Dark Companion by Marta Acosta

Title: Dark Companion
Author: Marta Acosta
Publisher: Tor Teen
Date Published: July 3, 2012
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

Jane Eyre meets Twilight in Dark Companion, a lush and romantic YA gothic tale about an orphaned girl who attends an exclusive private school and finds herself torn between the headmistress’s two sons.

Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of friends. She even starts tutoring the headmistress’s gorgeous son, Lucien. Things seem too good to be true.

They are.

The more she learns about Birch Grove’s recent past, the more Jane comes to suspect that there is something sinister going on. Why did the wife of a popular teacher kill herself? What happened to the former scholarship student, whose place Jane took? Why does Lucien’s brother, Jack, seem to dislike her so much?

As Jane begins to piece together the answers to the puzzle, she must find out why she was brought to Birch Grove—and what she would risk to stay there…

It's so good to read a book that leaves you with a satisfying ending. These days you will have series where the authors will end on a serious cliffhanger or if there are stand alones where the ending will be too picture perfect or too open.

This book has the kind of ending I want. Where things are resolved but the future isn’t set in stone.

This book was creepy at times but it was the good kind of creepy.  It made you shudder but at the same time you were surprised and more curious as to wait else awaited you.

There are tons of books out there about vampires, werewolves, witches, the usual paranormal stuff.  Why cannot they look into something like this? Yes from the summary it may seem like there are actual vampires in the book but don’t worry there aren’t, I cannot elaborate without spoiling but when you find out what's going on and who the people really are, it's surprising. 

Sometimes I wanted to smack Jane but the thing is I realized that it's not her fault that she was blinded at times, had she been able to see through half of the things it would have made her seem unrealistic because really who can? I think what I loved most about her was her determination. She could be easily hurt but she didn’t let people bring her down. She was her own person to rule.

I also loved all the side characters like Mary Violet.. she was hilarious. The rest of her friends were also great, they weren't flat or boring and they were kind of important, not just there for show. 

For me, it was love at first sight with our love interest Jack. The moment the author brings in him we know he is going to be hilariously awesome. You see, you have jerks, you have guys who aren't serious and act like idiots and then you have Jack. He was funny but he was also serious. The things he said totally made you think.

Of course there is a bit of a love triangle going on here but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a love triangle. It's complicated. Read the book you'll know. 

With that said I cannot believe that this book has a rating of 3.57. I would have given it a 5 if there was a little bit more to the mystery and paranormal aspect was looked into more because this book was seriously worth my time.