Feminist forward, eat the rich mentality, and sheer joy in the shameless pursuit of pleasure romance.

This series breaks all conventions, and it’s some of the freshest historical romance I’ve read in years. We have a biracial heroine and artist, Cornelia Ludgate. Our hero is the recently inherited Duke of Rosemere and horse breeder Rafe Goodwin. Both have an intertwined past and an even more involved future if they choose to fight against their previous issues to take hold of a chance at happiness by doing what they love best.

As far as tropes, this is all age gap, polyamory, unrequited love/second chance romance, and a marriage of convenience. Yes, pearl clutchers beware, both Cornelia and Rafe enjoy an open relationship with multiple partners, some of which are featured in the story. This added some elements to the story that made it steamy and showcased a trend not written as much in traditionally published historical romances without an erotica tag.

A lot of the tale between these two is provided via flashbacks, which is difficult not to include in a second-chance romance. What keeps this from a five for me is that very thing. I wanted more of the present-day story versus the flashbacks. I felt the book plot didn’t have as much substance or ability for Cornelia and Rafe to work through their issues. Also, some of the present-day problems were left off page, and I feel like that could have replaced the flashbacks.

What I enjoyed about the story included the setting, the world of historical romance from the lens of those fighting against the patriarchy. These women are trailblazers with risky, difficult lives. It’s refreshing to see them wage war against archaic practices and belief systems while falling in love at the same time. Not to mention this book was like a bridging gap to help move another overarching piece of the story forward. I’m interested to see where all these lead, and can only hope that other readers agree they want more.

Overall, the book could stand alone, but it’s better enjoyed by those who’ve read the first in the series, The Rakess. This is for readers who enjoy historical romance with a more political, feminist undertone, and it’s not anyone seeking a light and fluffy read.

~ Landra

I adore this author's writing and have read everything she has put out. I'm. Huge fan. This book, which I've been waiting fir from the minute I finished The Rakess when it was released, was a bit of a disappointment. The subtlety and depth to the characters and relationships was missing, and the message was a bit too on the nose and felt didactic.

This was a book with an interesting premise, but overall this one missed the mark for me. I did not enjoy the flashbacks and found it hard to decipher when I was in the present from the past. I also found the romance a bit lacking as well. I just wasn't invested and this made the book drag.

Cornelia is an artist and an activist who is surrounded by a strong group of friends who support her. Rafe is a horse breeder turned duke, who is preparing to tip aristocracy on its head by bucking all traditions. Cornelia is anti-marriage, so when it comes out that she is, in fact, already married to Rafe, her friends are shocked. Now the duke and duchess decide to join forces to help their activist cause.

Unfortunately, this book had a lot of things that I typically don’t enjoy reading in romance: second chance romance trope and time hopping between past and present. I think this definitely influenced my enjoyment of the book. When it comes to the characters, Rafe is portrayed as a man who is passionate, falling in love quickly, and in turn scaring his love interests away. This made me feel as though he could be that creepy guy who comes on way too fast and it made me cringe at times. Cornelia is great, but I did want to shake her repeatedly. Likely because she reminds me of how I would potentially be in a relationship after being single and independent for over nine years!

With all of that being said, I greatly admire Peckham for being willing to take risks with her writing. This book contains a lot of elements that aren’t often found in mainstream romance and I am a fan of anyone who is willing to push the envelope!

I received a copy from the publisher, but all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. The Portrait of a Duchess is the follow-up to The Rakess which was published back in early 2020 which as we all know is a lifetime ago these days. The Rakess felt very original and I enjoyed. This title, I liked, but didn't feel quite as original as that one. I will say that this is definitely not for everyone, especially people who don't like heroines that feel more modern even though we know that these women did exist even if they were the exception. This title is told in flashbacks to many years ago when Cornelia and Rafe were secretly married. Fast forward to present day, and Cornelia decides to reveal the marriage to get her inheritance from her uncle that requires her to be married. She is also going to take advantage of the situation to exhibiting her subversive portraits that are intended to help fund the home she and her friends are opening to give women a refuge. She is disappointed in Rafe and his apparent conservative politics, but as she finds, appearances can be deceiving. I do appreciate the approach to the standard happily ever after in both this book and the Rakess as it feels very true to these characters.

