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A review by bella1109
Portrait of a Lady by Victoria Vale
4.0
Quite an original premise. I've only read about female courtesans and never about male courtesans.
The hero, Hugh, took up this line of work so he would be able to pursue his dreams of becoming a renowned portraitist. He was adamant that once his painting was displayed at the exhibition (so that he will become famous and received a regular commission), he would stop being a male courtesan. He would also like to settle down and have a family of his own. I'd guess this desire stemmed from the fact that he was banished from his family as his father who happened to be an Earl, did not like the fact that he wanted to become a portraitist. Along came Evelyn, a spinster of 25 years old, who would like to experience passion before she died. She was extremely shy and a wallflower to boot (I love a wallflower heroine!). Little that they know that this business arrangement would turn into so much more.
Well, Ms. Vale is a new-to-me author. I was a bit apprehensive about approaching her works as erotica isn't really my thing, but surprisingly, this book was pretty low on steam (is this even an erotica?). I would consider the steam level as 3 out of 5.
The story had a good flow. I quite like Ms. Vale's writing style. The main characters were likable as well. You could definitely empathize with them. Ms. Vale also featured some other side characters that would be the main character in the next books of the series. This book was quite low on angst considering that male courtesans was the subject matter (angst would be high in my experience from the other books featuring female courtesan, the road to HEA would be filled with obstacles!). The obstacle in this book was about how Hugo and Evelyn perceived themselves (she thought that he was only in it for the money and he was having trouble convincing her otherwise as she overheard him saying otherwise to his friends).
I am definitely interested to read the rest of the series.
The hero, Hugh, took up this line of work so he would be able to pursue his dreams of becoming a renowned portraitist. He was adamant that once his painting was displayed at the exhibition (so that he will become famous and received a regular commission), he would stop being a male courtesan. He would also like to settle down and have a family of his own. I'd guess this desire stemmed from the fact that he was banished from his family as his father who happened to be an Earl, did not like the fact that he wanted to become a portraitist. Along came Evelyn, a spinster of 25 years old, who would like to experience passion before she died. She was extremely shy and a wallflower to boot (I love a wallflower heroine!). Little that they know that this business arrangement would turn into so much more.
Well, Ms. Vale is a new-to-me author. I was a bit apprehensive about approaching her works as erotica isn't really my thing, but surprisingly, this book was pretty low on steam (is this even an erotica?). I would consider the steam level as 3 out of 5.
The story had a good flow. I quite like Ms. Vale's writing style. The main characters were likable as well. You could definitely empathize with them. Ms. Vale also featured some other side characters that would be the main character in the next books of the series. This book was quite low on angst considering that male courtesans was the subject matter (angst would be high in my experience from the other books featuring female courtesan, the road to HEA would be filled with obstacles!). The obstacle in this book was about how Hugo and Evelyn perceived themselves (she thought that he was only in it for the money and he was having trouble convincing her otherwise as she overheard him saying otherwise to his friends).
I am definitely interested to read the rest of the series.