The Boy in the Portrait

Two years ago Evie Black fled to the big city for university, hoping to escape the death of her older sister. Now, she is at the top of her class and is an intern at the art gallery she's always adored, living with her best friend and passing each day pretending to hate Percy Vaugn, her lifelong academic rival. But one day, after failing a test, Evie turns to her favourite café for comfort and finds that they have a new part-timer - a tall, handsome part-timer - who seems inexplicably familiar to her. She realises later that she recognises his face from a portrait in her art gallery, but when she shows the portrait to him, they both realise that he hadn't a clue he'd ever been painted. As she and the charming barista, Chester Karim, begin to spend more time together, trying to decipher his history as a muse for this anonymous artist, Evie's own dark history begins to unravel, and she realises its threads may tangle with Chester's more than she wants to admit. Struggling to balance school, work, and a blossoming affection for this not-so-stranger, Evie finds herself back in a place she hasn't touched since she was 15 years old, and it may ruin her as well as all the people she loves.