novels in the A League of Extraordinary Women series had received high praise, I've been a historical romance fan or decades, I adore strong female characters, and I have a particular weakness for Scottish leading men. How could I not love it wholly and completely?

Hattie and Lucian are such well-written, developed, swoon-worthy characters, and the chemistry between them was palpable. The only thing I struggled with was the amount of time spent and focus on aiding the tenants and the miner families. And it seems silly to write that out. I am all for advocating and fighting for what's right. But every time it was brought up, my enjoyment dipped because I just started focusing on... reality, to be honest. I was not able to immerse myself fully in this novel as a romance because every other chapter reminded me how far we've had to come and how far we have left to go, and off I would go, overthinking.

Not everyone will have the same reaction to this as me - I didn't expect to have this reaction. I still plan on reading the first two novels. Now that I've been grounded in Dunmore's storytelling (which was objectively fantastic, my own overthinking notwithstanding), I know I'll love them even more.

If you have a love of historical romances and strong, feminist women fighting for others, this is the perfect novel for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the free advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another worthy installment in this delightful feminist historical romance series! I really enjoy the chance to learn more about the suffrage movement in Victorian England, and this book provided some thought-provoking context about the challenges faced by working-class women during that time.

And, like its predecessors, this book contains a lovely swoon-worthy romance. I liked both main characters quite a lot- they both had a lot to work through, in addition to tackling the difficulties of a marriage of convenience. Throw in a hero with a Scottish accent and I'm sold!

Posted on Goodreads 11/21/21.

I was so excited to read this one I dived into my ARC months before it was due to be published. It was…good. Not my favorite of the series, but fine. I figured I’d give myself a little time before sitting down to write the review because I was on a reading binge, but for one reason or another, I kept putting it off, until one day I finally decided to put figurative pen to paper and…I got nothing. I remember some basic plot points—the coal miners, the photography, the working class union commentary, the really annoying way the ending turned out—but Lucian and Hattie, as characters, apparently did nothing noteworthy enough to stick to my psyche.

As a historical snapshot, the book worked. Dunmore’s research and passion for the time period feels very uniquely thorough for “only” a romance novel, and I really appreciate those details that lead to the authenticity of the story and the setting. The romance itself, though, while decent enough that I tore through the book in its entirety in a day, upon reflection left me with just a vague sense of “eh”. Hattie was sheltered and a bit spoiled, Lucian was obsessed with revenge. I didn’t enjoy the complete turn-about of the last few chapters when we jumped forward in time and had such a strange reconciliation. I would rather some of the union and mining talk have been shelved to put more focus on the heart within the story.

I am regretful now I didn’t just spew out some thoughts for myself after reading so I could write a more thorough review, but considering there are books I read years ago that I can still recall with perfect alacrity, then, well…perhaps that says all it needs to.

I'll still be reading the next one because Dunmore's writing itself really hits me, and sometimes not every book can be a winner.

This is the third book in the League of Extraordinary Women series, and it was the longest. I’m not sure if it was literally the longest or it just felt long. I feel like it could have wrapped up a couple of times, but instead, it kept going. I liked this series because of the history lessons intertwined with the romance, but this one felt a little too lecture-y. I did enjoy it, but this was my least favorite of the three books.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Berkley for my ARC!

As an avid historical romance reader I really love what Evie Dunmore has done and enjoy her work as well. She has opened more people up to this genre and that is really special. This connection was more enjoyable to read about than the previous book in this series if anyone else struggled with that one as well. I really look forward to this book being in the hands of readers and seeing what Dunmore does next.

What a wonderful book! It swept me up and had me in tears! If you need to escape from the world for a bit and be somewhere else, then this is the book for you. I loved the two main characters and they are.. just LOVELY. I wish I could read this book again for the first time.

This series is just so fun. I continue to be blown away by this author's ability to keep churning out stories that are somehow steamy, historical, and witty. How does she keep doing it?

Each time it just gets better. I laugh harder, I swoon more, and I read quicker. I was able to get the audio for this one, too, and just adore it so much!

Absolutely think this is the best of the series so far! They just keep getting better! Funny, witty, clever, and steamy! Whoaaa!

This was probably one of my most anticipated novels of the year, having inhaled the first two installments of Evie Dunmore's excellent League of Extraordinary Women series in 2020. Hattie and Lucien’s relationship takes a traditional enemies to lovers arc, but the added tension of their difference in rank and life experiences enriches the story line. The details about life in the mines was especially interesting, along with Hattie’s use of photography and art as an activism tool. As the daughter of an art activist I appreciated this detail, along with conversations around class and the role that privilege has played in Hattie's life. This series continues to be one of my favorite (and very re-readable!) historical romances. Dunmore has an exceptional high for historical detail and a gift for making those details come to life organically in her characters and plot.

