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Too Wicked to Kiss

by Erica Ridley

reviewed by Valarie Pelissero

March 2010, 352 pages, Publisher: Zebra, ISBN: 1420109936

Erica Ridley's debut book, Too Wicked to Kiss, left me conflicted. It was hard for me to take the Gothic aspects seriously when blended with the comedic elements. The number of romance clichés alone would have made me hate this book. So instead I chose to think that the author was doing a parody of the Gothic genre. I did a lot of eye rolling over story details, but then Ms. Ridley would throw in something so totally ridiculous that I had to be amused.

Our intrepid heroine, Evangeline Pemberton, like her mother before her, is clairvoyant (mostly). When she touches someone and focuses on a single question she can see either the past or the future. When she isn't focusing on a single question her visions are random. But these visions give her massive headaches, and if the vision is violent can put her life in danger. One would think that Evangeline would always wear gloves so that she wouldn't get unwanted visions and headaches, but she doesn't. Instead she wears the pair of half gloves her mother gave her that leave her fingers bare.

Evangeline is on the run from her stepfather, who keeps her, once again like her mother before her, locked up so he can use her gift. Evangeline has run to the home of her mother's childhood friend, Lady Stanton. Lady Stanton, and her daughter Susan, kidnap Evangeline so they can use her for their own ends. Lady Stanton knows about Evangeline's gift and wants her to “read” Gavin Lioncroft to determine if he truly is a killer before Susan compromises herself with him and they are forced to marry. Evangeline gets no images from Gavin which makes her wary of him. Her mother didn't get any visions of her evil stepfather and look how that turned out. So Evangeline believes that Gavin and her stepfather are cut from the same cloth.

Gavin has been accused of murdering his parents a decade ago. It was never proved, but he has been ostracized by both his siblings and by society ever since. His sister, Rose, has come to visit and he is willing to do anything to reconcile with her - even host unwanted house guests. But when Rose's husband turns up dead, Gavin is once again accused of murder. Lucky for him the rest of the guests aren't too keen on calling the magistrate, so it is up to Gavin and Evangeline to ferret out the killer.

While all of this is going on Susan Stanton is desperately trying to avoid being put into a compromising position with Gavin, whom she calls “Lionkiller” instead of Lioncroft. She is a shallow, vapid gossipmonger who is no longer welcome in society and will do anything to avoid living with her mother for the rest of her life. Susan Stanton is the comic relief in the story. She does befriend Evangeline and recognizes that Gavin and Evangeline have feelings for each other, but that doesn't stop her from wanting Gavin for herself (despite not liking him). Lady Stanton is over the top evil, as is Evangeline's stepfather. The rest of the house guests are in this book strictly for the hero and heroine to play off of, and none of the characters, not even Gavin and Evangeline really have any kind of motivation for their actions. And yet…I still had fun with the book.

See how many romance conventions there are? How can you take this Gothic seriously? I liked both Evangeline and Gavin as characters despite their lack of understandable motivations. I mean how can you not like a brooding hero who has an epiphany that maybe he wouldn't have been ostracized by society if he had just been friendlier? How amusing is that? Naturally everything works out as it should with lots of melodrama and over-the-top cliches. Ms. Ridley has made Susan the heroine of her next book, and I have to read it just to figure out how she is going to redeem that character. Read Too Wicked to Kiss with a sense of humor and you will enjoy it, just don't try to take it too seriously.

Reviewed by: Valarie Pelissero