Book Review #theportraitofaduchess #scarlettpeckham #avonbooks #happilyeveravon #readavon #netgalley #ARCreader
Scarlett Peckham is definitely an author to explore if you are looking for a bit more uniqueness and nuance to your historical romances. The Portrait of a Duchess is the second in her Society of Sirens series, which features a strong group of independent women during the Georgian period (late 1790s). Overall, this is a very well written novel, Peckham explores this second chance romance by weaving together the past and present. Peckham keeps this novel fresh and diverse with her multifaceted characters. And this character driven novel will explore the different meanings and expressions of love.
This novel has a lot of wonderful things going for it, the hero and heroine are both more mature, the is some excited around the fact that the heroine is a secret duchess amongst her friends, and the hero has male and female lovers (his sexuality is not specifically called out by a term). Peckham has a way of weaving together these items to breathe a freshness into the genre in a really lovely way. This is a second chance romance, which is not always my favorite and I am not always the biggest fan of a romance told mostly in flashback, I understand the want and need to utilize this tactic, but it is never my preference and tends to pull me a bit more out of the story. Overall, this novel is good, I found it interesting, the characters feel unique, there are moments of real beauty in the relationship but something overall felt a little laking which made me not feel quite as emotionally connected to our hero and heroine as I would have like to be. I do think this probably comes down to my preference of tropes and my preference for no flashbacks. Peckham still does a wonderful job crafting character who have a real rawness to them which makes them believable.
If you adore Scarlet Peckham then definitely pick up this novel. I think if this are tropes and interesting factors for you, then you are sure to enjoy this novel. I adore this group of women that Peckham has crafted and I am so excited to see where this series goes!
Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for an eARC, all thoughts and opinions are my own.