Lucia Grahame

This book! Stressed! Me! Out! It has been a while since characters frustrated me so much I wanted to scream and toss my book at a wall and then chase after my book to find my place so I can read what happens next. After the prologue, the switch to single person POV for the rest of the book took me a while to get into. Also, it was a bit slow-moving for a good chunk and then it picks up. And frustration never ceases! Not until the very end.

The Painted Lady is about a recently widowed Englishwoman living in France who becomes acquaintances with an English Lord (and from-afar admirer). Fleur finds herself in desperate times due to some circumstances of her deceased husband (who was an artist) and some private paintings he made of her. Fleur accepts a proposal from Anthony - he is deeply in love with her, she tolerates him - and everything goes downhill after the wedding.

I became interested in this book due to a negative review that said, "If you're a fan of endless angst in a similar vein to Sherry Thomas, Cecilia Grant, or Judith Ivory's Bliss, knock yourself out." I love all of those authors so it made sense to me to order a physical copy of this book from a reseller since there is no ebook available to borrow. To be clear: this book does not reach the literary heights of those authors mentioned in the negative review, and yet! I am glad I was able to read it - it's unlike any other romance I've read recently. Bonus points for on-page anal and tea bagging.

The single person POV did enhance the terrible feeling of suspense, however I do think a few POV shifts would have moved the story along without sacrificing angst. Anthony was so inconsistent (at once extremely kind and then utterly cruel; cautious and then thoughtless at the drop of a hat) - it was difficult to tell if that was because he was intentionally written that way or because the author didn't develop him. I don't even think we needed a 50/50 split, even a 90/10 would have worked!

4 stars for shaking me up a little even if this is more like a 3 star read. Again, this book stressed me out! But I'm glad I read it. I'd love to read more books like this one, sadly I think this is the only book by the author!… (meer)