As a self-appointed champion of <i>The Rakess</i> and a fan of Scarlett Peckham's work in general, it pains me to start this review with the "tl;dr" part: This book is mediocre at best compared to everything else Peckham has ever written.

I am giving some grace to the fact that <i>Portrait of a Duchess</i> is Peckham's pandemic book. That's what I call books that were written during and after the height of COVID lockdown, and it has plagued many of my favorite authors. It was a hard time to be a person, and it shows in the books. Here, we have all the hallmarks of this writer: bold and intelligent women, adoring men, progressive politics, and some things that I'm surprised a mainstream histrom publisher was willing to put to print in a mass market. It's so frustrating that this book lacked the thing I usually most appreciate about Peckham: depth of emotion. It took a long time (in romance publishing years) for this book to be written and released, something the author herself has acknowledged. I could just sense while reading it that she may have been feeling unfocused and uninspired. That's certainly the way I felt while reading it.

Here's the super quick synopsis: Cornelia and the Sirens are plotting how to get more money for their Big Project. Rafe shows up, a newly minted accidental Duke of the estate Cornelia is related to and grew up at. We find out that he and Cornelia got married 20 years ago and haven't seen/spoken to each other since. They cook up a plan to shock the aristocracy and raise the funds for the aforementioned Big Project, which involves pretending to be completely in love and revealing a bunch of stuff at a massive party to all the lords, ladies, and radicals they've invited. They plan to dismantle the existing structure of the estate and put the power back in the workers' hands. There's a no-feelings sex pact, which of course fails utterly, and then they have to decide if they're going to stay married or get a divorce so Cornelia can have her freedom. There's also a house party because they've invited all their friends to hang out at the house while they plan this big event.

Yeah, that's what I remember of what happened in this book.

The unfocused feeling is heightened by the dual timeline structure deployed here, to limited effect. I'm not sure I ever got a good sense of who any of the characters are, other than that Cornelia is commitment-phobic and Rafe is very much not. The flashback scenes are exclusively from Rafe's POV, so all we know about Cornelia's experience of that time is what she remembers 20 years later and Rafe's frankly rosy-colored views. Dropping those chapters in between the main timeline ends up confusing who these characters are at their core. Cornelia comes off as two-dimensional because we don't really get to see much of how her experiences have affected her. Which is a major shame, because we're talking about a Black woman in the Georgian era doing her best to upset the power dynamics of the ton and empower the marginalized. What I know about Cornelia is this: she loves sex, she's a great painter, she's a radical, and she has convinced herself that being in love means losing your freedom. Then we have Rafe, who felt like two different characters between the different timelines. "Present day" Rafe is confident, suave, crafty, with a clear vision of who he is and how he can affect the world around him. Flashback Rafe is at least still grounded in his self-image, but because of his waffling about Cornelia's age and their physical chemistry he comes across as cautious, conflicted, and ultimately naive.

Did I mention the age thing? When Cornelia and Rafe initially get together, she is 18 and Rafe is 36. The age difference is a little squick, but honestly I would have been interested to see more of that internal struggle in contrast to what was going on for Cornelia...which we never actually have the opportunity to experience. He spends a lot of time fighting with himself over his attraction to a barely legal girl, until suddenly he decides that her forwardness and confidence means it's okay to pursue that attraction, but we're only ever going off of what Rafe perceives of Cornelia's personality and actions.

