Book of the Moment: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
Author: Beth Fantaskey
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Graphia
Released Date: Feb 1, 2009
Source: Library
Interest: Synopsis





Synopsis:
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.
~Goodreads


This book is sadly one of those books that I have judged by it's cover. It's a worldly known fact to never judge a book by it's cover, but I just can't get rid of that habit. The cover is definitely nice and all but I have this issue where I tell my self I'm not a freaky vampire book geek...when really I have my moments where I totally am one. There's this guy who's dancing with a girl and his fangs are popping out and it just seems cheesy to me. But by reading the synopsis, I found the book intriguing and well, all the other book I had read in the library and the books I was going to read hadn't arrived from the other libraries yet, so I had to settle with this one.

Jessica is a total type A and only believes in logical and reasonable explanations for everything. So when Lucias pops out of no where telling her that she's his vampire bride, Jessica gets freaked out and just assumes that he's just a really hot crazy guy. Usually I'm not into those type A kind of people but in this romantic story, Lucias and Jessica's dynamic worked together in the greatest possible ways. Jessica has really good character development through out the book and I really loved seeing her realizing who she was and who she had to be. She started out being sort of shy and one of those faces that blends right into the crowd but towards the end she has a true identity and calling of who she is. I was really impressed by that and she was so real too! I kept getting surprised by how real she was by that fact that she wasn't some supermodel but what made her beautiful was her confidence and royal attitude. Jessica is just 5'3 and a size ten! So, she's definitely no supermodel, but with her confidence, Lucias was pining over her.

Speaking of Lucias...
OH.HOT.DAMN.
TO.THE.MAX.
Can I just say I loved him? Like really, truly loved him. In the beginning I just thought he was this royal snob but reading through this book, I realized even though he had arrogance, that was one of the main things that made him hot. He's confident in who he is although there are times he's scared of who he might become in the future. He's a smart ass and superbly intelligent and he's not one of those prissy royals either. He's strong and regal. Some of my favorite parts in the book was when he was writing letters to his uncle and I got to see his perspective on things. I swear it's one of the funniest things I've ever read. He's this huge smart ass but he's also somewhat clueless about American culture. His point of view on our culture is just down right hilarious. But I was seriously in love with Lucias. If I ever met a guy like him, I would never let him go. Ever. Even if I was offered a million bucks. Never. I have a feeling he's going to be the character of the month for June...mmmmhmm...

The beginning and middle-ish parts of the book was all fun and games but towards the end it gets more on the serious side. The book becomes really dark and I was completely frustrated with Lucias and Jessica. The book gets serious and you heart goes racing. I remember biting my nails and hyper ventilating at some parts. So although the end parts are not funny and amusing as the rest of the book, it's still thrilling in it's own way.

This book was definitely one of the best I've ever read and I had such a great time reading it. I stayed up way past the time that I'm usually able to go all night owl to just  finish this amazing book. I loved it and this is definitely a book for that insatiable Twilight fix!

Since this book was so awesome, I'm going to give it one of my rare "Ate It All Up" awards! Woo hoo!

Does this sound good? Buy it from your local bookstore!