Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey Series: Jessica #1
Published by Harcourt on February 1st, 2012
Genres: Paranormal Romance, YA
Goodreads
The undead can really screw up your senior year ...
Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction.
You know that feeling after reading a 8 star (yep I said 8 star) book. A book so amazingly fantastic that you know the next thing you read will be a horrible disappointment and a complete waste of time. Well that was how I felt when I finished Ashfall by Mike Mullin, and I knew I needed something light and airy with enough predictability to keep my newly pumped up expectations at bay. This was my motivation for picking up Jessica’s Guide to Dating the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey. I needed something nice, familiar, and light to bring me down from the high of Ashfall. I didn’t read any reviews about Jessica’s Guide because to be honest I knew what to expect.
An “average” American teenager, who learns she is a princess AND vampire. I knew Jessica’s Guide would make me laugh, and piss me off. I knew that I would have a love hate relationship with Lucius, the hot overbearing “I’m trying to protect you” vampire prince. I knew that Jessica Antanasia would be undeniably beautiful but completely oblivious to it. But when you put my know-it-all mentality to the side I found that it was more than a light and predictable read. It had some substance, it was unbelievably cute (even when it aggravated the hell out of me) and most importantly it held my attention until I was finished. Yes you have your average YA story line, and characters but I appreciated their development. Jessica Antanasia didn’t see Lucius and fall madly in love with him. She screamed at him for being a creepy stalker guy and ran away. Now here is a smart girl, a bit too logical, but smart none the less. She see’s a tall and foreboding boy staring at her on a deserted road and she does not do the typical YA heroine thing by chasing after him, or finding out why he was staring at her. She runs on her school bus and keeps her distance from Mr. Creepy.
At first.
I really loved this aspect of the book. Even though I do occasionally love a good insta-love story, I do tire of them quickly. Speaking of my squirrel like attention span I did find that parts of the book did drag just a bit. I know it was just developing the characters but how much development can two 18 year old’s go through in six months? But hey, it’s the first book in the series and I know it won’t be perfect, even if it did thoroughly surprise me.
Can you guess the outcome just from the blurb? Yes. Are the characters just a tad whiny and indecisive? Yep. Will love be in their futures? Um hum. Will that stop you from picking it up? NO! Jessica’s Guide was a quick and pleasant read, perfect for those lazy day reads.
