Too Wicked to Kiss Gothic Historical Romance

TW: Domestic/Familial Abuse. *Several women in this story suffer abuse at the hands of men. Our Heroine is abused by her stepdad and locked in small spaces. Another woman is beaten by her husband. The Hero gives these men back what they dish out. And almost loses his mind when he thinks he has accidentally grazed the heroine’s face with his palm. * Lioncroft is suddenly the host of a party that his sister conveniently forgot to mention. After being accused of murdering his parents over a decade ago, he hasn’t been much for keeping the company of the people who whisper about him. One of his guests happens to be Evangeline. A wild haired, shy girl who is not only fleeing from her abusive stepfather, but also happens to get visions of people’s past and future when she touches them. These visions leave her with headaches and sometimes full on fainting spells. She learns that somehow Lioncroft’s touch doesn’t give her visions and she is able to relax more around him. Until one of the other guests ends up murdered. The others point a finger at Lioncroft saying that he’s murdered before why not again? Evangeline sets out to discover who the murderer is and although she can’t get a vision from Lioncroft everything in her body says he’s innocent.

I've had to think long and hard on what rating to give this. The book felt manic depressive to me, jumping from a gothic romance to a Regency romp in the space of a single paragraph, then back again with a sidetrack to social mores of the times. The hero was all dark and broody and violent one minute, then a grinning, flirting buck of the ton the next. Even my mood swings are that dramatic. The heroine was some strange combination of naive yet lusty wench, capable psychic, logical detective and lonely little girl. The plot was thin, the side characters kinda useless, the main characters couldn't find their arses with a map, both hands and the lights on half the time, and the whole murder plot fell far short of my gothic expectations. Despite these problems, there were some funny lines and I did like Gavin and Evangeline together, even if things moved way fast even for a romance book. I just wish the author could have done more than pull up several handfuls of cliche to pad the story. Or even just stuck with one kind of cliche. I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't all over the place.