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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 12 Aug 2009
Jessica has always known she is adopted. Her parents, the Packwoods, have told her the story of how they, as anthropologists, were studying her family in Romania when they were attacked. Jessica's birth parents begged the Packwoods to take their daughter to safety. Eventually, Jessica's birth parents and many others of her family are killed and the Packwoods return to the United States with a new baby.
Jessica hates the story. She hates the fact that her parents were the kind of freaks that anthropologists wanted to study in the first place and how her birth name sounds so ethnic and strange. Antanasia - what kind of name is that?
Jessica starts to get a little freaked out when she sees a strange and mysterious guy watching her from afar. At the same time, she starts hearing her birth name whispered in the air. Antanasia... When the same strange and mysterious guy shows up at school, she doesn't know what to think. It turns out he is an exchange student named Lucius Vladescu. When Jessica points him out to her mother and tells her how he gives off a weird vibe, she doesn't seem too surprised to see him. Jessica's mother even invites him home for dinner to talk.
All of this happens within the first 17 pages of the book.
Jessica (Antanasia) is a Romanian vampire princess who was betrothed to Lucius when they were born. The promise of their marriage has held their two clans, the Dragomirs and the Vladescus, in a tentative peace for years. If the wedding doesn't take place, there will be a large-scale war which will most likely lead to the destruction of the Dragomirs.
Jessica has a difficult time believing any of this. She has a hard time believing anything that can't be explained logically. Lucius attempts to win her over, while Jessica attempts to live her life like normal - pretending she isn't a vampire princess.
Both Jessica and Lucius go through major changes in the novel. They have time to examine their true feelings about family and duty. Beth Fantaskey does an excellent job keeping the reader guessing until the very end. You will constantly be reassessing your opinion about how the story will end. Personally, I found myself getting very nervous as I was getting toward the end of the book and I still thought there was so much that needed to happen.
Luckily, Fantaskey does a brilliant job tying up loose ends. JESSICA'S GUIDE TO DATING ON THE DARK SIDE could easily be the beginning of a series (I don't know if there will be a sequel or not), but it can also work as a great stand-alone novel.
JESSICA'S GUIDE TO DATING ON THE DARK SIDE has become one of my new favorite young adult vampire novels. I know I'll be reading it again.
Reviewed by: Karin Librarian
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Irresistible, 22 Aug 2009
This book should come with a health warning, seriously I couldn't put it down and refussed to do so until I had turned the very last page. I wont write another review as one already exist. Instead I will juts gush about the book.
Imagen hating something only to find out that when it's gone you want nothing more than to have it back. Well that's what happens to jessica when she looses the one thing she never even dreamed exsisted.
There were parts in this book that had me laughing out loud with tears streaming down my face, there were parts that gave me butterflies and parts that made me want to cry for the main characters.
Lucius is no Edward Cullen BUT I came to apreciate him in other ways and jessica is so much more appealing than bella swan, the reason i am stating this because every book with a vampire in lately is compared to twilight and there really are no similarities which I found refreshing. It's orginal and exciting!!!!
It truly was worth buying, I do hope there is a sequel.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and original, 20 Feb 2010
This review is from: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (Paperback)
Witty and at times ironic, 'Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side' is a fantastic example of an original vampire story in a world full of cookie-cutter Twilight clones.
The characters were realistic and their development was interesting to follow. Jessica, adopted by a pair of 'alternative' vegans after the death of her Romanian parents, is a quintessential nerd - a bullied mathlete who hides her bruised emotions behind a smart mouth and an almost obsessive reliance on logic. Lucius insists that he is her long-lost vampire fiance, and his clashes with Jessica always brought a smile to my face. Yet as the novel progresses, we learn that Lucius hides a troubled past behind his arrogance, and Jessica discovers that she must now fight to save the person she had previously thought she didn't care about. Lucius' letters to his uncle in particular were an interesting device, as they allowed us to get an insight into what Lucius was thinking and feeling, rather than focusing completely on Jessica's misguided perception of events. That made the story and it's tumultuous unfolding even more sweet, and allowed us to really get a good feel for Lucius as a character.
I've noticed that a lot of comparisons are made between this book and the ever-popular Twilight - however, beyond the fact that both books deal with vampires, the similarities stop there. Lucius is no Edward Cullen, and Jessica is no Bella, swooning endlessly over her vampire. Jessica doesn't even believe Lucius' claims to be a vampire for the first half of the novel, and by the time she figures it out the game has changed (to use a metaphor from the book), and she has to 'toughen up' and adapt to the strange new circumstances she encounters.
The writing style flowed easily, and the narrative was well-balanced between tension and humour; I found that I didn't want to put this book down! In particular, the snippets from 'Growing Up Undead' were hilariously appropriated from the numerous guides designed to help teens through adolescence.
In short, I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a fresh take on the often-stale paranormal genre. I will most definitely be ordering myself a copy of Fanteskey's next novel, 'Jekel Loves Hyde' when it comes out in a few months.
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