Christina Patterson called Waters "an extremely confident writer, combining precise, sensuous descriptions with irony and wit in a skilled, multi-layered pastiche of the lesbian historical romance".Patterson, Christina (5 April 1998). "The week in Reviews: Books: Nancy girl, Nancy boy;" The Observer, p. 16. Renee Graham's review in The Boston Globe characterised the novel's style as "plush and inviting—delicious, even".Graham, Renee (7 June 1999). "'Velvet' a soft, sexy, and strong tale of Victorian sensuality: Book Review", The Boston Globe, p. C10. In The New York Times, Miranda Seymour drew attention to the scene when Nan dresses up as Hadrian's lover, the page Antinous who was drowned in the Nile, for a masquerade benefiting Diana's friends in a hedonistic bacchanalia that ends violently with Nan cast out of the house into the cold, highlighting it as a passage of "startling power".Seymour, Miranda (13 June 1999). "Siren Song", The New York Times, p. 9. Although Seymour was disappointed with the ending, she wrote, "If lesbian fiction is to reach a wider readership—as much, though far from all, of it deserves to do—Waters is just the person to carry the banner".
