Overall enjoyable, but a bit overstuffed and suffers on account of it. Hattie is the third heroine in the League of Extraordinary Women series and each of the previous entries handled a multitude of women's rights issues, aka human rights issues, in a Victorian setting. This was done with satisfyingly modern sensibilities, yet somehow without that modern-ness taking the reader out of the story. That's one of the reasons Dunmore has become an automatic request for me! However, something about this third installment didn't click in the same way. Perhaps it's not the number of issues (workers' rights, marriage as legal erasure for women, suffragism, immoral wealth, etc. and an attempted Beauty and the Beast tie-in to boot), but rather the less than seamless interweaving of those issues into the story of the main characters' relationship. The attempt to broaden the scope of concern into something circling intersectionality is laudable, if not entirely successful.

I do adore this series! This was another fantastic installment. Hattie has been a favorite since the beginning and I was so glad to see her get a story. Such a fun read with great characters. It's a favorite amongst my older lady patrons. Can't wait for them to read it.

“The truth is loving you took me by surprise. The way love feels ambushed me. It feels brutal.”
Steamy, Bewitching and feminist, Portrait of a Scotsman marries all of the wonderful traits and tropes of the previous two books in the series and sets them all on perfect fire!

With a marriage of convenience twist and an enemies-to-lovers’ flavour, the heart of the story is in Lucian and Harriet’s off-the-charts chemistry.
Dunmore already asserted herself as the thinking woman’s swoon read with the first two instalments and yet the trilogy’s ongoing theses are made perfectly manifest in this offering. It’s almost as if the previous heroines were a warm up for the lesson we learn with Hattie who is VERY determined to find fulfilment in love, yes, but also assert her own agency.

Don’t get me wrong, Dunmore is not anachronistic, nor does she implant her romance stories with high levels of “issue fiction” tendencies that pull you out of the pages. Rather, she balances a woman who is talented and smart but also vulnerable and a hero who has to learn that to love her completely means to love a woman who is progressive and strong. They’re a flawed and perfect balance and their surprising love story unfurls against a canvas of gorgeous research and gorgeous locales.

And I applaud Dunmore for recognizing that there is more than one path to Happily Ever After. And that when it is fulfilled in terms of romantic attachment, it doesn’t usurp or shove off deep-seated romantic dreams. There is a part in the book that rekindled a flame I have for a moment in Villette when Lucy realizes she has felt love and felt freedom and often they are wonderful bedfellows.

But so is there a human need to keep finding ways to prove and seek love: in Hattie’s case for it to be wooed and earned and in Lucian’s in the proof that she is irrevocably is. Their journey will frustrate you in the best way — for what is this genre if not made for moments of missed communication?— but you’ll keep falling for them in small gestures and large as they skip across the continent and Dunmore’s fast-flipping pages and find friendship and art and adventure and tragedy.

This series is a world and it makes me believe that there is love out there for we stubbornly independent folks.

Oh! and if you like a hero who has read some Austen… well have I got a book for you.


(also shared on insta and twitter)

Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for this eARC!

This was an engaging Beauty and the Beast takeoff, and OF COURSE, I always appreciate a fictional trip to Scotland. I liked how this entry into the series widened the focus from the suffrage movement to take a small look at the labor movement in a coal mine. The romance here is also grounded in the characters' wish for change, which was good to see. Overall, I really enjoyed this! I hope Evie Dunmore keeps them coming!

3.5 stars

I’m just going to start off by saying that this was absolutely a 4.5 star until the very, very end and I’m really trying to not let the hatred i have for the end of this book ruin the rest of the book that I so much loved.... but I’m failing.
I obviously won’t go into detail but just know that this book takes you on a roller coaster of emotions.

Hattie and Mr Blackstone are forced into a marriage together. There were many different intentions from all parties, including her brother and father and her and Mr Blackstone, but needless to say, the marriage does not start off great.
But something I loved so much was the intricate and slow development of love and trust and care between our unwilling spouses. They eventually take the time to learn of each other and why they are the way they are—it’s a beautiful thing to watch. Some of the moments they shared were <
so incredibly special, I was constantly smiling or on the verge of happy tears.

