How to Date a Dead Guy: How to Date a Dead Guy, #1

By C. P. Fleur and Teresa Mummert

My life was a mess. Briarwick Academy offered me a chance to start over and finally move on from my past. But in order to get closure, I'd need to face the skeletons in my closet, and maybe even a few monsters.

 
I'd have to learn several hard lessons along the way, but if I followed the rules, I just might live to tell about it. The most important one would be the toughest – never give your heart to a vampire.
  
How to Date a Dead Guy is a vampire romance novel by a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author written under the pen name C. P. Fleur. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Teresa Mummert
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393428619

C. P. Fleur

C.P. Fleur is the pen name of New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Teresa Mummert, for her new Young Adult novel How to Date a Dead Guy.

Book preview

Synopsis

MY LIFE WAS A MESS. Briarwick Academy offered me a chance to start over and finally move on from my past. But in order to get closure, I’d need to face the skeletons in my closet, and maybe even a few monsters.

I’d have to learn several hard lessons along the way, but if I followed the rules, I just might live to tell about it. The most important one would be the toughest – never give your heart to a vampire.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2019 by Teresa Mummert and C. P. Fleur All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, photographed, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without explicit written permission from the author.

C. P. Fleur is the pen name for author Teresa Mummert

Agent: Kimberly Whalen of The Whalen Agency

Cover Art designed by Teresa Mummert

ISBN: 9781393428619

Contents

Synopsis

Dedication

Praise for the Author’s Other Work

Playlist for the Dead Guy

Rule 1: Never Show Fear

Rule 2: No Sudden Movements

Rule 3: Bare Your Teeth

Rule 4: Have a Getaway Plan

Rule 5: You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide

Rule 6: Never Turn Your Back on Anyone

Rule 7: Protect Your Vital Organs

Rule 8: Don’t Fear Death

Rule 9: Live, and Die, with No Regrets

Rule 10: Swing Like You Mean It

Rule 11: Be Your Own Hero

Rule 12: Always Break the Rules

Rule 13: A Quick Death is a Merciful One

Rule 14: Make Sure the Skeletons in Your Closet Are Really Dead

Rule 15: Never Give Your Heart to a Vampire

Rule 16: Remember the Rules

About the Author

––––––––

To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls,

draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.

– The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Dedication

To my husband and my children –

THANK YOU FOR PUTTING up with my late nights and long hours typing away on a keyboard. This dream wouldn’t have been possible without your understanding and encouragement over the years.

Praise for the Author’s Other Work

IF THERE'S ONE THING I can always count on with Teresa Mummert, it's her ability to craft a story so compelling that it leaves you pleading for more. She has a way of making you feel like you're living out each scene, every struggle, and each kiss. It truly is storytelling at its finest. - Author Brandy Lynn

Hands down one of the BEST books that I have EVER read!! - For the Love of Books

One of the most AMAZING novels I have ever read!!! - Flirty and Dirty Book Blog

This book was so incredible, I cried A LOT, I smiled, I loved, and I devoured this book. - Swoon Worthy Books

I truly loved it!! It was captivating and emotional. It tugged at my heart and soul—such an amazing story! - Author Kim Karr (Connections series)

I think this is my favorite Teresa Mummert book to date. - Author Emily Snow (Devoured series)

It is such a different book and plot. I just loved how unexpected it was. - Author Debra Anastasia (Poughkeepsie series)

Teresa Mummert has a gift, one that many don't possess. It's the gift of being able to suck in a reader so far they don't see the twist in the story coming. - Author S.K. Hartley (Bad Boys series)

SO D*MN GOOD!!!!!!!!!! I Loved it!!!! Incredible writing! Author Kathryn Perez (Therapy)

Every word captured me, and every sentence made me ache for the main characters in this beautiful story. - Author Amanda Bennett (Broken series)

This book was perfect. Flawed characters and a very real, dark past...interwoven perfectly into a web of lies and an amazing ending. - Author K. Pinson (Mirrored series)

It's a beautifully written, riveting story that grabs you from the beginning and keeps you guessing how it's going to unfold until the very end. - Author Sophie Monroe (Battle Scars series)

It's soooooooo good. I honestly loved it!!!! - Author Tijan (Fallen Crest series)

I think what I loved most was the originality of the story. Teresa nailed this one! - Author Maureen Mayer (Second Chance series)

I truly believe this to be a masterpiece story and one that will live in my heart for a long time and that Teresa needs to write a sequel and soon! - Author Vicki Green (My Savior Forever)

Playlist for the Dead Guy

Alessia Cara – Scars to Your Beautiful

Taylor Swift - Style

The Chainsmokers – Don’t Let Me Down

Billie Eilish - Bad Guy

Rachel Platten – Fight Song

Taylor Swift – Bad Blood

Imagine Dragons - Thunder

Billie Eilish - Bury a Friend

Nine Days – Absolutely (Story of a Girl)

Taylor Swift – Everything Has Changed

Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved

Daughtry - Over You

The Fray – How to Save a Life

OneRepublic - Counting Stars

Katy Perry – Dark Horse

Imagine Dragons - Demons

Rule 1: Never Show Fear

Nova

TODAY WAS THE FIRST day of my new life. Briarwick Academy was meant to be a fresh start. I could become someone new; someone likable. That’s the lie I told myself anyway.