Their romance didn't feel fleshed out to me, either. We go from a very intriguing "I haven't seen you in 20 years and what I've heard about you makes me not trust you at all" to a "oh that totally makes sense, I like you and trust you now" to a "we'll bang but without feelings even though there are very much feelings already" to "I was ready to confess my love but then you did something actually kind of innocuous that I blew way out of proportion but there has to be a low moment I guess" to "grand gesture everything's fine now!" Are you dizzy? Cuz I still am, a little. Not to mention right when there seemed to be some build of that emotional connection in the first sex scene, it turns into a menage. Which, awesome! I love that Avon is willing to publish polyamorous rep! (More please, Avon!) But it felt random, if extremely hot, and pulled me out of any emotional investment I may have had in the scene. Peckham always writes super sexy stuff, but the intimate scenes *feel* intimate and have always done something that makes sense for the characters and the plot. Until now.

Peckham is a supremely competent writer--she found a way to work in "perspicacious" unironically--and for readers who are looking for an easy-reading histrom with absolutely-not-vanilla bedroom hijinks and progressive politics, this could be just the ticket. For me, though, all of those things stayed surface-level. Aside from the fact that I am a big-feelings reader, I know that this author is capable of so much more than I got from this book. I hope the next one returns to the heights of her previous work.

I really appreciated a lot of what this book was going for, but unfortunately almost none of it landed for me.

To give some background, I've read all of Peckham's other work, and enjoyed everything of hers I've read, even those where the execution doesn't quite match the ambition. Some of the things I appreciate the most about her writing are the polish of the prose, the intense, larger-than-life nature of her characters, and her willingness to try, and commit to, things that are just a bit outside of what "mainstream" histrom is marketing to readers. And oddly enough, most of those things are present in this book. But I would have to say that for me, personally, this was the one I enjoyed the least of the books of Peckham's I've read. Which, broadly, came down to how it struggled to handle its dual timeline, its lack of external plot factors, and the vagueness of its politics. 

Like with its predecessor <i>The Rakess</i>, <i>The Portrait of a Duchess</i> features one of the "Society of Sirens": a group of four women with scandalous reputations who militate for women's rights in society. In this case our Siren is Cornelia, a painter looking to raise money for a women's institute she's trying to open with her friends. She has a series of scandalous paintings that she knows will sell, but she needs a place to exhibit them. Enter Rafe Goodwood (yes, his last name is Goodwood), a former stable-master who is now the newly minted Duke of Rosemere after a series of 8 improbable deceasements. He is also, we learn rather quickly, Cornelia's husband, thanks to a marriage of convenience 20 years earlier. Cornelia and Rafe have been estranged: in part because of Something Bad Rafe Did, which we don't learn about until the end of the book, in part because Rafe has since become a Tory, which doesn't fit with Cornelia's radical politics. But if she publicly acknowledges being married to a Duke, she can get the money she needs for her institute. 

Anyway, through the conceit of the art exhibit and the impetus to reveal their marriage for money reasons, Cornelia and Rafe come back together. It quickly turns out that Rafe isn't actually a Tory - he's just been playing one in public in order to spy on them and... ruin their... big bad Tory schemes (as I'll get to later, the vaugeness of the politics is a problem). Now that Cornelia's back in his life, Rafe realizes he never really stopped loving her. But Cornelia is an independent women, who doesn't want to be tied down (she's very clear that she's going to take the duchess money and then be off) and Rafe has a troubling tendency to go from zero to "showing up to your apartments with a Georgian U-Haul ready to move in" in approximately no time at all. Most of the conflict stems from whether Cornelia's guarded independence and Rafe's open-hearted eagerness can result in a relationship both of them will be happy with. 

So, I'll start with the good. There were things about both Rafe and Cornelia as characters that I really appreciated. Rafe, especially, feels refreshing in his emotional openness, how ready and eager he is to fall in love without reserve. And Cornelia's guardedness makes an intriguing foil for that element in his character. I appreciate that Rafe's bisexuality wasn't just treated as a ... symptom of his capacious appetite for love: I felt the book avoided that stereotype pretty well. And most of all, I LOVED Peckham's boldness for exploring polyamory as a relationship shape that could suit both Rafe and Cornelia, and how they want to love, and how they want to experience the world. I cannot overstate how great it is to see an author pushing that kind of boundary in a tradpub histrom with Avon. 

