Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

By: Beth Fantaskey

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Author Beth Fantaskey injects a little humor into the vampire romance genre with this critically acclaimed debut novel. High school senior Jessica Packwood is a down-to-earth mathlete who's not sure what her future holds. What she definitely doesn't see coming is foreign exchange student - and vampire - Lucius Vladescu showing up at her door. According to Lucius, Jessica is actually vampire royalty, and they've been betrothed to one another since infancy.©2009 Beth Fantaskey (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"The romance sizzles, the plot develops ingeniously and suspensefully, and the satire sings." ( Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Surprisingly Fun!

Okay, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I enjoyed this much more than I should’ve. It’s an easy, at times silly and way over-the-top, and even satirical(?) take on the whole young girl meets dreamy vampire trope, but it was well done in that sense and very entertaining if you don’t try to take it too seriously. I actually didn’t want to put it down!

Of course all our characters could’ve been fleshed out more and their development and motivations could’ve been better..well..developed, but for what it is, it’s fun and a good listen as is.

The narrators, especially Katherine Kellgren, did a good job with bringing the fun and over-the-top atmosphere to the story. Where she lacked in giving some of the characters distinct voices, she made up for in acting out the various emotions in Jessica’s inner-monologues, which was fantastic! One of the best narrations, in that respect, I’ve ever heard. And I also enjoyed the narration of Lucius by the other narrator (forgive me, I don’t have his name in front of me). He does an amazing job bringing his letters to life and giving this character a lot more depth than he would have otherwise.

Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys a fun listen/read in the YA paranormal, vampire, comedic/satirical, romance genres. And although I got it through the Audible Escape membership, I think it’d be worth a credit.

amazing

loved love book so so much going to start the next one cant with hope it's as good as this one

My Thoughts

LOVED THIS BOOK!! Like some other people I thought it was going to be just another twilight, but I was SO WRONG!!!
It did not take me long at all to get swept away by the characters and their pulse pounding emotions... there are too many
oh my gosh and inside melty moments to pick just one but the moment at the dance when Luscious held Anastasia so close, both of them being swept away by passion and him nearly biting her!!! oohhh HOT!!

You get what you expect

I wanted an uncomplicated story, and this fit the bill.
I rather liked that Lucius' dark side has some genuine darkness and not purely teen angst.

fun but corny

fun but corny. more of a romance than a suspense novel. great performance by the readers.

great book

loved it!!!
such a great story and plot, the ending had the best twist to it!

Horse enthusiasts, beware!

Are you a Horse Person? Are you one of those people who were born thinking about horses all day long? If you are, you might want to avoid this book.

I grew up as the big sister to a Horse Person, and I used to prescreen books for equine-related inaccuracies for her. Poor research about horses abounds in literature and movies, and this drives Horse People to distraction. And if something bad were to happen to a horse in the story then forget the whole thing!

Well, apparently I still automatically prescreen for poor equine research, and now it drives me nuts too. This book is full of poor equine research, permanent bad things happen to horses in this story, and even though the main character is supposedly a horse person herself, she frequently treats her horse like a car. You know, like something you can park and forget about, even to the point of leaving her poor mare out in the front lawn overnight fully saddled. This was after a 4-H Show where someone without a team and no previous 4-H experience rode a completely green, abused, supposedly 18-hand Mustang mare in a jumping competition. There are six separate highly improbable things in that last sentence!

Anyway, if my Horse Person sister had encountered this book when she was a teen (or let's be real, now too!), she'd have been very angry and upset.

Now, after all that, horses aren't even really the main element of this book. However, it illustrates one of several places where the author chose to take the easy road and use shallow caricatures instead of putting more work into her research and plot-building. I've grown to appreciate it when someone puts in effort, and this book left me noticing all the places the author avoided it.

So at this point, if you're not a Horse Person, you probably think I'm nuts and I don't blame you. From the other reviews so far, non-Horse People don't notice a thing about any of this. But hey, Sis! I've still got your back! Don't listen to this one -- you will throw your poor mp3 player across the room and call me up to rant and rave!

Nice surprise

Wow, I am glad that i did not judge this book by it's cover. (so cliche, i know!) The title made it feels as though it would make fun of the current vampire craze, but actually this story has depth. The characters are amazing, three dimensional and relate-able. I can see why some people compare it to the twilight series, but i actually don't agree. The characters are completely different and the plot doesn't compare at all. (Well besides vampires going to public high school.)Jessica is a great character and she is reluctant to actually accept the supernatural in front of her. In most of these PNR /YA novels i am always a little skeptical when the "human" easily accepts that vampires, werewolves or whatever exist. Jessica took it a bit far, but i found it more realistic. I definitely recommend this book to fans of the genre.

Great book!

I must admit, at first I was a little off put by the reader of this book. She is a little older to be reading as a teenager, and her impression of luscious voice was slightly comical and difficult to listen to at first. Regardless, I loved this book! It has a wonderful story line and very endearing characters. I am very much looking forward to her second novel "Jessica rules the dark side". You will not be disappointed with this read.

Pretty Good!

This story started out really good, fast paced, engaging, funny, and really held my attention. Somewhere past the middle and towards the end it slowed up and started to drag a little. However, it came full circle with a very satisfying ending. It was worth listening to, and I would be open to listening to the next book in the series. This book was a selection in the Romance Package so I was able to listen for “free” with my subscription. A good choice!

A note about the narration which was great, great, great ALL the way through, even the slow parts. Both Katherine Kellgren, one of my favorites, and the male narrator did a totally spot on narration. It was a Real pleasure to listen to them(!), and definitely added to my overall enjoyment of the story.