The Christmas Portrait
(2026)(A book in the Season of Invitations series)
A novel by Sharon Michalove
Madeleine Mercier, a portrait painter, flees France in 1804, after her lover, Clément, is executed for conspiring against Napoleon. Now she must forge a new life in London. Her only hope is that Marie Antoinette's favorite painter, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, currently living in London, can ease her entree into society. The older Frenchwoman agrees and arranges for her to attend several holiday balls during the season.
At her first society foray, she meets Andrew Montmain, son of Baron Montmain of Chesterbridge. In London for the Christmas season, Andrew is pressured by his family to give up his lofty standards and find a wife. When he discovers that Madeleine is a portrait painter, he hires her to paint his portrait as a gift for the mythical woman he intends to marry, only to discover that woman is the portrait painter herself.
But danger lurks as her betrayer is now in London, ready to drag her back to face trial. Can Madeleine and Andrew thwart this threat or is she destined for Madame Guillotine?
Genre: Historical Romance
At her first society foray, she meets Andrew Montmain, son of Baron Montmain of Chesterbridge. In London for the Christmas season, Andrew is pressured by his family to give up his lofty standards and find a wife. When he discovers that Madeleine is a portrait painter, he hires her to paint his portrait as a gift for the mythical woman he intends to marry, only to discover that woman is the portrait painter herself.
But danger lurks as her betrayer is now in London, ready to drag her back to face trial. Can Madeleine and Andrew thwart this threat or is she destined for Madame Guillotine?
Genre: Historical Romance