And, as with <i>The Rakess</i>, I did appreciate that the book tried to engage with, for lack of a better term... the political ethics of scandalousness? A lot of times in mf histrom, I feel like heroines are presented as being "scandalous" in order to give them a plot-necessary level of sexual freedom, and then the narratives kind of just *brushes hands* stop there and assume that Feminism Has Been Done. And - snarky wording aside - I *do* believe that depicting women enjoying sex and having sexual agency is a radical thing. It's something that romance does particularly well, and that's very important! But personally, I like to see a book's ethics of feminism go a bit further to explore things like... financial constraints and women's rights within marriage, not to mention issues of race and empire and aristocracy and the like. And so I appreciated that this book had those things in its sightline : the Society of Sirens is made up of women who are "scandalous" because they like sex but also because they are writing things about sexual liberation and forming institutes to help other women and (perhaps most importantly) looking for the funding to do it. While I don't feel qualified, as a white reader, to comment on the portrayal of Cornelia's experience of racism as a Black woman, and how it affected into her experience of scandalousness, I did at least appreciate that the book acknowledged that there were intersectional factors at play there.

That being said... while this book *states* that politics are really central to its plot, I found it frustratingly vague as to the nature of the actual politics of the era. I don't need to be reading a political treatise or anything every time I open a romance novel. But in this case - to give one example - we're supposed to believe that Rafe appearing to have become a Tory is a major reason for his estrangement from Cornelia. But the book doesn't seem interested in explaining what that means? Like, I know broadly what a Tory is. But what are the policies that Rafe appears to be supporting at that time? How, precisely, are they antithetical to Cornelia's beliefs and existence as a progressive Black woman? I'm sure they are, but the book's unwillingness to enter into detail meant that it always felt a bit... unformed to me, and thus difficult to buy into the emotional arc of estrangement for political reasons. Like, it's supposed to be this big deal at one point that Rafe has been secretly writing newspapers as the radical "King Crow." But the reader doesn't learn anything about the content or influence of those articles? I would have loved to have known the topics of just a few of his articles, and what they meant for Cornelia and the causes she cared about. For a book that is hinging its *only* external plot elements on politics, the politics were way too vague. 

Which ended up leaving readers with very little external plot, making the book feel like it was dragging, to me. I don't mind a "one of these characters is commitment-phobic" as a conflict but... it's really hard to extend that over the course of an entire book. In trying to do so, we ended up with a lot of scenes where it was hard to understand why Rafe or Cornelia was suddenly pulling away, or reacting really badly to something the other one did - there were never any external motivators, and we weren't deep enough into their emotions for those to be acting as catalyst. So the plot just ended up feeling... low-stakes and meandering. 

Part of how the book tries to infuse structure on these meanderings is with a dual-timeline conceit, where we move back and forth between the present, and Rafe and Cornelia's marriage in the past. And unfortunately, that really didn't work for me either. I could see what the author was going for, in having so many of the "flashback" scenes be explicit parallels with what was happening in the present. It made for remarkably smooth transitions, for example, to have Rafe and Cornelia be playing a parlor game in the present and recall playing one in the past, or to have Rafe betray Cornelia in a certain way and have it recall the time he did something similar 20 years ago. But I think the problem was... just too much similarity? People change a LOT in 20 years, and the difference in who Rafe and Cornelia were at 34 and 18, and who they were in their 50s and 30s, should have been stark. Instead, they felt very, very similar between the past and the present - and in particular, their emotional struggles as nearly-middle-aged adults felt *extra* stakes-less and naive given how similar they read to the struggles they were having as much younger people. 

