Hoping for a restart in life, the heroine takes everything she owns and accepts employment as a teacher at a school for gifted children-gifted like herself. There she meets the less than welcoming gruff doctor. She's horrified to find out he recognizes her from her previous employment as a medium. He makes it perfectly clear that he's disgusted with her as a person and the idea that she's a teacher to young impressionable minds. But not only is she;s not the fraud he thinks she is- she's in fact a very capable witch. She has a level head and is calm and cool in every situation that arises and- much to the hero's displeasure-he admires her for it. In fact he spends the entire book divided between his stubborn ignorant judgment of who he thinks she is and his growing admiration and attraction towards her. The heroine is just waiting for him to decide whether he actually likes her or not. As soon as he begins to laugh with hero they begin to develop a connection-he has to say something or do something to screw it up. He ran hot and cold like nobodies business and she was just along for the ride. But I loved her character. She had such confidence which radiated from her so that even if she was hurting from some smart comment he made or worrying about the safety of a student-she never let them see her sweet. It made you strongly dislike the hero as a person. He was ignorant and so stubborn in his treatment of a woman he really knew nothing about. This was a home run as far as story line went. I found it to be slow paced and it often dragged. There wasn't much of a conflict other than a demon which showed up more than halfway through the book. But I enjoyed-in a way-the slow burn and realistic love affair between the two characters-though in honest I much prefer a passionate dramatic love story. ( )

regency, magic, love ( )

Not for the first time I finish Isabel Cooper's book and find myself torn between admiration for the fabulous idea and disappointment that the book couldn't quite rise to my expectations. Does that make any sense?

The start is good and reminds me of Harry Potter with all the children in this school in the woods with magical gifts. The kids are really fascinating, and I enjoyed reading about them and their training, but it's all crumbs which leave you starving for more.

I even enjoyed Olivia and Gareth on their own, it's their interactions which inevitably became the main plotline and followed all the cliches of historical romance that pissed me off.

I desperately want for the series to be something MORE. The first book has an assassin from the future who wants to prevent the end of the world and an honest to God mage, the second book has a real medium and a magical healer... It's awesome, peeps, especially when these two couples are together in the same school.

There could be all sorts of weird and wonderful things in such combination - fights and training and amazing intrigues, but no. What we get is a historical paranormal romance, and that makes me want to beat my head against the wall. WHY are we given all these delicious threads when they are never going to be unravelled?

*sigh*

My own fault for yet again expecting something that the book is not. Still, I recommend this series because it is pretty unique. ( )

I really wanted to love this book. I have started reading historical paranormal and the ones I have come across I love. When I first read the synopsis for Lessons After Dark I was excited. It sounded like a fun, romantic read.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find that. For me the story dragged. It dragged so much that I was not eager to pick this back up when I had to set it down. I was hoping this would be a fun, light hearted, romantic read and it wasn’t.

The characters were ok and I like the premise a lot but not enough to ever reread it.