PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN by Vanora Bennet

When I read the book, the expression 'You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear' repeatedly came to my thoughts.  This book is basically a Harlequin romance set in the time of Sir Thomas More and Tudor England.  It is the story of Thomas More's ward, Meg Giggs - her education, her interest in medicine, her relationship with her husband (is he who he seems?).  The book is set during a time of religious and political upheaval.

Twice, the painter Hans Holbein the Younger stays in the More home and paints a portrait of the family.  The descriptions of the paintings and the clever descriptions of the hidden meanings in the paintings kept me interested and kept me reading.  I even looked up the two More family paintings on-line and referred to them as I read.

The rest of the book?  The boy meets girl, the unrequited love, the eventual marriage, the second love interest, the happy(ish) ending?  Maybe not so much.