So, on the whole... I'm sad to report that this didn't work for me. Whenever I read Peckham's work, there's always an extent to which I'm being propulsed forward with how much I appreciate her boldness, and dragged down a bit with problems in plot and character execution. In my favorite books, there's a lot of boldness-propulsion and just a little bit of plot-drag. Here, unfortunately, the ratios were reversed, and I just didn't find myself as engaged with this one as I hoped.

Thank you to @netgalley for this ARC copy of one of my favorite author’s new books! The Duke I Ruined is a top 10 book for me, so I was super excited to check this out!

There are a lot of things to like: A feminist protagonist with feminist friends ✅, a second chance romance ✅, older characters ✅, a bi guy ✅, a really fucking hot threesome (it was a lot gay in the three way!) ✅.

The premise itself is pretty delicious: a marriage of convenience turns into a second chance romance 20 years later, after our very leftist Cornelia finds out that Rafe, who she believed was a Tory, is not in fact her political enemy. Rafe, a commoner, shockingly became a Duke and even more shockingly, Cornelia, an avowed marriage hater, artist, and subversive, is now by law his duchess.

Cornelia has a dismal view of romantic love, whereas Rafe loves and feels his love overflows his coffers for one person. Rafe has not gotten married bc he fears he cannot commit to just one person — and listen, I know this is the setup for a historical polycule, it read a smidge too close to biphobia for me. Bisexual people can be monogamous and attracted to genders same and different than their own, of course. Bisexuals can get married. Bisexuals can commit to marriage. This was frustrating for me to read.

Cornelia’s deep need for independence and sexual adventures is understandable - marriage really did mean a loss of personhood - but she really does push Rafe away as hard as she possibly can for the majority of the book and at some point it got ridiculous. After a threesome, if she couldn’t figure out Rafe might want the same things she does, maybe she doesn’t deserve him? The main source of dissonance seems to be that Rafe likes PDA and Cornelia doesn’t, but again, isn’t this something that communication can fix?

Like in the Rakess, with Seraphina, I felt that this adherence to “feminism rules” made for a difficult character in Cornelia too. The next book in the series features Thaïs she might be one of the most annoying characters in the world.

I have mixed feelings, but Cornelia’s orgasm ability at 38 makes me so jealous it hurts. If you liked the Rakess, you’ll like this one.

The Portrait of a Duchess is a wonderful historical romance that also addresses social issues. But never fear, Scarlet Peckham brings the heat too, creating a sizzling romance that was a pleasure to dive into.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Independent artist Cornelia needs money to help her band of radicals fund their plans to fight for women’s rights. But she’s stunned when Rafe reappears in her life, explaining that he’s inherited her late uncle’s dukedom, and she will inherit a sizable sum if she’s married. Rafe reminds her of their elopement to Gretna Green 20 years earlier, and says that he’ll back her up in order to get the money if she acts as his wife for a bit. But Cornelia has always been adamantly opposed to marriage, especially its limits on women’s independence. And what about all those pesky feelings for Rafe that reappear after all these years? That seem to be mutual?

This romance covers some heavy topics and the depressing reality of women’s rights and choices in the late 18th century. But that doesn’t make it less enjoyable. I loved the older main characters in their late 30s and early 50s, who stumble around after their HEA, and are just as sizzling as any younger counterparts. Age gap is not a trope I usually enjoy, and here it works better in the present than in the flashbacks to 20 years prior when Cornelia was 18 years old.

This story begins as a little bit of a slow burn, but be patient, Scarlett Peckham writes great steamy scenes. Aside from being super hot, they do forward the plot and character development in addition to heating up the pages. I also love the description of bisexual Rafe as someone who easily opens his heart to people, which not usually something lauded in a tough guy hero.

The Portrait of a Duchess is a steamy stand alone historical romance. Scarlett Peckham combines romance, angst and heat with social commentary that is sadly relatable. I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The premise had a lot of promise but the execution really didn’t work for me. I love a second chance romance and secret spouses. Had a really hard time getting into this book with pacing and all of the flashbacks. Don't mind age gaps but at the beginning with her being 18 and him 34 kind of eh (it's not questionable for time period but still).

Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥 (details below but may feel hotter to others)
Humor: A bit
Perspective: Third person perspective from both hero and heroine

Should I read in order?
It’s not totally necessary but the first book sets up the heroine’s circle of friends. There’s some minor page time with the characters from book 1.

Basic plot:
Cornelia and Rafe are brought together after 20 years when she finds out her inheritance will be given upon her marriage.

Give this a try if you want:
- Georgian time period (1797)
- second chance with flashbacks spread throughout the story (chapters labeled as ‘before’)
- medium steam – 2 full scenes including MMF (details below – there are 2 full scenes I combined together for a flame because they follow each other directly and there’s also some shorter scenes so this one may feel hotter to you)
- older mains – the heroine is near 40 and the hero is in his 50s
- age gap (older hero) – there is 16 years between them
- huge hero/tiny heroine – hero is described as ‘twice her size’ and it’s mentioned he’s 6’5”
- LGBT positive – Rafe has had various lovers though I’m not sure how he identifies (pansexual?) and the first bedroom scene is polyamorous
- mixed race Duchess – her mother is Bajan
- commoner turned Duke hero

Ages:
- Heroine is approaching 40 (38 or 39?) and hero is 16 years her elder so I’d guess around 54/55

My thoughts:
I struggled with this one a bit. I did read the first book in the series and honestly I thought that one was a lot stronger in character development and the plot. But I did like the relationship was a main focus in this one. I think part of my struggles could be second chance is one of my least favorite tropes, especially when the story is given in flashbacks throughout the book. So that’s just personal preference for me.

Cornelia and Rafe are both wonderful characters. I did like both of them. But I didn’t love either of them. As I learned their back story and history, I felt like I was reading the same story present day. It seemed like twenty years later, they still struggled with the same things. Cornelia struggled with being vulnerable and open. She seemed to judge Rafe harshly for his flaws. Rafe seemed to still be oblivious to what Cornelia needed even after he lost her the first time. Ultimately I was a touch disappointed in both mains and I wanted more from both of them.

That said though, something Peckham does so well to me is making the characters real. I struggled a bit with enjoying the characters in book 1 too and I think part of it was just the rawness of them – and I found that here too. And that is not a bad thing. Rafe is lovable and wears his heart on sleeve. He’s so caring. He jumps into love with both feet and feels strong feelings. I think he has a good heart. Cornelia is so strong and independent and I love how she thumbs her nose at society and expectations. I love how fierce she is in regards to fighting for what she wants and believes in. But I think Cornelia held on a bit too long to her frustration with Rafe and when she wanted to be with him, it felt like a 180 turn. And honestly I wasn’t convinced 100% they were going to stay together at the end. I felt like down the road they would still have similar problems and she would get frustrated and leave him again. I wasn’t feeling solid in their HEA. I think I could have used some more development on their work with society reform too. It felt like such a central part of book 1, but I didn’t feel like that here in this one. But at the same time I did love that their relationship was central focus here. They had a lot of sweet scenes and it pulled on my heart a bit.

The set-up here is great, especially since this book features older characters (particularly unusual in historical romance). She’s in her late 30s and he’s in his early 50s. While there was nothing glaringly wrong here, something just didn’t click for me. I didn’t fully buy the love between Rafe and Cornelia (I couldn’t help but think Rafe deserved better) and while she felt her age, he felt MUCH younger. The ladies in the Society of Sirens are interesting, but between this book and the first in the series, I think there are much better historical-girl-gang-themed series out there.

I started out a bit confused about the relationship between the two main characters. Significant exposition clears it up. I liked this book better than the first of the series, but I was skeptical. And the author is obsessed with the breasts of one of the friends. She could not mention her presence without describing the shape and size of her bosom. We get it. Thaïs is very sensual.
Overall I’d give this 3.5 out of 5 stars. It felt more predictable than I would have liked but still solid.