In the beginning, I had an extremely hard time with Hattie. Her character was immensely unrelatable, even to the women of her times but especially to the modern day reader. But I was very impressed by the development of her character and her willingness to grow and learn. She grew up extremely privileged in the posh etiquette-obsessed high society in London. Not only are the values that the people from that society share way outdated, but it’s also immeasurably hard to even try to put yourself in their shoes to understand. But Hattie eventually outgrew those values and watching her learn and grow and become a woman in her own right was a beautiful sight.

I adored blackstone’s character. He was an unconventional hero with occasional dodgy intentions but he was someone i was insanely intriguing by and also saw myself relating to.

The love between her and blackstone was so palpable, their chemistry was off the charts.
Which is why I was SO MAD by the ending. I feel it’s important to note that there is a happy ending to this story. This is a romance book after all, the hero and heroine do end up together. I cannot go into detail as to what happened, but I feel many readers will either love Hattie’s decision in the end or HATE it immensely.
I, obviously, feel the latter emotion.

All in all, I do think this was a very good book. My disappointments aside, I enjoyed almost every other part of it.

I think this was my most anticipated romance release of 2021 and it definitely did not disappoint. It actually blew my expectations to smithereens- it was better than anything I could have expected. Evie really didn't have to go this hard. The sheer levels of unhinged shared between Hattie and Lucian was literally the best thing in the world. it was 10/10, monumental, an experience. I was ascending. Not only their dynamic, but the way Hattie grew into herself, her development and the way she put herself first was absolutely perfect. I think out of all three of the books so far, Hattie is my favorite protagonist. There were so many aspects of her personality that reminded me of myself, I adored her. This is definitely one of my favorite romances of all time, and I will not hesitate to make it my entire personality when it releases in sept.

Evie Dunmore is a breath of fresh air in what could easily become a stuffy and futzy sub-genre: Period romance with intelligent, independent (in thought, at least) heroines.

I really enjoyed this book until the ending. The last 10% of the book ruined it for me. I enjoyed the plot and characters and I felt like it could have ended nicely after the final climatic scene. The last few pages ruined the whole book for me. Stupid and unnecessary.

This is one of my top favorite reads of the entire year. YEAH, I SAID IT!

When I pick up an Evie Dunmore book I know right away I’m going to be immersed in some feminist history, beautiful Victorian scenery, and great romance.

This book did not disappoint. It’s my favorite of the entire series. Yeah, I said it!

When I read Bringing Down the Duke I stayed up till 3am, blurry eyed and twitching, knowing full well the book hangover I was going to have to endure the next morning was going to be atrocious and battling on anyway with 100% no regrets.

When reading Portrait of a Scotsman, I hired a sitter and finished the book well within normal business hours, and it was worth every penny.

This book has so many things I love with so much unexpected angst right in the middle that had me maniacally laughing for more.

I love a good falling out and this romance had some wonderful falling out and force proximity goodness in Scotland.

The ending was unexpected for me but it just made sense for the characters and I loved it all the more for it.

Thank you, Evie Dunmore and Berkley for the ARC! Review is my own.

There are a few typos that I found that I can send if you’re interested.

I’ll post a full review on my IG when it gets closer to pub date ❤️

I’m completely addicted to the League of Extraordinary Women series (I finished the first two books in a day each) and tbh I’m happy for any excuse to yell about these books. Much like its predecessors, ‘Portrait of a Scotsman’ was so much fun to read - well-written, and entertaining - making it the perfect vehicle for all of your escapist fantasies, really. It’s a book that’s easy to lose yourself in, and I loved returning to this world and catching glimpses of characters from the other books.

Not as good as the first two installments, but still cute, classic Dunmore. Loved the dialogue and the characters, just wish there had been more focus on the suffragist movement.