I LOVE this series and this book! I am at the point where Evie Dunmore has officially hit auto-buy status in my library.

Hattie and Lucien are great characters. The blend of a suffragist woman alongside a brooding Scotsman is hard to mess up and I have to say, Dunmore did a fantastic job of blending in the norms of the day alongside some wonderful characters who aren't necessarily afraid to challenge them.

If you haven't picked up this series yet, you definitely should as these have easily become some of my favorite books that I can keep coming back to and this book adds to the series in a positive way!

The beginning was fine, but it didn’t grip me the way I was hoping it would, time just got away from me.

Evie Dunmore gives us another Extraordinary Woman in Portrait of a Scotsman. Hattie Greenfield is trapped into marriage by a rich businessman who came from nothing. This is the story of how they discovered the worth of each other. Hattie is an artist and scholar who discovers a passion for photography; her husband is saving a Scottish mine and its workers. Read and enjoy this romance.

Another great book in the A League of Extraordinary Women series. Hattie and Lucian had tons of chemistry and their relationship sizzled off the page.

I really wanted to like this book - everything in the description appealed to me, but I just could not get into it. I was easily distracted while reading and ended up abandoning it.

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Daniele

Author Evie Dunmore continues her Victorian-era romances featuring disparate friends who are Oxford students and suffragists in this Beauty and the Beast-esque third installment. Portrait of a Scotsman features heiress Hattie and dubious business rival Lucian as their relationship blossoms from trick to true love…maybe.

I am not the biggest romance reader, but I really enjoy this Victorian series (they can be read as standalones). Each features great character development. The heroines are all unique and independent thinkers ahead of their time making them appealing to twenty-first century readers. I admit that Hattie has not been my favorite character in the prior two books. I found her flighty and without much substance. However, here readers really get to know her, her dreams, and her insecurities. I appreciate that she has dyslexia and that Dunmore highlights her strengths, especially her artist’s eye and ability to think outside the box. Granted, she is still a spoiled pretty face, but she does mature as the story moves along, particularly after the newlyweds arrive in Scotland.

Lucian is definitely rough around the edges, both physically and in manners, and driven by revenge and ruination. He is obviously intelligent and a rebel; he just does not fit in anywhere. His bastard birth and “new money” separate him from both the unaccepting aristocratic society and his roots. He initially seems ruthless, but as readers get to know him, his motivations are revealed to be not so dastardly. Plus, he is so appealing if you are into “bad guys”.

There are many intimate scenes within these pages (they are on their honeymoon after all), and they are spicy and somewhat graphic…so proceed with caution if you prefer chaste, sweet “behind closed doors” romances. Dunmore writes these scenes with a deft hand, and they are sexy and emotionally charged without reverting to raunch.

So, if I enjoyed Portrait of a Scotsman, why do I give it only three stars (which in my rating system is not a bad rating and means I liked it)? The book is a little bumpy as it gets going, but then it is splendid…until the last three chapters or so. Why did Dunmore choose to wait until the end of the book to introduce such a pivotal plot point? Who knows, but it made for an abrupt ending that felt rushed and unfinished. This aside Hattie and Lucian’s romance is fun and quite gratifying. Recommended for any fan of historical romances who like feisty characters and steamy, charged relations.

This is hands down one of my favorite series. I absolutely adored this book. Evie Dunmore will forever be an auto buy author for me.

4.5 stars

When I first read Evie Dunmore’s debut novel, Bringing Down the Duke, I absolutely fell in love. I hadn’t been consistently reading a ton of historical romances (meaning, I hadn’t read Julia Quinn yet!) and all I could think of was ‘finally—-a romance novel I can get behind!’ I felt like I was reading something deliciously modern yet set in the Victorian era with all the things I love about historical fiction—strong women with untold stories.

I read the second book in this series and while I didn’t love it as much as I loved the first book, I was eager to continue with the series. I was especially excited to read this one because it promised a Scotsman (hence the title!) and featured one of the most random women in the series, Hattie. In the books before Hattie always seemed so silly and just simply random like she just didn’t belong in the series with the other women.

This was one of the few romance novels that I also downloaded as an audiobook. I rarely download romance novels on my Audible simply because I know that I will burn through them so quick and I don’t want to waste an Audible credit, however I had 6 credits saved up and I was desperate to read this one at every turn so I secured a copy on Audible as well.

Summary
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?

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 (summary from Goodreads)

Review
This one was certainly a challenge for me in many ways but when I say challenge, I don’t mean it in a bad way. Let me give you a small example, the narrator of the audiobook at first sounded like a little old grandma and then she started using the F word and I was like oh god can I really continue with the audiobook? But then when she read the Lucian parts with the Scottish burr I was like well ok I can get past it and honestly I ended up loving the audio version. That was basically how this book went for me over all. Another example would be the mining parts—-interesting but also excessive. Did I want to know more about the mining? Yes but I really wanted more romance—I felt like my body was at war with wanting more and yet having too much of things.

