Too Wanton To Wed by Erica Ridley

Too Wanton To Wed Series: Gothic Love Stories
on August 23, 2019
Genres: Fiction/Romance/Gothic Romance
Pages: 386
Goodreads

TRAPPED IN DARKNESS

Violet Whitechapel committed an unspeakable crime to save a child. To escape the hangman’s noose, she takes refuge in a crumbling abbey with secrets darker than her own. When its master offers her a temporary post, Violet cannot say no. Just as she begins to see him in a new light, her past catches up to her and endangers them all…

THEIR PASSION BURNS BRIGHT

Alistair Waldegrave keeps his daughter imprisoned in the black heart of his Gothic abbey. As he searches for a cure to the disease the villagers call demonic, his new governess brings much needed light into their lives. But how can the passion between them survive the darkness encroaching from outside their sheltered walls?

Two Wanton to Wed is book three in the Gothic Love Stories series by Erica Ridley. I think this book is one of my very favorites. Violet Whitechapel is on the run for murder when she collapses on the front steps of an ancient Abbey. Little does she know that the man within is suspected of being a vampire. Has she run from one deadly situation into another? I think Ridley is a master at developing her characters into touchable, believable people. She layers them carefully, and then through the course of the story strips them down to the core of their hearts. Their motivations stay true to their understanding of their surroundings – true or false. I loved the tortured hero Alistair Waldegrave. “His black hair was shiny and thick, and curled slightly at the nape. His sooty lashes and dark eyes stood out starkly against the pale beauty of his face, but his most arresting feature was the wide, perfect mouth above his strong chin. He’d dressed for dinner in clothes equally as outdated as his earlier vestments, but nothing could hide the fine quality of both cloth and cut, or the leanly muscled figure beneath the costume. His movements were graceful, his every gesture confident and purposeful.” Ridley just hits it out of the park with this one. There are several steamy sex scenes. I have adored Ms. Ridley’s Regency romances – my favorite being Lord of Pleasure, but I certainly hope she is planning on writing more gothic romances.