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Something that not many people know about me is that I am extremely picky with my historical romance reads. I have had the same few favorite authors for years now and rarely stray. I fell in love with their writing early on and few authors in the genre have struck my fancy in the same way. Literally there are four historical romance authors on my autobuy/pre-order list…and now there are five. Evie Dunmore has very rapidly moved to the top of my list of favorite romance authors. Not just favorite historical romance authors – romance authors, period.

I have to say, I think my favorite book in this series will always be A Rogue of One’s Own purely because I’m mildly infatuated with Ballentine. That being said, Lucian came very close to usurping Ballentine’s throne. I love a sexy, brooding Scotsman and Lucian certainly fit the bill. His backstory and the way that it impacted the relationships in his adult life made me all kinds of emotional and I think that overall his story and character growth were so well done.

While most of my reviews talk about the swoony male lead, the real star of this book for me was Hattie. That’s the point of the series though, right? The series is literally titled A League of Extraordinary Women and every woman in the series thus far has indeed been extraordinary. I related to Hattie in a lot of ways and was thrilled with the way she matured and came into her own over the course of this book. Every single woman that Evie Dunmore has written in this series has been one that I both admire and would love to befriend.

Basically, I can’t recommend this series enough. If I didn’t think I would get pepper sprayed, I would spend my weekend shoving these books into the hands of unsuspecting New Yorkers. (How else is a girl supposed to spend Memorial Day Weekend?) Since I can’t do that, please do me the favor of falling in love with this series so that we can gush over it together.

I hate to say this because I reaalllly wanted to like this book but it just didn't do it for me.

The premise was promising - forced marriage due to a compromising situation between a brooding businessman and a bluestocking. I just didn't find myself connecting with the characters for this book. There were two main things that really bothered me:

1) I hATE it when in a romance novel the two MCs separate for an extended period of time just before a very short reconciliation on the last few pages. This happened here. While I understand the heroine's reasoning behind it, it's one of my biggest pet peeves.

2) This book was very much an enemies to lovers situation. I feel like the author went too extreme to push the enemies thing for the first half (at least) of the book. There's fun enemies to lovers and then there is truly unpleasant to read enemies to lovers. This was the latter.

I loved Hattie in the first two books in this series and I'm just really bummed out that I didn't like her during this book. I didn't find her likable at all.

Evie Dunmore does not disappoint! I love these books so much. They are great, steamy historical romance but they also have so much research and knowledge embedded in them, and it makes me want to learn more about Victorian women and the suffrage movement. I can't wait for the next one!

The latest in the League of Extraordinary Women series continues to focus on suffragists and is informed by historical events. In this book, the emphasis makes a welcome and significant shift to working-class women. Dunmore clearly does her research and is intentional in her anachronisms, as evidenced by the author’s notes at the end. Hattie and Lucian also have wonderful chemistry—possibly the best in the series.

Unfortunately, Hattie is histrionic, spoiled, and superficial for at least one third of the novel in ways that evoke a 1990s romance heroine; the continual misunderstandings are also evocative of a 1990s romance novel; and the final reconciliation is unrealistically saccharine.

I really enjoyed reading this third installment in Evie Dunmore's series. Like the previous books, it was rich with detail and well-researched. I loved the setting in Scotland and the set-up of the couple being stuck at the creepy inn together - it was so well-done. It was very interesting to me how the two main characters truly grappled with the power dynamics between them and in the larger world. However, I sometimes felt like there was too much going on in the story, and the love story and the mining/political story didn't always meld seamlessly together. I was also thrown off by the ending, and I thought it felt a little rushed, but I did like that it allowed the heroine to choose her husband. A forced marriage plot is common in romance novels, but you don't often see the heroine grabble with it in a realistic way, as she did in this novel. Overall, I would recommend this book to a friend or library patron.

I’m addicted to this series, including the powerful, independent, smart heroines, ultra charming, charismatic, respectful heroes and intriguing feminism vibes blended in historical journey!

