📖 Blog Tour ~The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley

Breakthrough Books
10 October 2024

My thanks to the publisher and Random Things Tours for the book
and the invitation to the blog tour 

The Portrait Girl thrusts its bereaved and beleaguered heroine, jewellery designer Freya Wetherby, into an astonishing world of re-enacted Victorian art salons and the devious machinations of modern art theft.

Seeking the identity of a miniature portrait found in her late mother’s belongings, Freya becomes enraptured not only by this mysterious young woman but also by the hypnotic personality of art collector Ralph Merrick and his colourful entourage, including the dangerously attractive ‘Jack.’

Thoroughly researched, the milieu in which The Portrait Girl would have moved is beautifully rendered by Swengley, as are the artworks and jewellery designs imagined in the novel. Freya’s own contemporary world and circumstances form a dramatic backdrop to the seductive ‘time slip’ episodes, a mirage created by Merrick that draws her into his web.

📖 My Review..

When jewellery designer Freya Wetherby discovers a beautiful Victorian miniature amongst her late mother’s belongings she is perplexed as she doesn’t know the beautiful young woman in the portrait nor is she aware of her mother’s connection to it. Her quest to discover more about the portrait takes her into the complex world of art history where a chance meeting with art collector, Ralph Merrick, launches Freya on a rather dark and mysterious journey into the past. The lure of the portrait beguiles Freya, so much so, she is prepared go to great lengths to find out more and in doing so risks great danger. 

Beautifully recreating the story of the girl in the portrait, and I won’t give away any clues as to her identity, this is well written historical fiction with a fascinating glimpse into the modern art world. Together with Freya we step into sumptuous art galleries and dusty museums and also take part in grand soirées and dark seances in fashionable London and in doing so we learn more about the portrait girl and the world she inhabited.  The fascination for Victorian art and the lengths that unscrupulous people will go to in order to own a piece of this bygone world is layered beautifully and becomes quite a complex part of the plot. 

With its unique Victorian atmosphere running alongside its distinctively contemporary feel and bringing the art world, both past and present, to life, The Portrait Girl is a fascinating dual time story with an interesting and unexpected twist. I loved it and will look forward to more from this author.

About the Author

Nicole Swengley is a highly regarded and experienced journalist who has written about art and design for titles such as The Times, Financial Times, the Telegraph, London Evening Standard and many others. A past student of the Faber Academy, Nicole has written non-fiction books for Collins and Adlard Coles, and has had several short stories published in magazines and anthologies. The Portrait Girl is her first full length work of fiction.

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