Christine was so thankful that
her friend Lainie decided to send her to the historic city of St. Augustine for her
birthday. Christine lives in Phoenix and is a
teacher for homeless children. She has been
working for 12 hours a day and can really use the breather.
Lainie knows that Christine has always loved historical buildings and sent
her to stay at the Monks Inn for a week.
The Monks Inn is a bed and breakfast that was
built in the 1700’s. As Christine gets
out of the taxi and starts to enter the wrought iron gates, she feels something. A woman standing there helps her but Christine cringes.
She hates being touched. She
was in an abusive relationship and finally broke it off.
She was even driven to get a restraining order out on Sean.
The woman that helps Christine is Ana, the owner
of the Monks Inn. She is a very friendly
person and gets Christine checked in. The
bell boy brings her luggage and is surprised that Christine is in Alejandro’s room. He tells her that no one ever occupies this room.
Christine finally meets Alejandro. It turns out that he is a ghost and Christine
feels that she is beginning to lose her mind. Alejandro
is a devastatingly handsome man and she begins to fall under his spell. Alejandro tells her to look into his eyes and when
she does, she dreams of a former life. In this former life, the British are getting ready
to leave Florida and the Spanish are coming back. Alejandro’s
family owned this house before her family moved in and he has petitioned the Spanish
Governor to have it restored to him. This
petition was granted and Christina’s family has one month to vacate the house. He tells her she must pay for her betrayal of him,
his family and their love.
Christine has no idea what it is that she has
supposedly done in the past that betrayed Alejandro.
She talks to Ana about it but Ana promised Alejandro that she would not say
anything about it. Christine is getting very
frustrated as she has begun to care very much about Ana and wants to help her in any way
she can. The only thing that Ana will tell
her is that she is about to lose The Monks Inn.
Christine doesn’t know how or why.
Christine is also falling in love with the ghost.
This is a very different kind of love story. Alejandro is still very chivalrous and Christine
adores this. He cares about Christine too
much for his own good. He has always loved
her but needs to make her pay for her betrayal so he can pass to the next plane of
existence.
Christine is scarred by her past relationship with
Sean. She is afraid to let anybody get close
to her and keeps a tight rein on her emotions. She
no longer trusts her judgment when it comes to people.
Sean was an evil man in the past and he is still the same evil man in this
life. He is a man that is very easy to
hate.
This is a wonderful paranormal romance. This story will keep you on the edge of your seat
trying to find out what happened and why. Christine
and Alejandro both sacrifice themselves for the other and I really felt that they deserved
to have a chance at happiness. This is a
wonderful romance that I recommend to anyone that likes a good ghost story.
Reviewed by
Chere Gruver for The Road to Romance
March 7,
2003 |
