Hattie is a banking heiress, art student at Oxford, and suffragist. One day she made the mistake of "leaning in" for a kiss with Lucian in his art gallery. This was enough to shatter her life. Lucian, shady but extremely wealthy, with no real power because of his poor background wanted a society wife to improve his social standing. He staged the kiss so there would be plenty of witnesses. With no input from Hattie, her father accepted a large payoff and sold her in marriage to a stranger. With the law of coverture, Hattie had no legal identity, first as a daughter, now as a wife. She planned her escape but Lucian found out and bodily dragged her away to Scotland. Here we see the hard life of coal miners and learn Lucian worked in the mines as a young child. He's haunted by the memories of what he endured. He does have good intentions to improve the life of the poor working class with his new status among the rich and powerful but his execution leaves a lot to be desired. Many injustices in the laws are addressed. The hoped for passage of the Married Women's Property Act is mentioned from the previous books. The terrible start to the marriage and each other's expectations of one another must be overcome to stay together. Not a light, happy read but a book that shows how far we've come and how much farther we need to go.

Evie Dunmore's best book yet! This series has been such a delight. Will be shouting about this one for a long time to come! I really love how this delved into the labor movement as well and the frictions between it and women's suffrage. Hattie has been my favorite since book one, so this was such a delight. The ending surprised me, but I love how ultimately it was her choice in the end.

So glad to have Hattie’s story but this one frustrated me a bit. So much could be solved with just a tiny fraction more communication. This was very beauty and the beast - which I did appreciate. I hoped for a tad more steaminess too

Ah, Evie Dunmore has done it again. An 'auto buy' for me, I was thrilled to get access to the ARC via Netgalley and I tore through the latest League of Extraordinary Women in a day. Give me a romance with a brooding Scotsman ANYDAY of the week and Portrait of a Scotsman delivers not just on the romance, but on a deeper dive into yet another extraordinary and independent heroine. I loved the surprising, but heartfelt conclusion, and as always, am appreciative of Dunmore's incredible historical details and research!

This is my first read in the series and while I did finally get invested In the story, it took a while to appreciate Lucien and Hattie’s plight in the suffragist movement and fair worker’s rights for miners. Hattie seemed a bit indecisive and naive especially after telling the miner’s she would photograph them all but returned to Scotland after Lucien broke a promise which he said he would “try”. Also, the ending where Hattie decides to venture out on her own after Lucien tells her he loves her, just didn’t seem like something Hattie would do. From everything Hattie learned about Lucien, it seems she would know how much Lucien would have done to make her dreams a reality without leaving for France.

I enjoyed reading about the politics involved during this historical time and how it impacted the suffragist movement and worker’s right. But again, it did take a while for me to get invested. Most of the dialogue was internal and I prefer characters that exchange dialogue. If Lucien and Hattie had spoke more to each other, the story could have progressed a bit faster.

I LOVE this series and this was such a great addition to it! I loved Hattie and I think Lucian is the perfect match for her. They feed off of each other and don't back down. An excellent read!!

I knew I was going to love this book since Evie's previous books were SO DAMN GOOD. But, this one might be my favorite! I love how introverted and yet ambitious Hattie is! I also admire Evie for how much research I can tell goes into these books. She weaves in real world history but it never feels like work. It was just swoony and smart and totally absorbing!

Put this one on your lists, historical romance fans!

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced read in exchanged for an honest review!

I was disappointed in this book, which makes me sad because Bringing Down the Duke was four stars and A Rogue of One's Own was five stars for me, but I struggled through this one. Harriet Greenfield is a bluestocking who longs for a man who would die for her, and Lucian Blackstone seems to be a man driven only by his desire for money. Lucian's backstory unfolded nicely, but Hattie I did not care for at all. She was wishy-washy and made decisions that made little sense and what she did in the last 10% nearly ruined the entire book. And Lucian, who was alluded to in the other books as being a blackguard didn't seem all that bad to me. Also, I could not find him sexy, especially not when descriptions of him kept mentioning his chipped tooth. That's not sexy. Would I recommend this book? On its own, maybe. As a series, definitely. But I would suggest starting at the beginning even though technically they can be read as stand-alones. If I hadn't read the previous two, I would probably not have rated this as high as I did. I am still looking forward to Catriona's book and think this series is a great addition to the historical romance genre.

