Review of "The Portrait" by Cassandra Austen - quite entertaining

I spent an enjoyable day reading this novel in which a handicapped English lady and a navy captain befriend each other. Both have some serious secrets from their past they try to hide and had a horrible childhood. And they have to cope with a lot of mystery trying to destroy their lives.

Although the writer wants to be a Jane Austen that she is not. Captain Avebury is depicted as a honourable, loving and gregarious man but I sometimes do not understand what drives Catherine. Maybe the writer wants us to realise it is not parentage or history that defines us but our own actions.

Nevertheless it is a Regency novel with a lot of action and mystery and not a "steamy" one nor a "clean" one. Just a good one :)

4 stars out of 5. It was published on the 31rd of December 2018 and I received an ARC copy but was not obliged to write a review.