The Society of Sirens continues with artist Cornelia’s story. As the Sirens realize they are out of money, they are interrupted by Cornelia’s old friend, Rafe Goodwood, who is now a duke and is returning to allow Cornelia to take her rightful place as his duchess. Through flashbacks throughout the book, it is revealed the pair eloped 20 years prior in order to help Cornelia escape her uncle. Reunited in the present the pair decide to present Cornelia to society as the duchess and host her scandalous art show at the same masquerade ball. The pair are still deeply attracted to each other but neither is really fond of the idea of marriage.

I loved The Rakess and really enjoyed this one, though it was not a perfect book. I enjoyed both Cornelia and Rafe. I liked how each had such distinct voices that made their POVs fun to read. I really enjoy Scarlett’s dry humor that comes through wonderfully in the writing. I was delighted to find that the first intimate scene on page was a MMF encounter between Cornelia, Rafe, and Rafe’s lover Rory. I can’t think of another Avon historical with polyamory on page. I enjoyed seeing all the Sirens again, especially Seraphina and her partner Adam.

I had big issues with the age gap between Cornelia and Rafe. In the present she is 38 and he is 54, which doesn’t bother me one bit, the ick factor for me is that when they married she was an 18 year old overly sexualized Black woman and he was a 34 year old white man. This was a weird power dynamic that was never really addressed in the book, in fact the plot line about her race seemed to simply be dropped before the book was half over. It felt like the author was not comfortable writing a character of color and had written herself into a corner by introducing Cornelia as Black in the first book. I wouldn’t have had issues with the age gap had they married 10 years in the past rather than 20.

Overall I did really enjoy the book and I am excited to see where the rest of this series goes. It seems like with how this book ended that the next story will be about Thaïs. Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is, frankly, not my favorite Scarlett Peckham book but I did still enjoy it. I enjoyed the premise of a long-ago marriage of convenience that became relevant again, all while both people have been harboring real feelings. I appreciated the depiction of sexuality, which I will say without spoiling anything was unusual for a tradpub romance! The couple had great chemistry and you could feel their history, which unfortunately made the conflict fall flat for me. I am also a big fan of historical romances featuring artists. Whether there was justice done to the racial element in this romance I will leave for more qualified reviewers to discuss.

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 2 of the Society of Sirens series. Cornelia is the niece of a duke but has built her reputation as a scandalous painter. She and her friends are trying to raise funds to build an institute for women and she needs a place to exhibit her latest collection of paintings. One seemingly random day, her uncle’s heir, Rafe, and now the duke comes to visit to inform her of her inheritance, which hinges on her being married. The surprise is that she’s already married to Rafe himself, and he suggests they go public with the marriage so she can claim her inheritance. What follows is a non-chronological story of how these two ended up married twenty years ago and then estranged in all the time since then. I mostly kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened, but the story itself wasn’t terribly interesting to me. Rafe is a smooshy sort of fellow who falls in love too freely and scares off all his partners with his enthusiasm and Cornelia is adamant about her independence and does not want the complication (or obligation) of love. He’s an overzealous puppy for most of the book and she’s the reluctant and selfish one, protecting her own isolation. And then there’s the political stuff happening in the background that wasn’t super interesting to me. On the plus side, Rafe is unapologetically bisexual here and one of his male lovers joins in for an encounter with Cornelia. So you know, if you like that stuff, here it is in a traditionally published historical romance.

While I loved the first book in this series, and was eagerly anticipating this one, unfortunately I just didn't enjoy it. Part of my issue was the pace. I had a hard time getting into the book, and actually put it down for a while before finally finishing it. My other issue was the characters. I just had trouble routing for them. There were things I liked about Cornelia, but other parts that were hard to understand/relate to. Rate was sweet, but could have been more upfront with Cornelia about some things. I also am just not the biggest fan of big age gaps between characters, which was present here. I appreciate the author for pushing boundaries on what is shown in historical romance, and the cast of characters was great, but The Portrait of a Duchess just didn't do it for me. To end on a positive note, I did find the aspect of the story with Rafe's former lover fun. And the book didn't ruin the series for me. I do plan on trying out book three whenever it comes out.

