Ziyaeddin, exiled prince and now famous portraitist, fell in love with a pair of lips years ago. When he sees these lips on a young "man" at a surgical theater, Ziyaeddin immediately recognizes them as Libby Shaw's.

Forced to disguise herself as a man in order to train to become a surgeon, Libby strikes up a deal with the mysterious man she knows as Ibrahim Kent. He'll allow her to live in his Edinburgh artist's house while she studies and masquerades as "Joseph," if she sits for him once a week in his studio. Maybe sometimes in the nude...

Both living secret lives, both falling in love, Libby and Ziyaeddin have huge obstacles to overcome for their HEA.

I loved the premise of this novel, but found the execution to not be to my personal tastes. I find Ashe writes great excerpts, but the stitching together of the story often is a bit jarring. There is mention that Libby may have "OCD" (not what it is called in the book, obviously due to the time period) or may otherwise be "neural atypical," but this wasn't further explored enough for me.

This is definitely a slow-burn romance, and the HEA was a bit bittersweet for me, because you don't get one until the Epilogue, which seems a bit of a cheat.

Still, overall, a deliciously described story. I tried reading the first book in the series and was completely lost because this is actually a spin-off series of a different one. At least here I didn't feel like I was really missing out by not having read the others.

ARC received from the publisher in exchange for a fair review! Thank you Avon!