Rating: 3/5
As a portrait artist myself, I enjoyed the fact that the main character, Caroline Witfeld is an aspiring artist who hopes to join the ranks of artists at an Italian art academy. As a romance novel fanaticist, I was a bit underwhelmed by the romance...
In an attempt to distract his brother from his idea of joining the army, the Duke of Melbourne sends his younger brother, Lord Zachary Griffin to escort his aunt to Bath. On the way, they detour and stop by a quaint family in the country with seven marriageable daughters. Chagrined, to say the least, Lord Zachary hopes to survive his stay with this family to prove to his brother that he can survive whatever is thrown at him.... and then join the army.
Although a fan of Ms. Enoch, I found myself questioning the romance in this story. It felt a bit forced..as with most romances where one is attracted to the other simply due to non-interest. In this novel, it seemed to me that Lord Zachary was mostly interested in Caroline because she was the only one of the seven daughters who did not display explicit interest in Zachary. Simply said, she was hard to get for him. Whereas her sisters ooh'ed and aah'ed over Zachary, Caroline was mostly interested in him only because she wanted to do a portrait of him and send it to her beloved art academy to prove that she was a worthy artist who did portraits of important people...and due to his status as the brother of a duke, Zachary was an important enough person.
The writing was decent but I felt the sizzle, passion, pizazz (take your pick) was definitely lacking in the interactions between the two lovebirds.
If you're interested in testing Ms. Enoch's books, I would recommend a previously reviewed book: After The Kiss.
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