Lady Jenny’s Christmas Portrait
Lady Jenny Windham longs to escape to Paris to further her education as a painter but is hindered by Regency society’s expectations of a duke’s daughter. Enter Elijah Harrison, an accomplished portraitist and Royal Academy candidate, who’s been commissioned to paint several of Jenny’s relatives. Elijah critiques her work and encourages her to continue painting, while romance buds. But Jenny remains torn between the urge to create and her well-meaning yet smothering family. Will Elijah be able to help her overcome guilt about the death of her brother, and realize her dream of becoming a real artist?
Burrowes has a lot of fans who might disagree, but the pace seemed slow to me: the characters paint and talk and make love and paint some more, without much else happening. The romance is good, but I grew impatient for Jenny to make up her mind and take some action. This is the last in Burrowes’ Windham family series, according to the acknowledgments. Fans of the series will like it, but readers who haven’t read the other volumes may have a problem keeping the minor characters straight in this outing.