Updated review now that Harper Collins Union has received a contract.

Scarlett Peckham is so excellent at writing couples. The set up of Cornelia and Rafe’s first time falling in love and then falling apart is filled with angst and aching romance. The rekindling of their love and work they put in to both be happy and fulfilled, separately and together, is so fantastic. I especially love how Peckham is dedicated to her heroines being these radical, strong headed and willful women who also deserve to have these sweeping romances. They really can have it all and I love that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of this author's writing style/voice, and have enjoyed several of her books so far, but I really struggled with this one. It has bullet points I enjoy: age gap, marriage of convenience, s3x-positivity in historical setting, and I was looking forward to the way this author tends to make those kinds of tropes her own.

I do think she did that again here, but it just took me so long to read - I could not engage with the story or the characters' romance at all. I honestly didn't feel any chemistry, heat or emotion between the two leads, and the steamy scenes were good on their own (one MMF one in particular), but not great, and so few and far between I forgot it was supposed to be a steamy historical romance. I was more interested in Lord Eden, a tertiary character, than either of the leads or secondary characters, and he barely made an appearance.

I was kind of taken aback by how long this book was with almost nothing specific happening in it. There were a few different plot threads that were all relatively minor for how much happened with them, and yet somehow they were stretched into a shockingly long and for lack of a better descriptor, almost boring story.

Despite all of these negatives, I have to reiterate I DO enjoy this author's voice and I AM into the core group of heroines for the series and their fight for equality, so I do plan to read the next book when it comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the ARC.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

With The Rakess having been one of my favorite books of 2020, I had high expectations for the follow-up book in the series. And while The Portrait of a Duchess lacks some of the gravitas that made its predecessor hit so hard with me, it is nonetheless pretty solid and a reminder of why Scarlett Peckham has become one of my go-to authors for historical romance.

I really like both leads, and while Rakess was the stronger book narratively, I definitely find the characters here to be more close to what I like. While I’m sure there will be mixed opinions (especially from Black readers) as to whether Peckham did Cornelia justice, or whether it was her place at all to write a book with a Black or biracial lead, I can only speak from my experience as a non-Black POC in saying that I’m glad to see more historical authors trying to create a more racially diverse world, and attempting to do the work. And the choice to not have her narrative defined by trauma, both as a contrast to Sera’s and to avoid falling into stereotypes and co-opting a story that wasn’t hers to tell, makes sense to me, for the most part. I love that Cornelia knows her own mind from a young age, and craves independence and autonomy in a world that is incredibly oppressive to women.

Rafe is a great hero. For all my hatred for dukes and other aristos, I love a reluctant peer, and the fact that he’s one of the “burn it all down” types makes it even better. I also love his expression of his bisexuality, including the experience in the past of being in love with a man and a woman at the same time.

And on that note, I also love that their first sexual encounter in the present was polyamorous. While the book isn’t fully fledged MMF, I like that it’s explicit about Rafe’s sexual desires, and the ending keeps things open, even though they are committed to each other.

The age gap is another thing where readers’ mileage may vary. While it’s less of an issue in the present, she’s around eighteen in the past, while he’s in his thirties, which is definitely a bit “yikes” today, even if it wasn’t so much so in the time the story is set. I do feel that Peckham’s choice to give Cornelia a consistent sense of self throughout helps, so she’s not a naive girl being led by an older man, but a woman fully in charge of her own destiny. And it also leads to great representation of older people falling back in love in the present timeline (twenty years after the flashbacks), where Cornelia is now in her thirties and Rafe in his fifties.

Ultimately, this is a solid follow-up in what is shaping up to be an excellent series, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys inclusive, progressive historical romance.