Wuthering Heights is my favorite classic and arguably one of my favorite books. I love Heathcliff and Cathy yet hate them at the same time. I love the brooding, complex hero and the passionate complicated and messy love they have for one another. That clearly came across in this book which is why I loved Lucian because he was a more updated version of Heathcliff. I don’t know that Hattie came across as an updated Cathy and she ended up being tolerable at best for me. Hattie was soiled and snobby and grated on my nerves at times in the novel, but then there were times when I found her probably the most accurately represented female in the series thus far for the time period. Hattie was more high born and wealthy trapped in a marriage with a man she despised yet was drawn to. She had complex feelings toward him and I thought that showed how love isn’t always easy or pretty but can sometimes be messy and challenging. She represented love in a way that wasn’t traditional and I admired her for that. The end though was a struggle for me and I had a hard time rationalizing her choice while it made sense in of itself, having it come at that late in the story didn’t seem to serve much of a purpose for me.

So what made me finish this book in a few hours and love it? Lucian. Good god, how I love a brooding, complex, dark hero. He was mysterious, complicated, troubled, and broken. Not necessarily the ‘bad boy’ but clearly he wasn’t the knight in shining armor that is so traditional in many historical romances. Lucian was just the kind of hero I needed to read right now. I have been reading so many historical romances lately and there are so many heroes who while charming and attractive, they didn’t have the dark brooding quality that Lucian did and for me it was magnetic and refreshing. For me he was one of the realist heroes, his motives weren’t always pretty nor were his choices always for the greater good but he had a heart of gold that was bruised and tender. I simply adored him and would have given this book 5 stars simply based on Lucian.

The only thing that I struggled a bit with this one was some of the social issues. This book had a ton of social issues laced throughout—-from women’s rights to labor issues and some social hierarchy thrown in. There were times when I felt that it bogged the story down more than necessary. A lot of the mining info was interesting but it also came at times when I was ready to get back to the romance. Overall though this was another wonderful installment to a shining series in the historical romance category! You can definitely read this series out of order so if you love Wuthering Heights like me, then start here with this one!

Book Info and Rating
Format448 pages, Paperback

Published September 7, 2021 by Jove

ISBN9781984805720 (ISBN10: 198480572X)

Free review copy provided by publisher, Berkley, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Genre: historical romance

It was spicy but unfortunately everything else fell a little flat for me. I loved Annabelle and Lucie but Hattie kind of irritated me. She’s really judgmental and was trying to force Lucian to change constantly. I liked the representation we got through her learning disability.

The first half was interesting and the tension between the two lovers was so good! But towards the end, I felt like Lucian lost his sparkle and Hattie got a little irritating. I didn’t mind the decision she makes in the end but I felt the execution leading up to it was full of so much whining and zero communication.

I wish it covered the suffragettes more too. I like how Dunmore was highlighting women’s rights for all women but this felt more of a worker’s rights than suffrage. Both important and I think the author was trying to bring intersectionality to the suffrage movement but it didn’t feel like there was enough connection. Overall, it was a decent historical romance with some excellent sex scenes but it didn’t pull me in as much as the other two books in the series.

Portrait of a Scotsman is the third book in Evie Dunmore’s A League of Extraordinary Women, and it follows the story of banking heiress and suffragist Hattie Greenfield, who studies art at Oxford with Annabelle and Lucie. The story opens with Hattie escaping her protection officer to receive a private tour of the art gallery owned by society’s notorious and ruthless financier Lucien Blackstone. Instead of said tour, she finds herself in a compromising situation (it was only a kiss!) with Lucien himself, and soon after finds herself marrying the man. But just when it seems that these complete opposites will be unable to find any common ground, a sudden journey to Scotland reveals that they have more in common than they could have ever imagined, including the possibility of learning to love each other well.

My favorite aspect of Evie’s books is that they are set against the backdrop of the British suffragette movement, but I also loved that this one was set against the backdrop of Drummuir, a coal mining community in northern Scotland. Against this backdrop, Evie had Hattie contemplating her privileged position within the women’s movement, especially when it came to her class in British Society. It was such a joy seeing Hattie become friends with and fight for the working women of Scotland. Lucien’s backstory was so heartbreaking, but also so powerful, since it’s the reason why he’s passionate about bringing change to the working class. But I especially loved reading Hattie and Lucien’s enemies-to-lovers romance. From their verbal sparring to their sexual tension to their support for each other’s passions! The romance was everything, but then again, I will happily read anything that Evie writes.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Romance for this gifted eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I started this, and just couldn't get into it. I waited for a while and went back to try again. Same thing. And I really wanted to like it. Co worker did the same thing. Customers have liked it ok, but haven't come in asking for more of her books yet so not sure we will order more in.