Old Review: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Darkside by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Darkside by Beth Fantaskey
Jessica, book #1

Next book in series: Jessica Rules the Darkside
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Hardcover: 368 Pages

Age Group: Young Adult (12+)
Author Website
Buy: Amazon
Source: Own
Date read: April 2009
Overall: 

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.

(Summary from Goodreads.)

 First Lines: The first time I saw him, a heavy, gray fog clung to the cornfields, tails of mist slithering between the dying stalks.

First off: This wasn't what I was expecting when I first learned about the novel. At all. I mean, it sounded really, really good. But I thought it would be a little like all the other vampire books I'd read. I hate getting into a novel like that, because I love vampires and I love reading about them. So I was a bit worried when I first got this book.

But I was wrong! Oh, so wrong!

I never expected to love it as much as I did. This quickly made it to my number one favorite book before I was even done with it. (Sharing spots with other books, of course!)

Fantaskey recreated the genre and made it her own. Which is extremely hard to do nowadays with the amount of Young Adult novels that are out in the book world. Plus the percentage of them that include vampires in them.

I can't remember how many times I cried while reading Jessica's Guide. And how many times I got completely ticked off with Lucius. At first I thought I was going to hate him throughout the book, but a little ways in I started to fall in love with him just as Jess was.

At first while I was reading, I thought things were moving a bit too fast. Too many things were happening and it was just the first chapter. But now that I'm done with it, I feel that if those things didn't happen as fast as they did, all the other events wouldn't have played out as great as they did.

I also loved how Fantaskey threw in some things from Lucius' perspective. It added to the story and really let you get to know him more, and how his mind worked.

I really liked Jess, too. She was an amazing protagonist. All her feelings were geniune and real and I felt I really got to know her throughout the novel. I feel as though she's one of my best friends. Which I love those feelings when reading a book.

I felt all the minor characters really added to the story too. They were all really interesting and I loved Jess' best friend, Mindy.

Fantaskey's style of writing was really great, as well. It all really flowed well and drew you in. I always felt as though I were right there, experiencing all the events that were happening throughout the novel.

Overall, it was a GREAT read. I will definitely be reading this again in the future. It's one of those novels where you have to reread them at least once or twice every year.
The end was very good!



Cover:
I really love this cover. It is completely gorgeous and I absolutely love Jessica's dress!
I recommend this to: Anyone who loves a good unique vampire book, and, of course, the hot vampire boyfriend.

Other books by this author:  Jekel Loves Hyde