The Painted Lady [Mass Market Paperback]

Lucia Grahame (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1993

Left penniless after the death of her famous artist husband, for whom she modeled, Fleur Brooks finds that her icy heart is beginning to melt when she meets the recently widowed Sir Anthony Camwell.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Fanfare (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055329864X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553298642
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,307,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SMOLDERING HOT 1st + LAST BOOK FROM A VERY TALENTED WRITER !, December 1, 1999

By 

Elera Tempest "ELERA" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Painted Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

Will I ever be so lucky as to find another lovely romance novel in this lifetime ? WOW ! That's 1 way to put into words everytime I finished re-reading it ( done 'bout 99 times already =P ). How often Fleur's haunting green eyes gazed down upon him from the walls of his cousin's home in London ! When Anthony first set his cool gray eyes on Fleur from a distance in a restaurant, she was full of life & love, with her famous husband on her side. He saw her again 2 and a half years later. But this time Fleur is a penniless widow with a frozen heart due to the loss of her baby & husband. Desperate for money to pay her blackmailer, she accepted Anthony's marriage offer, thinking that she could fool him into believing that she married him for love & affection. When he found out her terrible secret, she had no choice but surrender to his terms : her freedom & a fortune to live on if she agreed to 5 nights of unquestioning, unrestrained surrender to what he planned to teach her. I love the sensuous development of the story when Fleur's heart is melting layer by layer with each of Anthony's lazy seduction. Every misunderstanding & quarrell is painfully gut-wrenching & oh what an ending ! Of course, as the previous reviewers hinted, the love-scenes literally burn up the pages & left me clamoring for more from this unknown author. I don't know why she didn't make it to the top of the best of the best-seller list. U have got to read it to believe my gushing review !

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tearing my hair out / gnawing my arm off out over this book!, May 20, 2009

By 

J. Bender "J. Bender" (Jersey City, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Painted Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

It's impossible to assign stars to a book like this which makes you want to tear your hair out! ** SPOILERS AHEAD ** Fleur Brooks is married to an outgoing wastrel artist who drinks himself to death at the beginning of this book. Fleur is beautiful, graceful, and loves her husband adoringly. Anthony Cramwell is a baronet - rich and seemingly idle - who becomes obsessed with Fleur at first sight. This book starts off with allure. Anthony waits 2 years to get his shot at her (how romantic!) and courts her like a gentleman. Then a blackmailing plot involving lurid paintings Fleur's husband painted of her turns their courtship into a quicky marriage, followed by nearly a YEAR of being cold and barren towards each other. All explodes with the discovery by Anthony of the blackmail substory, and he 180s into this debauched sadistic soulless creature who wants nothing more than to 'extract a pound of flesh' from Fleur. The sexual submissiveness he demands from her is definitely erotic in its own way. At the same time, Grahame is short on the actual descriptive details standard in most modern romance novels, so while psychologically steamy, some of you like me may not be totally satisfied. FYI, if you need your heros to be faithful, this is not the book for you.

Other reviewers have called Fleur self indulgent and self obsessed. Though I found her sympathetic, I can't disagree. I think it's partially a result of the entire story being in her first person narrative. Since the reader is constantly in her head, her emotional introspection can be a bit overwhelming at times. In Fleur's defense, her inability to voice her love for Anthony is not unbelievable. But it makes you want to strangle her at times.

The other shortfall with first person narrative is that you only see Anthony through Fleur's eyes. In this case, Anthony does this Dr Jekyll-Mr Hyde thing, and while Grahame gives you plenty of clues for the reader to intuit what he's going through, you still have to work really hard to do so.

In sum, this is a book for only us self-flagellators out there. I would label this "regency noir" for sure. I found myself alternately wanting to throw the book at the wall, then putting the book down and contemplating starting a new one, and lastly picking it up again (during lunch breaks) bc I couldn't help myself. Is it worth reading? Absolutely. Needless to say there's a happy ending but it's sheer hell to get there. To top off my completely schizophrenic review, let me just say that Lucia Grahame's prose is lovely. Some of the dialogues between Fleur and Anthony made me weep.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than best, November 25, 2002

By 

"phillyfleur" (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Painted Lady (Hardcover)

This romance novel, which I finally tracked down after years of searching for (I read it from the library and never found it later) is simply one of the very best romance books I've ever read. It is extremely well-written.

Fleur is a penniless widow of a famous artist, and unbeknownst to her, Anthony, a rich baronet has loved her from afar for years. Fleur has also been the subject of her late husband's paintings, and some are not meant for the general viewing public. Now that she is free, he has proposed. Fleur has been scarred from her marriage and her husband's dirty dealings, and agrees to marry Anthony, but not because she loves him yet. Her problems are just too overwhelming, and Anthony is a way out. However, Anthony catches on, is devastated, and plays out a game with Fleur to unfreeze her heart. For five nights,she must show him unlimited sexual pleasure.

This romance is magical as Anthony does manage to delve into Fleur's internal pain and allows her be free to love. The sexual scenes are fairly graphic but tasteful...and so tantalizing. The ending made me cry. Lucia Grahame, please write another book!

This is one romance I've read at least 10 times. A keeper forever. If you can find it, buy it.