Review: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads summary:

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.

My review:

I added this to my TBR list on a whim, and then found it on a routine library search and placed a hold. When I got the email alert that it was ready to be downloaded, I grabbed it and put it next in my queue.

Wow. It's not often that a book I get on a whim, and start reading with my finger poised on the "Home" key draws me in quite this hard. I was like a trout on the line and the book not only hooked me, it pulled me into the boat and served me for dinner.

Probably not the best analogy given this is a book about vampires. But I digress :)

So, the story. It loses one star only for being a little clunky with Jessica's transition in her feelings for Lucius, and the end of his pursuit of her. There seemed to be a little something missing for me. Yes, the horse incident and the Christmas dance were definite turning points and ah-ha moments, but my brain kept trying to work through they why's...especially Lucius'. It wasn't until later that I finally put those why's together.

Side note - Lucius' letters home to his uncle were, at the beginning, utterly hysterical and at times had me laughing so hard my husband shot me some very strange looks. Thankfully, he is used to this.

The surprising thing about Jessica's Guide is in spite of the title, and the almost overly-silly "guidebook" Lucius gives her (think Beetlejuice and the Handbook for the Recently Deceased....but one that reads more like a Cosmo article than stereo instructions), there is an amazing depth to this story. A fight for family, for one's own nature - whether to give in to it or to rise above it - and the lengths we will go to to protect what's ours.

The end had me smiling, sighing, and perfectly happy with the resolution. I have the online novella that serves as "Jessica 1.5" bookmarked for reading tonight while college football is on TV. I'm going to try and not dive right in to Jessica Rules the Dark Side...but I don't know how long I'll hold out.