Book Review of "Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side" by Beth Fantaskey

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Title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Jessica #1)

Author: Beth Fantaskey 
Classification: YA Fiction, Paranormal 
Source: Public Library

Overall Grade: 

C - - (two minuses) 

Would I read it again? 

No. 

Would I recommend it?

(shrugs).

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Summary:

Jessica Packwood is waiting for the bus to take her to school on the first day of her senior year when she notices a dark, mysterious stranger across the road, staring at her intently. Then, just as the bus pulls up, she here's him whisper her old name, "Antanasia...".

You see, Jessica was adopted by her parents from Romania when she was just a baby and her Romanian name was discarded for a more "normal" American one. So how did this mysterious guy know her name... her real name?

Well, it turns out that the stranger is also in her first class of the day and is a foreign exchange student from Romania and is going to be staying with the Packwoods. Great. But that still doesn't explain to Jessica why he's here in the US and why he knew her real name...

That's when her parents reveal that when they brought Jessica to the US when she was just a baby, because her birth parents were killed in a deadly village riot, they forgot to mention one teeny tiny detail: her parents were vampires. Jessica is a vampire. Lucius Vladescu, the mysterious foreign exchange student, is a vampire. And before the untimely deaths of both Jessica and Lucius' birth parents, they made a pact that stated that the last heirs of the royal Dragomir and Vladescu lines would marry when of age, therefore creating a peace among vampires that had not been seen for centuries.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Ok, so not only is the hot new guy from Romania that has a strange accent and dresses like Mr. Darcy and talks like a Victorian Gothic novel staying with her family, he is also a vampire (which do not really exist... right?) and her so-called betrothed, sent to the US to fetch his new bride upon her 18th birthday, only a few short months away.

Well, she knew senior year was going to be interesting, but this wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind...

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My Thoughts:

The premise for this book was so intriguing, I knew I had to pick it up, and it seemed within the first few pages that I had made a great decision! Then, I realized something that made me cringe: I didn't believe Lucius Vladescu. And I don't mean this in the way that Jessica's character doesn't-believe-that-Lucius-is-a-"vampire"-like-he-says-and-that-he-is-maybe-just-a-little-bit-INSANE, either. What I mean is that I don't believe his sexy accent and his elaborate sentence structure and his ability--no, need, to command a room, even in a high school classroom. I just don't believe his act and his big vocabulary and I think his character is shallow and trite.

Believe me, it pains me to write this, because I so very much wanted to like Lucius. But I can't sit here and actually lie about what Fantaskey's writing is telling me: that she doesn't know how to breathe life into a character like Lucius. I will admit that Jessica's character is more believable and likeable. That is, until the end of the novel when the relationship between the teens changes, and then Jessica's character turns into something that is just as vapid as Lucius, in that her actions and words don't match what we previously knew about her character and I just did not buy it!

I know I may sound pretty harsh right now, so let me lighten the mood a bit. I am interested in their story. I want to love this book. But this cannot change the fact that every time Lucius spouts off a crazy monologue with antiquated turns of phrase, I cringe in my seat. So, I probably will not read the sequel, but I might if I have nothing else to read. Plus, I may not be as picky by then and Fantaskey may have switched gears for the next novel... you never know.

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Overall Grade: 

C - - (two minuses) 

Would I read it again? 

No. 

Would I recommend it to others?

(shrugs).

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