Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore
London banking heiress Hattie Greenfield wanted just three things in life:
Acclaim as an artist
A noble cause
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 and 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 could be the key to finally setting long-harbored political plans in motion. Driven by an old desire for 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 realized she could win everything - as long as she is prepared to lose her heart.
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This long awaited book far exceeded all of my expectations. The most exciting part that I was not expecting is that it’s very loosely based off of the Hades/Persephone abduction mythology. Which, if you’ve followed my reading at all in the past years is MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE MYTH. So….. this book was exactly what I needed. There’s just something about that dark, mysterious, slightly questionable male lead that makes for all the best stories and Lucian was the perfect male lead for this book. Hattie and Lucian’s personalities were the perfect opposites and they brought out the best in each other, it was so heartwarming to see. The character development was fantastic, Hattie comes to some harsh realizations about the world outside her ritzy bubble and Lucian finds ways to be vulnerable in a world that was never nice to him. This is also the first book in the series that starts to introduce intersectional feminism. Thus far, our girls have been fighting for the women’s vote, in this book they finally realize that there’s so much more to fight for and so many more inequalities in the world that need to be fought, from social classes to race. I loved that this was finally brought forward as it’s a hot topic when talking about the suffragette movement and an important part of feminism today. I already can’t wait to reread this book, it was such a treat.
The character development in the book DELIVERED. Hattie is typically the more bubbly, upbeat friend. The friend that came from wealth and luxuriates in wealth and her biggest worries have been the hideous dresses her mother makes her wear. Sure she’s fighting for “the cause” but not until this book has it truly hit her the absolute realities lots of women face. Hattie has never had to fight for anything. She’s rich, she’s treated well by her family and fighting for women’s rights has been a fun pastime so far. And we get a lot of that from her characterization in previous books. I always wondered just how Dunmore was going to pull this off by having the least interesting character, the most vain character, have a love story as amazing as the first two? But Hattie falls into a forced marriage and finally gets a front row seat to how unjust it is to now be living many other womens’ reality: that she is now her husbands property. It doesn’t matter that she’s a well-bred, rich, white woman, she is still now an owned woman with no rights to her own. Finally, we get a Hattie with her eyes wide open and she goes above and beyond expectations by not just finally realizing the importance of the suffragette cause, but bringing to light to her other suffragette friends the bigger fight that needs attention. It’s not just women’s votes and rights that matter, they need to be fighting for the equality of all. She’s quickly become one of my favourite historical characters.
Lucian was the opposite side of the coin. A boy who came from nothing, now a wealthy self-made man who ruins the rich fools who mistreat the lower classes. He has nothing but contempt for the kind of world that Hattie comes from and at first just sees her as a boon to his business and a boost to his political standing. Not once taking time for the thought that in claiming her as a wife, he’s inadvertently taken away the little freedom she did have. Realizing there is more to his new wife than meets the eye, he slowly begins to change his cause. It’s no longer his goal to just “take down the rich”, his fight against inequality has now expanded and centered itself on more noble causes. His character growth was sweet but the main growth for him was with his relationship with Hattie. That’s where the true beauty of his story lies. Hattie has a cause, Lucian has none, it’s only in his relationship with her that he’s able to change and grow and become the husband that she needs.
This book also touched on more real topics than the other two thus far. Yes there were drama’s and obstacles in Duke and quite a bit more dark themes in Rogue (the first in the series that touched on sexual assault). But Scotsman does something different and delves into the realities of the working class, how the rich take advantage of the poor, profiting off their work and providing little to no recompense or safety. There was also real moments of true danger to our characters, so it was thrilling to read.
All in all, I loved this book. It was just as enchanting as the first two in the series. I think right now it’s in second place (Rogue will always have top spot as I read it during a very happy time in my life but Scotsman definitely gave it a run for its money). I already want to pick this book up again, and of course, have already revisited my favourite tabbed passages. 5 stars, go pick up this series now!