Well, second book’s MCs Lucie and Tristan are still my all time hottest couple but Harriet and Lucian may also have extra scandalous tricks up their sleeves to shake regency era to the core !

Harriet is introvert, quirky, talented artist finds herself compromised to Lord Blackstone who is cold blooded, business oriented, smart, sensible man and also a business rival of her father. Lucian seizes their bonding as an opportunity who has been waiting for so long. He’s a ruthless business man who has no mercy when there’s a tough competition. He can set his political scheme he’s planned with the help of his little lady accompanied her at his new journey.

I have to say, it took a little time for me to get into the story and connect with Hattie! It was too slow burn at the beginning and I got impatient a few times because MCs had so little connection nearly half of the book. When they were together, there was always some vagueness about their feelings about each other, because their were too stick to their hidden agendas and ambitions!

Luckily things get steamier at the second half! Actually extremely fiery, spicy, blasting enough to widen my smile and enjoy the ride!

And I loved the beginning! I think Hattie became one of my favorite characters the author created!

This book earns your concentration and your patience because it’s truly well written, thought provoking, entertaining and stimulating, tempting wild ride with remarkable characterization! So don’t let your boredom take your control! The beginning was bumpy but after a few pages later you’ll see how you’re clicked with the entire story and you find yourself have so much quality time!

I’m giving blazing four, artsy, sexy, witty, high chemistry, steamy, regency era stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

miss dunmore does it again! my attention was rapt, hence the finishing of this book in just over a days time. while i don’t think this is the best of the series so far (lucinda and ballentine were truly something to behold), it is most definitely not to be missed. i DO believe the pairings are getting steamier as we progress, and am all for that. sometimes beginnings seem to drag on, as we wait for characters to meet, or attraction to spark, but one thing i really liked here was how quickly blackstone and hattie’s story began...maybe that’s why i couldn’t put it down!

#netgalley

Hattie and Lucian really just wasted NO time. More Lucian than Hattie to be honest, but overall, Portrait of a Scotsman throws the reader right into a little scandal and from there it is almost impossible to not feel hooked onto the story.

After being found in a compromising position, Lucian and Hattie find themselves promised to one another though neither of them is all too eager to be in their current predicament. Hattie is a sheltered young woman and Lucian is a smart, calculated man and quickly the two learn how difficult this arrangement is likely to be.

I'll be honest, this took me a while to get into. Hattie and Lucian were just so at ends with one another and I was growing tired of a burn with no understanding of what was happening around them. It felt like there were little moments littered around us but I just couldn't connect the dots. Maybe that was me and my missing the point? I'm not sure. HOWEVER, once we get into the latter half of the story we see it come together. And that's not the only thing coming together. Yes, this is a sex joke. Hattie and Lucian, after spending a great deal of time together on the road, grow closer as the days go by and they understand the other more. Lucian is not this mannerless pirate man that Hattie thought, and Hattie is more than just the family she comes from. They both see the world in the same way and are better as a joint force than they are apart. I will say, I did not see the ending coming at all and for that, this book took a huge leap from 3 stars to 4. I'd argue 4.5 but I will still stand by my point that I felt like it took a while for this to get going for me.

THIS BOOK IS SPICY THOUGH. LET'S BE CLEAR. HATTIE.... WOW. I did not expect this at all but that gave this a whole other level of entertaining for me. We love a little spice.

As far as Hattie and Lucian go on an individual level, I enjoyed them. I feel like I didn't get to spend much time with either of them enough to KNOW them but anyways. They were opposites but both fighting for the people. This give and take between them was an exciting game of cat and mouse on both parts. Hattie isn't naive, she just hasn't been given the opportunity to be herself... ever. She has had her arts as her own but she has always lived under the hand of another. Lucian can say the same almost. There has always been a larger person or practice that was bigger than him. So his goal was to become the biggest and change that for himself, but still... there is something ruling over him. It is interesting to watch this unfold in a 2021 POV while this takes place in 1880. I don't typically read historical romances... ever. But Evie Dunmore has made me a changed woman.