Portrait of a Scotsman

I don't know if I wasn't in the right mood for this one or the book itself wasn't too engaging, because unfortunately I found this one to be just okay. I was definitely expecting the social issues to be executed well and I'm glad I wasn't disappointed - the suffragette movement and working people's rights and mining conditions do form a good portion of the story and the discussions about them are quite progressive. But the romance didn't endear much to me because I didn't feel invested in the characters. Maybe I shouldn't read romance novels for a while when I'm unable to appreciate them better.

I came off a slate of fairly heavy and intense novels in January and just really wanted something light-hearted but not completely shallow to give my brain a break. This book really hit the spot. As usual, Dunmore's romances make a great attempt to strike a balance between feel-good romance tropes and hard-hitting social issues that are still relatable for the readers of today. In this one, we explore socioeconomic inequalities and how even something like the suffragette movement, controversial as it may have been at the time, may yet still be a privilege to even be part of when contrasted with the struggles of working-class women who don't have the time, attention, or luxury of fighting for a vote when they're just fighting to put food on the table.

The romance in this one pays a slight homage to some famous literary tropes: Hades and Persephone, Jane and Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre, Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, even Anne and Wentworth in Persuasion. Both of the central characters have traits I don't completely agree with, but these are slowly worked through in the course of the novel. My interest in the romance fluctuated through the book, but overall I ended up pretty invested and enjoying them by the end of it.

I did find the author's notes very fascinating, in how she took inspiration from the real-life disaster in a Scottish coal mine during the 19th century, as well as how photographers of the time were more preoccupied with the “nudity” of the women working in those mines (they wore pants instead of skirts for ease of working, which would be as good as naked in those times).

This was a good, even better than average romance novel and I enjoyed myself thoroughly, but I didn't give it a complete 5 stars just because it was just shy of leaping past the ”wow, this is amazing!” barrier. There were a lot of tropes, a lot of convenient developments, and a lot of 21st century values in this one which makes the book more comfortably formulaic and pleasant, but not something that breaks the mold. Nevertheless though, this is the perfect choice for pick up if you're in the mood for something comfortably formulaic but without being obnoxiously shallow or misogynistic as some romance novels (especially older ones) can tend to be.