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

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

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



OK, when you read the blurb for “Jessica’s Rules for Dating on the Dark Side”, it sounds like it’s will be the novel equivalent to “bubblegum pop”…you know, light, funny, easy. Boy, this book couldn’t have been further from bubblegum anything!

Jessica is going through life believing her anthropologist parents basically stumbled on her birth mother and was basically handed off to them to raise. But the reality is that her parents were Vampire Royalty and there is a lot more to the story than Jessica thought.

When Lucius shows up to claim Jessica as his betrothed, then her parents are forced to tell Jessica the real story of her adoption. To say that Jessica is reluctant to believe the story would be an understatement. Jessica also wants nothing to do with Luc who is sticking around to try and win Jessica over.

This was a little clichéd to begin with but got so much better as the story progressed. I loved how Luc was able to relay his side of what was going on via letters home to his Uncles. They were very funny but also very poignant. Also, Luc’s transformation from arrogant royal prig to an average American teen was quite interesting…and not totally welcomed. At least when he was “royal” he was polite and didn’t fall into the realm of self-pity…but if he didn’t do that then he wouldn’t have been able to become the guy Jessica needed.

I loved Jessica’s parents and how they were able to welcome Luc into their home and make him feel at home as well as experience what a loving, warm, and welcoming family is like. Something he never got to experience being raised by his Uncles.

Even though all this was being dumped on Jessica, and trust me, she felt really “put upon”…it was Luc that got my sympathy. In the beginning he didn’t think that Jessica could rise to the challenge of helping him rule the Vampires because of her common upbringing. But he regretted those thoughts when Jessica stood up to him in the end…and quite an end that was!




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