Scoundrel (Montagues)

Lady Lily Waters is one of England's top code breakers...and her identity has just been revealed to the enemy. France dispatches a spy to murder her but the plan fails. She is able to escape and flees her house to the London streets and right into the arms of the Duke of Remmington. The Duke, betrayed by his first love long ago, decides to protect Lily, but discovers he also has to fight his growing desire for her as he unravels the mystery of who wants Lily dead. Elizabeth Elliott has done it again. This was such a pleasurable book to read. Not only was I entertained by a touching love story but also a cloak-and-dagger plot line that kept me riveted to the last page. My only complaints are these: The book cover. Pleeez! Can they not come up with a better one? And what's with the title? The book title is totally misleading from what the story is really about. Remmington is far from being a scoundrel.

I had a plain good old time reading Scoundrel. I hardly put it down until I was finished. I make it a rule to savor the really good romances and not consume them in a few readings. But this book was so delicious that I just kept reading and reading and then was sorry when it did end. Oh well - such is the nature of a delightful book.Miles Montague, the Duke of Remmington, is the scoundrel and is all that we desire in a historical romance hero. However, I have read many romances in which the hero was much more of a scoundrel than the Duke of Remmington. I would consider him a mild scoundrel overall with the usual hardheaded nature and determination not to love. Young good looking dukes seem to be the most desired noble fellows in these books - so of course, all the ladies want him to look their way.Lady Lily Walters is one of those women. She has been in love with the duke from afar for years. She has never actually met him but thinks he is a dream. Apparently this duke is rather conceited and aware of his appeal. One night he actually requests an introduction to Lady Lily and then asks her for a dance. She is obviously dumbfounded at his request and can hardly speak. As she accepts his offer and proceeds onto the dance floor, she realizes she is acting as clearly smitten as she truly is! But, as they twirl around the floor, her infatuation turns to horror as she realizes Miles has an ulterior motive for asking her to dance. His smug smile during their dance tells her that he has just used her in some fashion. He is so proud and self-assured that she imagines he has won a bet at her expense. She calls him on it and decides as they exit the dance floor that she is not so smitten with him after all. Miles is somewhat surprised at her directness and sarcasm. As the reader, I am just thinking "Good for you Lily!"Later that night, as Miles is departing from his club, he sees Lily running down the street, in her nightgown, clearly scared to death. Someone has just attempted to kill her and she is looking for her father. Since both Lily and her father are undercover operatives for England, she fears for his life as well. Miles immediately comes to Lily's aid, seeing her safely home and locating her father. No longer is he the conceited rogue that danced with her earlier. He seems truly concerned and leaves some of his men at her home to stand guard. Later that night, Lily leaves her home after conferring with her father about their plight. He believes she needs to go to a government safe house for a time until they can be assured of her safety. When the duke's men discover that Lily is leaving town, in the middle of the night - on a mail coach no less, they insist on taking her to the coach. They fabricate a reason to stop by the duke's home on the way. When Miles discovers that Lily is to travel, unaccompanied, on a public coach, he is outraged at the stupidity of the entire situation. After conferring with her father, it i

Lady Lily Walters appears as an empty headed flirt, flitting about the ton when in actuality she is a master cryptologist working for the war department. In her private musings she would love to be recognized as intelligent but knew that until the war was over it was necessary to continue playing the part. Secrets must be kept and one, which was close to her heart, was the secret love she felt for Miles Montague, the duke of Remmington, whom she knew didn't know she was alive. Out of the blue he requested an introduction and asked for a dance but it did not take Lily long to realize that his request was to use her for an ulterior motive - namely making another Lady jealous. Lily felt humiliated and let him know that she recognized what he was doing. Later the same evening as Lily was preparing for bed, she was attacked in her home but escaped and ran through the streets in her nightclothes whereupon who other, but the Duke of Remmington, would come to her aid to rescue her. Though he tries to get Lily out of town for her safety, her father, Lord Crofford agrees that she would stay at the Duke's home until the assailant was brought to justice. Unbeknownst to Lily, Remmington, has always admired her but knew her for an innocent and vowed to never form any long term attachments, having been betrayed by his former wife. The attraction builds as the days progress and Remmington begins to suspect that there is more to Lily than the public persona she portrays as empty headed.At a houseparty, a private meeting goes awry where Lily's reputation is so compromised that Remmington must marry her. For Lily, who loves him, it is an answer to her prayers, but he is adamant that love is something he cannot offer - friendship, loyalty and respect but never love. Naturally he tries to fight his attraction for his wife but as more attempts are made on her life, he will soon come to realize that she is more than just his friend and bedmate -- she is the center of his world. This was a very rich and sensual love story, steeped in intrigue and mystery. The characters are complex, interesting and intelligent and the seduction is divinely sensual - extremely well written this is a most enjoyable read I can highly recommend.

I picked it up last week in a used bookstore because I remembered laughing out loud when I read it 3 or 4 years ago. I enjoyed it enough the second time round to throw my two cents in here. I'll leave it at that, a writer I'm not.

The characters of this book were great. Lily and Miles Remmington had great romantic wordplay. It is nice to have an intelligent female lead and a man who admires that. The fact that they were all embroiled in the War Department intrigue was very entertaining. This book was a good read. I am happy to discover Elizabeth Elliott's novels and I look forward to reading more.