What I didn’t know was that it was the day I’d meet my reason to live.

And I would be his reason to die.

It was a big day. It was the moment everything would change. And it started like any other morning. The clouds hung low in the sky, and there was a crispness to the air. I could smell the faint odor of rain in the distance. I hoped my mother would be able to outrun the storm, but as the sky grumbled and the automatic solar street lamps flickered on, I knew we were going to get caught in a downpour.

You’re going to be fine, my mother reassured me as I slung my worn bag over my shoulder and traipsed down the stairs from our second-story apartment to her car. It was the fourth time she’d parroted that phrase in the last hour.

I know, I sighed, forcing a smile as I dumped my belongings into the open hatchback of her white Geo Metro that we affectionately refer to as The Egg just as fat drops of rain began to splatter across the roof. This is going to be good for both of us. She would have an empty nest, a chance to go out and start dating again. After my father had ghosted her, she’d become obsessed with my life and had forgotten about herself. I needed to cut the cord, and that meant staying on campus instead of living at home.

I tried not to let my tears fall, as I watched my home, the only life I’d known, fade into the distance behind my oversized sunglasses. I was born and raised in New Salem, a small town in Pennsylvania that had more livestock than people and was steeped in urban legends. It was known for its shaker style homes and a drunk driver who killed a teenager last summer. The victim happened to be my best friend, Wyatt Braxton. We’d been inseparable since seventh grade when I made us matching friendship bracelets, and his hazel eyes still haunted me every time I went to sleep. My whole future was planned around him, and now he was just gone. It was like he’d never existed.

Nothing good came from New Salem.

My mother was hoping to rectify that. I wasn’t so sure it was possible.

Clutching my rulebook against my chest, I forced myself not to write. It was a habit I'd developed ever since I was old enough to put pen to paper. A successful life had rules, a structure. My therapist loved the idea. If you don’t like the direction of your life, change it. Work on yourself, and you’ll grow – or some such nonsense. It was supposed to help me open up and be able to express my feelings, but I used it as an intricate web of instructions that I followed to keep people at a distance.

But not today. Today I needed to live in the moment. I wanted to soak up every last second with my mother. This wasn’t just going to be hard on me. I felt her emerald eyes on my profile, could see her sad smirk in my peripheral vision. I could tell she was exhausted after working a double shift at the Starlight Diner. She even still wore her uniform, complete with a nametag on her chest that read Amy.

You’re going to love Briarwick. I know I only attended Edgewood for a few months, but it is some of the fondest memories of my life. I shook my head, dismissing her words. I know she didn’t mean it as an insult. My mother had her entire life planned, as well. But her life as a carefree young adult was short-lived. She met my father the following year, and I was born nine months later. She told me he used to come by every weekend, making the long trip from Briarwick Academy to New Salem. Those visits soon spanned weeks, then months. It had been fifteen years since he’d made an appearance. A guy like that didn’t settle down with a girl like her, she’d say. 

Edgewood Academy was only twenty minutes from Briarwick Academy and its greatest rival. It wasn’t for the obscenely wealthy, but for the gifted. My grandparents had shipped off my mother at sixteen in hopes that she would get out of New Salem for good, and have a chance at a better life. Instead, they got me. Unfortunately, I hadn’t inherited her intelligence, and now Briarwick would be the only way I could redeem our family name.

You don’t need to worry, I replied, picking at my nail, my fingers shaking. I’m going to make friends. I glanced up now, taking in her pained expression. I knew she was as desperate for me to make some meaningful connections as I was. One of the side effects of being an avid reader was never actually making the time to talk to real flesh and blood people. Just one more chapter became one more book, and before I knew it, It was my seventeenth birthday, and the only people to show up at my party was my mother and Wyatt. It was also the night I’d lose him forever.

I’m not worried... because I stole your Kindle charger, she mumbled, pulling her teeth across her lower lip.

You didn’t –

"I just want you to get the full experience. Go out, have a few laughs, kiss a boy. I promise I’ll give it back to you next time you come to visit. You are