Review: A SPOOKY & KOOKY ROMANCE TALE
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 12, 2014
Welcome to The Wiggins School For Elegant Young Ladies with mysterious happenings are afoot with chills, fears, screams & a stalking unseen nemesis!Tessa Crawford is a young teacher at The Wiggins School For Elegant Young Ladies, but is hiding her past & prays it will never catch up to her. Mrs. Wiggins, the headmistress, and her 2 fellow teacher & BFF, Claudia & Natalie, know all her secrets & have chosen to protect her. Tessa loves her students, but this fascination with the book, Walk Not The Dead, & that Viscount Atwood is a vampire, is trying on her last nerve & Eliza, Rosemary & Sophia are the worst of the bunch. Nights are the hardest for her, so she walks the night to calm her demons. One night a strange & unearthly tempest blows into the village & Tessa is slammed to the ground, by unseen weight!Vincent Latimer is the Viscount Atwood & he only walks the night, steals flowers from the other's gardens & visits his wife's grave every night. It's no wonder the village thinks he is a vampire trying raise his wife from the dead. The truth is that he was injured in the war & unable to go into sunlight, without severe pain stabbing into his head, so lives only in the night. Vincent has a fantastic valet/BF, Wesley, who cares, dresses, feeds, shares a whiskey with & basically keeps him alive. One night as he is visiting his wife's grave, an unnatural tempest blows into town, he sees a tree falling on a young teacher & slams her into the ground hard!This wild & untamed tempest not only throws trees & tombstones about, but merges Tessa & Vincent's lives together, for better or worse. Vincent's quick thinking saves they from the blowing landmines, they dive into his family crypt, but Tessa's head meets stone & blood gushes. They huddle together as the storm passes, but when walk out, see the utter destruction, Tessa freaks out about her students, takes off with blood streaming down her face & the village vampire in hot pursuit! When they reach the school, a huge tree inside in the school, scared, shivering students & teachers trying to taking roll call. The tree was in Tessa's room & she would of been crushed, if not for the night walk. Wesley suggests Vincent's home for shelter & the next thing Vincent realizes he has 1 headmistress, 6 teachers & 3 dozens young ladies camped out of his house until the repairs can be made to the school!With all Vincent's demands of absolutely quiet on his bedroom floor during the day, a battle line is drawn, but he always seem to be disturbed & crushing in the cellar. The 3 kooky vampire hunters-in-training ladies kick up a trouble galore & Vincent's sun sensitivity truly does not help. A strange & magically sexually ZING is delivered to both Tessa & Vincent, when they are in the same room. The meddling teachers & staff, an unwanted nemesis from both Tessa & Vincent's past resurfaces, mysterious happenings afoot & the driving desires between Tessa & Vincent make this romance goes from 0 to CREEPY in a nano second! Can Vincent save her before their shared past destroys them? Will Tessa's love be enough to help heal his pain? Can Vincent walk into the sun to save his Tessa? Will Tessa always be 2nd in Vincent's heart? How many times will Rosemary, Eliza & Sophia attempt to stake Vincent?This is my 1st Jane Charles book & so not my last. Sophia, Eliza & Rosemary were the 3 Buffys-in-training & they were exhausting just reading about them & I truly don't know how Tessa did it without killing them. Tessa was a heroine who was defined by one moment in time & it overtook her life, but she had 3 women that supported, cared & loved her. Vincent lives a controlled life of darkness, but all this females shook up his world & he did loved it. I don't know how Vincent survived without Wesley, his servant/BF and he is a Fairy Godfather in this story, because nothing happens without him at the helm! The only thing I missed was the steamy & sexy scenes, that I love so much. Ms. Charles writes a good, "chills up you spine", "hair on the back of your neck standing straight up" & thrilling ride in this spooky romance tale. She earns my score of 3 fingers up & 8 toes & can't wait to read the next installment of the Wiggins School For Elegant Young Ladies!This book was won in a contest & this is my honest review.