Cc10 Libertin: Man B

What do you do when you start to feel as though you have read every book, every plot line? You can try for a fresh new author - or you can go backwards, and try an older book. I tried this book on an impulse and was glad I did. This book is best categorized, I think, as a Regency, just a little longer than your typical Regency (being published today). First, for a word of warning. Romance, as in everything else in life, seems to have certain style that is popular at a certain time. So, by saying that this book was published in 1980, you can almost assume that the hero of the book would accost the heroine in the first chapter, that she would hate him yet be physically attracted to him, that she would "suddenly" discover that she loves him in the last chapter, he proposes, she says yes, and then the book ends. If that was your assumption, you would be correct, as all that does actually happen in this book. However, I still enjoyed it very much, and this is why: First, it's done reasonably well. I am a hard sell - in other words, if the hero is a rake, I am hard person to convince that he will actually reform, or at least make a good husband (I tend not to buy books that have the word "rake" in their title for that reason), but in this book I am indeed convinced. (She actually uses an unusual plot device that I have heard Jo Beverley mention as original to her story, Emily and the Dark Angel). Second, this book contains a lot of dialogue. Chatty, entertaining, lovely regency dialogue. Truthfully, my weakness is dialogue, and this book is chock full of it. Third, this book has a lot of detail about the times of the Regency era - for instance, their clothing, what's in style, what's coming into style, what's going out of style, what is okay to do, socially, what is not - page after page of detail of how the ton lives, acts, dresses. I am not a Regency expert so I am not qualified to say if it is all factual down to the tee, but neither am I a regency ignoramus, and nothing she wrote felt wrong, so my verdict is that it is accurate, for what it's worth. Also, the fact alone that she spent page after page with tons of tons of details must mean that this author did quite a bit of research, at the very least. Juliana has always lived with her father in the country, and although they were not poor, they lived comfortably and happily, but unfashionably. Upon her father's death, Juliana is invited to her maternal grandmother in London, to present herself for the season. On the way to London, Juliana and her chaperone make a stop in an inn, where they meet the hero of our story, the Marquis of Peterborough, who is "in his cups", and takes shocking liberties with our heroine! (of course). Upon coming to London, however, Juliana soon realizes that society will blame her, while he will escape without a scratch to his good name. Juliana therefore asks her chaperone to please keep this information to herself... Juliana is coming from the c