The Undoing of a Libertine Paperback – April 22, 2014

The Undoing of a Libertine is the second historical written by Raine Miller. Set in 1837 England the story revolves around Jeremy Greymont, a self-indulgent Libertine who must find a wife so that he can produce an heir at the insistence of his grandfather. Enter Georgina Russel, the 21 year old sister of Jeremy's friend Tom, whose father is trying desperately to marry her off. Through the story we find out that Georgina has suffered through a terrible ordeal and thus feels she is not worthy to marry anyone. After not having seen Georgina since she was 16 Jeremy is instantly attracted to Georgina and sets out to not only protect her from the loathsome cad Lord Pellton who Georgina's father is trying to marry her off to but to win her for himself. Jeremy enters into unchartered territory since up to now he's only ever had sex with prostitutes and as he professes, he likes his sex "hard and fast" so how does he navigate a relationship with Georgina, who is young and virginal?When Jeremy asks Georgina for her hand in marriage she refuses, saying she is unworthy and not chaste. Upon learning of Georgina's tragic circumstances Jeremy leaves her behind to nurse the sting of rejection and to figure out what to do now that she has rejected him and his plans to secure a wife and heir have failed. Soon enough Jeremy learns of Lord Pellton's evil intentions for Georgina and he returns for her and insists she marry him. She accepts even though she is not sure she can be a proper wife to him. The learning process these two characters go through and the emotions they feel for each other is a beautiful story. The transformation Jeremy goes through from being the self-indulgent Libertine he starts out as to the loving protective husband redeems him in my opinion.There is also plenty of sex, hot steamy sex! Raine Miller has quite the talent for laying out a delicious sex scene, that is for sure! It is not just sex though, it is the depth of emotion these two people feel for each other, the extent that Jeremy wants to go to for Georgina to make her feel safe and cherished during sex and the change that Jeremy goes through in realizing that he doesn't want to have hard and fast sex with Georgina because that is not what he feels with her.This book also has action and adventure, humor, drama, sadness but most of all, love. And this story intertwines with Raine's first historical novel His Perfect Passion. If you've already read that book you will recognize several characters in that book that appear in The Undoing of a Libertine. And if like me you are a lover of all of Raine's books and have read her book Eyes Wide Open, The Blackstone Affair you will recognize several things in this book that you have read about in EWO. Raine has a gift for intertwining her characters and events and places through her books.I realize that historical books are not everyone's cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and fell in love with Jeremy and Georgina. I highly recommend this book as a must read :)

Jeremy was a man. Georgina was vulnerable. We didn't have to wait until the book almost ended for him to discover how he felt about her. And there was good sex.The author wrote well. She built up the connection between Jeremy and Georgina from the very beginning. It was amusing to see Jeremy, man of the world, stutter around Georgina. It was good to see her not dragging her fear of intimacy throughout the novel. And it was also good to see that he was not written as a cold, unable to love tortured hero. As the characters learned to trust each other, the connection between them was clearly felt. Raine Miller knew the direction that she wanted to take her characters and their relationship and she did so well.The book did follow some of the same formulas. At 50% readers knew that something had to happen because this is not a novella. Revenge? A miscommunication? Something had to happen because the characters were already in love, so revenge it was. I felt that this is where the writer fell too heavily on an old overused formula and made a a mistake that many authors make: contradicting themselves. On one page the hero and villain had a meeting and the hero had to be restrained. Yet, two pages over they are meeting for the first time. I hate when writers and their editors allow these contradictions to remain.Also, how can a letter that says: "They have Marguerite. Madam Therese begs you to come, as do I. Luc" and " All I can say in this letter is that the matter at hand is in regards to your family." be misconstrued as an extramarital assignation that sends the heroine butting in where she shouldn't, causing a mess, thereby, getting the hero and herself almost killed? And, as usual, how convenient that she didn't find the other letter that would have explained everything.I am always so very disappointed when a writer has her supposedly smart heroine do something so utterly stupid. It makes the heroine so annoying. It does not create any suspense or true drama because it's just an irritating contrivance. It makes for bad drama and the heroine always deserves the hurt that happens to her when she foolishly rushes in. The thing is that sometimes the hero gets hurt as well. She does something to save him from the foolishness she caused and he thanks her for saving his life?Luckily, Raine Miller was able to move pass this at the end of the novel. However, I do have to agree with another reviewer who said that Jeremy finding out that he has a brother was of no value to the plot. Absolutely none. And the political aspirations at the end weren't needed either. But I did find the scene with Georgina's father and brother and the other villain to be vastly amusing.Besides those few annoyances, the book was an easy read. The few errors that were made did not detract from the telling of the story. The characters were interesting and Miller created an enjoyable story that flowed well. While I would not say this is a five star read, I would definitely give it four stars for being better than okay. I will look for other books from this author.

Aah Raine Miller has done it again!I'm a sucker for a good historical romance and this is definitely a good, no excellent one indeed. I found myself completely wrapped up in the story from the very beginning and frankly I struggled to put it down.Jeremy Greymont...sigh. He's just so perfectly perfect and I couldn't help but fall in love with him and Georgina, sweet, strong Georgina...my heart bled for ger in places and rejoiced with her in others. An honest to goodness perfect historical heroine just not the shrinking violet type.This story was so full of dramatic twists and turns that my children now think I'm insane due to me shouting at the book and then sobbing my heart out lol (proper ugly cry as well).The romance and yes, the naughty bits were so wonderfully written that I lost myself in the words, becoming a voyeur in Jeremy and Gina's life.To put it simply this book was for me pure perfection and I will be returning to it again in the near future.

Raine Miller again has excelled herself, I fell in total love with this book and Jeremy and Gina. So totally beautifully written, but I expect nothing else from Raine she is amazing.I loved the link between this book and the Blackstone Affair trilogy.Jeremy found his love in Gina that knocked him sideways and inside out, Gina never thought she would find someone like Jeremy because of her past.But love prevailed and made this book oh so sweeter.I would tell the world to read this book its breathtakingly beautiful.Louise.

Being an avid fan of the Blackstone books I was intrigued to read other Raine Miller stories. I am so glad I did.The story line is captivating. Jeremy and Georgina's story compelling and for anyone who has read His Perfect passion Darius and Marianne also have a cameo roll in this book.I am not a person to give away any story lines, suffice to say it is a wonderful read and would highly recommend it to all.

A good story.A rake redeemed.An abused girl finding love.Villains punished though maybe one got off a bit too lightly!Good yarn!

I don't normally read historical novels but as I loved raine Miller's other books, I wanted to give it a go. Brilliant book. After reading the Blackstone affair books, you can see the connection between these books. Loved Jeremy and Gina. Brilliantly written. I'm definitely going to read her other historical book. Brilliant xx