I stayed up way to late to read more than half of this in a single sitting. The author's note at the end, like so many I've read this year, explains that it was written during the pandemic. I'd love to see all pandemic-published books get a second edition in a year or two, because who could possibly be in the best head space?

I loved this for the potential of the main characters, and especially for the social commentary that feels historically accurate but still infuriatingly applicable. Between the characters' issues, their backstories, the business trip, the political issues, and, oh yeah, the burglary, it's too full to adequately address most of these issues. The heroine is a short, larger, left-handed artist with dysgraphia, and, like, none of those get much screen time! She and the hero both (purposefully?) overreact several times, attempting to out-do and hurt each other, which is a big turn-off for me-- a real shame, because the hero's realistic frustration but firm stance on consent is very hot! What's not hot was that he purposefully trapped the heroine, for status and money. It's ok to force her into marriage, but not force her in bed? There's a disconnect here I couldn't get behind.

The most unrealistic thing, though, was a shopping trip. The hero quasi-kidnaps his wife, bringing her on a trip for which she hasn't packed, so he goes to a dress shop and buys her a selection of dresses off the rack. She's a bit scandalized, but come on-- a shorter, larger, woman who can wear a floor-length dress without a single alteration? As a shorter, sometimes-larger woman, I call BS!

Worth a read if readers are invested in the series' friend group and interested in the myriad period details of the Suffrage movement that are included.

The third title in this series was fantastic. The change of scenery was refreshing. The addition of focusing on worker's rights added further depth. Both main characters were really loveable! Great book!

This was the third book in the series that I've read and I think it might be my favourite. Although, I can understand why some people had issues with it, particularly the ending. There was lots of foreshadowing that was making me nervous while reading, which probably also shows that I was getting invested in these characters. I went back re-read some parts and I think you get a better understanding of the characters. I liked the slow burn and how they got know each and fall in love.

This book also had a heavier feel than the previous two books by delving into the working class issues along with the feminists issues. I love the light and dark feel of it and the foil between Hattie and Lucien, as well as the Hades/Persephone and Beauty and the Beast comparison. It was both lovely and heartbreaking to read. I would love to see an extra chapter that shows the courtship/wooing or maybe vow renewal where she gets to pick out her own wedding dress and he wears a kilt.

This is the third book in this series, but I think it could also be read as a standalone! I loved following Hattie and Lucien - what an interesting storyline as well with the coal mines.

This book was everything. I didn’t know what to expect going into the story because Hattie was not a favorite character of mine from the previous two books, but she is a favorite of mine now! I thought Hattie was written to perfection in this story - her insecurities, her successes, her feelings were all on display throughout the story to perfection. I also completely fell in love with Lucian in this story. He is the perfect rogue, a Rochestor or a Heathcliff depending on your viewpoint to some, but for me, he is a rough around the edges Darcy. Lucian is rough and tumble, but he’s also real, brutally honest, and puts the best interest of his family before anyone else. I thought Lucian’s character growth was written in a raw and beautiful way, and I was simply delighted with him by the end of the story.

This is the best book yet in this series, and the political and historical information about the Scottish miners is really interesting and well-developed. The characters have great chemistry and the blend of romance and history is seamless.

Evie Dunmore continues to wow me with her perceptive, beautiful love stories. She does an excellent job linking Victorian women with women today.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the characters were well flushed out and interesting. It was a fast read!

Evie Dunmore is a very skilled historical romance author and I’ve been greatly enjoying her first couple of books over the last two years. I was thrilled to be offered an advanced reader copy of Portrait, and thanks to the publisher for doing so. So I started this around 11pm snd stayed up till 7:30am to finish it. The birds are chirping outside my window now. As with the first two books in this series, Portrait too features complex and fully realized characters, dual POV, and historically accurate and historically sensitive world building snd plotting. All of which I adore! I love historical romance but as I mature I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy as a genre because of the tendency for everyone to be white, straight, rich, etc. Also the appeal of never ending alpha males and the “you’re mine” and the “men are experienced but women must be virgins” and the issues of ignored consent that are so common to the genre make it harder and harder for me to enjoy. So I greatly GREATLY appreciate the emergence of more authors who approach the genre with a more feminist lens, and with more acknowledgement of the traumatic reality of this time in history for women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, people without wealth. Evie Dunmore is an excellent addition to my collection and desire for books that are “historical romance but feminist”. Courtney Milan snd Scarlet Peckham are two more if you’re looking for more such authors.

