Love’s Portrait

Picture this...a woman scarred by her past and afraid to love. Picture this...a man hiding behind the protective walls he’s built. Picture this...two people on a collision course, bound to leave their comfort zones and experience life’s greatest joy – love. Picture this...Love’s Portrait.

Sensual, shocking, scandalous...the portrait she’s commissioned is all of those things and more, but is the woman in the painting real or fantasy? Julia Westgard is a widow, a woman alone, and a woman learning herself. Julia dares much – and her newest escapade is rife with the danger of discovery...and the even bigger danger of a rake’s passion. She learned just how cruel a man can be at the hands of her husband, and has no intentions of allowing herself to ever again be a man’s possession or plaything.

Morgan St. Claire is a confirmed bachelor with a penchant for leaving a trail of broken hearts behind him as he moves through society and life. His interest is piqued by his new investor’s obvious beauty but even more still by the deliciously naughty portrait of her that he encounters quite by accident. When a twist of fate makes her beholden to him, will he be able to clear aside the hurt and humiliation she’s suffered and find the woman within, the lady of his dreams?

Wow. Just wow. This is a story to wrap yourself around on a long, cold winter’s evening. You’ll even be able to turn down the heat (leaving more funds available for the book budget!), as this scorcher provides plenty of steamy passion all by itself. Monica Burns continues to prove why she’s one of my favorite authors by delivering the goods once again in Love’s Portrait; she just keeps getting better and better. I meant to eat this tale in small, satisfying bites and make it last, but I was immediately sucked into this couple’s amazing capacity for the delights of the flesh, as well as their equally astonishing and ever-present emotional baggage; I ended up devouring it in one sitting. I pay Ms. Burns the highest compliment when I say that it takes an incredible book to distract me and hold my attention to the degree which Love’s Portrait did. She totally destroys my self-control, and for that I’m...well, I’m just delighted and grateful. Ms. Burns simply shines as she spotlights the risks that relationships entail, even while she drives her characters to stretch themselves and conquer the fears that keep them from experiencing life to its fullest. Love’s Portrait is a picture for sure, and it’s one of passion, pain, and the purity of a love hard-won.

Reviewed by: Michelle