The Painter's Daughter:
Ratings4
Average rating3.8
Julie Klassen Is the Gold Standard for Inspirational Regency Fiction
Sophie Dupont, daughter of a portrait painter, assists her father in his studio, keeping her own artwork out of sight. She often walks the cliffside path along the north Devon coast, popular with artists and poets. It's where she met the handsome Wesley Overtree, the first man to tell her she's beautiful.
Captain Stephen Overtree is accustomed to taking on his brother's neglected duties. Home on leave, he's sent to find Wesley. Knowing his brother rented a cottage from a fellow painter, he travels to Devonshire and meets Miss Dupont, the painter's daughter. He's startled to recognize her from a miniature portrait he carries with him--one of Wesley's discarded works. But his happiness plummets when he realizes Wesley has left her with child and sailed away to Italy in search of a new muse.
Wanting to do something worthwhile with his life, Stephen proposes to Sophie. He does not offer love, or even a future together, but he can save her from scandal. If he dies in battle, as he believes he will, she'll be a respectable widow with the protection of his family.
Desperate for a way to escape her predicament, Sophie agrees to marry a stranger and travel to his family's estate. But at Overtree Hall, her problems are just beginning. Will she regret marrying Captain Overtree when a repentant Wesley returns? Or will she find herself torn between the father of her child and her growing affection for the husband she barely knows?
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
3 stars: updated rating
When I purchased the hardcover edition, I reread a lot of it for fun. I apparently read through it too fast to notice some content issues the first time... I was so interested in seeing how the plot would end that I didn't see how sensual many of the details were. Unless the hardcover is a different book than the paperback, which I don't think likely!
18+ only
Original review below.
4.5 stars
This book was so hard to put down. It's Julie Klassen at her best, with intrigue, danger, and a young heroine dealing with her first broken heart.
When Wesley Overtree deceives Sophie into giving him everything and then rushes off in search of new things to paint, his brother Stephen comes right behind, trying to find him and bring him home to family duties. Thus Stephen finds Sophie just as she's realizing she's been deserted and left pregnant and unmarried.
Something about her face will not let Stephen go. He offers to marry her before he leaves for war, giving her a name for her child and a home with his family. Sophie has little choice, with an unwanted suitor her father likes or a ruined name as her only other choices.
Once Sophie comes to the family home, there's intrigue, secret passageways, and more. I loved Kate best and hated Wesley most. There's a conflicted soldier seeking to throw off his demons and move one, and a young lady who becomes Sophie's friend, and a mysterious old nurse of Stephen's who somehow knows all sorts of things.
Will Stephen return from battle and become a true husband? Or will Wesley return and convince her to follow her girlish infatuation with him instead?
15+ for subject matter
