The Beauties

Her husband will be pardoned and their fortunes restored—but only if she agrees to become the king's mistress.

When Emilia Lennox loses her husband's lands, title, and fortune, she is left with only one asset powerful enough to save them: her beauty.

At the glittering court of King Charles II, the king offers Emilia an impossible choice. Her husband will be pardoned and their fortunes restored—but only if she agrees to become the king's mistress.

Determined to control her own fate, Emilia strikes a bargain of her own. She will submit to the king's wishes only when her portrait hangs among the celebrated Windsor Beauties, the collection of women renowned as the most exquisite in the kingdom.

For Henry Greenhill, an ambitious young artist desperate to escape his master's shadow, the commission is a career-defining opportunity. Yet the more he tries to capture Emilia on canvas, the more elusive she becomes. As days turn into weeks, his sketchbook remains frustratingly incomplete, his future hanging by a thread.

With the king's patience running out and scandal gathering at court, Emilia and Henry find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of ambition, desire, and deception. But some women are far more than the faces they present to the world—and some portraits reveal truths better left hidden.

A sumptuous and seductive novel of power, passion, and artistic obsession from the bestselling author of The Lace Weaver.