Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark side (Jessica, #1) by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 Stars

I am very torn with Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, I wanted to rate 3 stars, but overall, I feel that the writing quality deserved 2.5 stars.

Jessica is your typical teenage girl, she has a best friend and a crush, however, Jessica is nothing, but abnormal. Jessica is adopted and one day her past comes back. Lucius is a vampire prince and he shows up in Jessica’s life to honor a pact Lucius and Jesscia’s biological parents made, which is, Lucius and Jessica are to be wed when Jessica turns 18.

The summary is pretty cute. I’ve been putting off reading because I wasn’t too fond of the title (I sort of had this idea that it would be a step by step read of a guide book), but I was wrong, so I am glad it’s not what the title claims it to be, very misleading and silly.
I think the fault lies on the writing. I feel like 100 pages could have been edited out and practically the whole story leads up to the last 5 pages and a very disappointing cliff-hanger ending.

I think Jessica is ridiculous, she really does act like a silly teenage girl and I do not care for her at all, she only redeems herself towards the end, which probably was the most interesting part of the read. I found Lucius to be pretty funny, although it took me a bit to get comfortable with his dialogue, I finally was okay with it, but I thought it was a bit dramatic and not necessary. Lucius tried to speak like his from a different time-period, but it didn’t quiet flow, it wasn’t like I was reading a Jane Austen’ novel.

There’s plenty of banter back and forth, which I LOVE in a book, but there was just too much in the book. Like I said, 100 pages could have been omitted. I felt like the whole story was a tease for the final 5 pages and it left me feeling a little angry, okay, a lot angry and downright pissed off.

The story was too descriptive, also, I didn’t care for Lucius’ letters to his uncle, (it was a different take of Lucius’ POV), it should have been 100% Jesscia’s POV, or 50/50 with Lucius.

Finally we get to the twist, the part I was kind of confused. So, yeah it wasn’t anything expected, but I didn’t think there were enough clues in the beginning of the book for me to I don’t know accept the twist. I felt like it was kind of thrown in there just to be “different”.

I’m debating if I should continue on with the series or leave it as a lost cause. I am undecided for now.


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