Moonlight And Belladonna A Hartwood Holiday Romance: Halloween (A Hartwood Holiday Romance) by Jae Dawson – Review by Roxsanne Lesieur

Moonlight and Belladonna by Jae Dawson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a small town romance with some characters with big personalities, Cade Owens is the frontman to a very popular rock band and Belladonna (or Bella) Pagano is a high school arts teacher and when they run into each other in the woods, even though they are there for completely different reasons, Bella to do a ritual to find love with her mum and Cade to drunkenly escape from his current situation, but it leads to more than they both were bargaining for when Bella tries to stop Cade from driving home drunk and he crashes into a lampost and ends up in jail overnight instead.

When his lawyer comes to speak to him the next day, he is ready to just brush the whole thing under the carpet with just a fine, but Cade decides to take his punishment and complete the hours community service and pay the fine for repairing what he damaged, he feels like it will do him more good, but starts to regret it when he realises that the community service will be with Bella at the school. Meanwhile Bella is struggling to get the students’ enthusiasm up for that year’s musical, Little Shop of Horrors, especially when she knows it is the only thing standing in the way of the department losing all of its finding for the next year, to only be told that not only is she getting a student who is serving community service, but Cade Owens as well!

Now Cade has agreed to this community service he has to break the news to his manager and bandmates, but some are more accepting than others and he is trying to ignore the messages, phone calls and demands for new songs as much as he can, but between juggling that, being at the school twice a week and looking after his grandpa, he is wearing thin, but thanks to a kind neighbour, he is just about able to cope. So he starts to spend his tuesdays and thursdays at the school with the students and Bella, the atmosphere is purely professional around them and the kids who are thoroughly in awe that THE Cade Owens is helping out at their school, but Bella allows them to do the whole fan thing for a bit, then gets down to work with the student on community service in the AV and lights setups while everyone else works on their parts and on the set.

Will this unlikely duo be able to pull off the perfect musical and wow the school board, or will the life of a rockstar get in the way? Will they be able to keep their relationship purely professional, or will the love ritual bear fruit and lead to something more? This is a tale of romance, music and life changing decisions, but how it all ends is something you will have to read to find out.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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