Review: Too Wicked To Wed by Cara Elliott

Too Wicked To Wed
Book 1 in the Lords of Midnight series
Author: Cara Elliott
Publisher: Forever
Genre: Historical Romance
ISBN: 9780446584579
Release date: October 25, 2011
Author's website:  Cara Elliott

Outspoken and independent, Lady Alexa Bingham enjoys the heady freedom of making all her own decisions, even though the challenges of overseeing her family's country estate are daunting. But when a chance encounter with London's most notorious rake awakens a secret longing for adventure, she accepts her aunt's invitation for a Season in Town . . . only to find that breaking the rules of the ton has serious consequences.

The Earl of Killingworth uses his rakehell reputation to hide the fact that poverty has forced him to work for a living. As the owner of a gambling den and brothel, Connor has no time for glittering ballrooms or innocent young ladies. But after a reckless wager leaves him with a new business partner, he is forced to take a risky gamble . . . Will the cards fall in their favor? Alexa and Connor begin to play a dangerous game of intrigue and deception as they seek to outwit a cunning adversary who wants to put them permanently out of business. But if they are not careful, it is the flames of their own fiery attraction that may destroy them.

In this new series we are introduced to the Wolfhounds.  3 friends that are the talk of society, but sometimes it's not in a good way.  Connor Linsley is known as the Irish Wolfhound due to his reputation.  Along with his 2 best friends Gryff and Cameron, drinking, gambling, and having women fall at their feet is their life.  But Connor soon meets his match in Alexa Bingham and after a night of foolish drinking on the part of his friend Gryff, Alexa becomes part owner of Connors business which is a brothel.  He thinks it's not ladylike for her to be involved in it but Alexa thinks other wife.  She's actually very good at business and Connor soon realizes that.  Alexa helps Connor when his life is threatened and as a result they both must go into hiding until they can figure out who tried to have him killed.  They hide out in his ancestral home until it's safe to return to London.  Until then, they both get to know more about each other and Connor realizes that Alexa's attitude is refreshing and that's she just what he needs.  Alexa gets to see that Connor is more than a cad.  He cares about his employees at the brothel and thinks highly of women which was something that a lot of men didn't do at that time.

I enjoyed the scenes in which Connor and Alexa were falling for each other. You could just tell that they wanted each other, but hid their feelings from one another.  The scenes at the ball where Alexa was looking  for him was cute as the other ladies were whispering things about him.  Little did Alexa know that he was falling for her then as she was falling for him.

I'm giving Too Wicked To Wed a rating of: 

There were a few times that I thought the storyline was a little slow and the book didn't have an overall exciting feeling to me. I like the idea of them men having their own little clique and am curious to read Gryff and Cameron's stories. Cameron's especially because he's got something going on that is hinted at in the book that is very secretive. I'm also hoping that the other books in the series might have a little more excitement to them than this one did.