I enjoyed Portrait, though slightly less than I enjoyed the previous two. It was still well written and conceptualized, but felt slightly less original than the previous two. Or perhaps I just didn’t like Hattie as much as I liked the other heroines. I did like Lucien very much. I think my main disappointment was that Hattie felt unfinished or unfocused. She is billed as an artist but after she is married she seems to feel no real urge to create art for most of the book. Her interests and purpose seems very tied to her husbands and her feminist beliefs seem to disappear and re-emerge rather randomly. The separation at the end was perfunctory and had no emotion. I believe the author needed to have the separation occur earlier in the book and last more than two pages. And we needed to be shown what the two characters did during the separation so we could see joe they grew and came to teens w their love for each other. Instead the separate and then a page later they are back together. To say it was rushed is an understatement and it felt like the author just added that at the end because she felt like she had to have Hattie make a feminist I can be independent statement. I wish it had felt more crafted, intentional, and necessary to the outcome. I wish I had seen Hattie grow during the separation. I wish I had seen Lucien struggle to understand why she had to leave, seen him read the books snd get insight and start taking action to help fight for women’s rights a f then go to woo her. I wish I’d gotten to see the wooing.

So the book was very good but the romance was a bit oddly paced. We needed slightly less time having sex in Scotland and a bit more time dealing with their anger & frustration w each other and actually growing to understand and accept each other

And the weird “oh my god he might kill her” ploy that was hammered in at the end was completely unnecessary. A waste of pages. It added nothing to the story and made no sense jammed in at the end.

Finding Evie Dunmore’s books has, for me, been an absolute bright-point of these strange Corona times. Feisty, ridiculously romantic and oh so sexy, I loved Portrait of a Scotsman. That’s not to say it’s a light book. Dunmore paints a clear raw picture of the less dainty side of life in this era, not just for women as in the first two books, but also the working classes. I particularly enjoy the depth of her characters. Their hurts and motivations are so deeply and intelligently mined and played out. It is rare now that I restart a book as soon as I’ve finished it, but I did with Portrait of a Scotsman as I simply wasn’t ready to let Harriet and Lucian go.

Of the three books in this series, this one was my least favorite, but it was still very enjoyable. It felt very rushed toward the end. I loved the chemistry between Hattie and Lucian, but there were just so many side plots that felt rushed or unnecessary. .

I had been excited for Portrait of a Sotsman since reading the excerpt at the end of A Rogue of One's Own. Sadly, as is always the way with my high expectations, I was let down by Hattie's story. The story lacked the frisson of the first chapter excerpt and the plot points seemed out of order. For example, Lucie organizes an escape for Hattie, but she doesn't pull the rip cord until way too close to the end - my preference would've been for an immediate runaway bride situation followed by a wooing, at the point that it occurs it just feels like oh, we're doing things to do them. We're also missing interaction with the League here, and I think Hattie needs a mentor more than our past two heroines did.
That said, the Scottish setting where we learn all about mining conditions and Lucien's moves to increase and enshrine worker's rights (and his backstory that causes that drive, my god) was great. Hattie's plotline with her art installation of photos of the workers, did a lot less for me - it's a great idea for the time period, but she seemed to dip in and out a lot which made her interest in and dedication to the project seem suspect.
This book was very readable, I read it in a few hours the day I was approved for the arc, and I love that Dunmore has focused on more than just fancy parties and upper crust intrigue in her series. However, the high standard Dunmore has set causes me to critique a bit more sternly. I would still recommend Portrait of a Scotsman, it just is a bit lesser than A Rogue of One's Own.
Thank you to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with an arc for review