#beth fantaskey

[the-final-sentence]

The jobless guy with the shaggy hair, and the goatee, and the Goodwill swim trunks - and the killer abs that I got to see all the time now, since shirts were completely optional - grabbed onto me again, and kept his fingers wrapped around mine the whole way to Terrible Taco, and I was really proud that he was mine.

Beth Fantaskey, from Jessica Rules the Dark Side

[quietly-reading]

“I always thought about you. From the night I took you home. I never really stopped thinking about you.” 

― Bethany Griffin, Dance of the Red Death

[wyseink]

Allow me to do at least one common courtesy for you. In spite of what 'women's lib' teaches you, chivalry does not imply that women are powerless.

Lucius Vladescu (from Beth Fantaskey’s Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side)

[dunnetwins]

books read  ⇨ jekel loves hyde

[the-final-sentence]

And I never asked.

Beth Fantaskey, from Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

[dunnetwins]

books read  ⇨ jessica’s guide to dating the dark side

[checkoutmybookshelf]

You Have My Attention: The Jessica Books First Lines

Everybody loves a good vampire, and Beth Fantaskey's vampires are truly the best mix of Jane Austen and Dracula I have ever seen. So how do these YA books catch readers?

The first time I saw him, a heavy gray fog clung to the cornfields, tails of mist slithering between the dying stalks. It was a dreary morning right after Labor Day, and I was waiting for the school bus, just minding my own business, standing at the end of the dirt lane that connected my family's farmhouse to the main road into town.

-- Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

"Mother?"

The snow swirls around her, and she stands with her back to me, her body enveloped in a bright red cloak. Crimson...Mihaela's color. The queen who once ruled the Dragonirs looks like a splash of blood against the expanse of white, and yet she is as strong and substantial as the jagged Carpathian rocks that rise out of the lonely Romanian mountain where we always met.

-- Jessica Rules the Dark Side

[faithreads]

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

★★★☆☆

I couldn't even process the "getting married" part, or the thing about "decreed." He'd lost me at "vampire." Nuts. Lucius Vladescu is completely nuts. And I'm alone with him, in an empty barn. So I did what any sane person would do. I jammed the pitchfork in the general direction of his foot and ran like hell for the house, ignoring his yowl of pain.

While no literary masterpiece, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side is certainly entertaining! The beginning is easily the strongest, with the middle being weak, and the ending so-so. Each section has a very distinct tone: 1) funny, 2) unnecessarily dramatic, 3) dark and serious. Personally, I believe that the comedic side work best for this book, and I especially loved Lucius' musings on American culture.

Some stereotypes did seem heavy-handed on both sides for American and Eastern European. However, as far as characters were, I really liked Jessica and her character growth from gawky teen to confident princess-to-be. Lucius could be great or veer too far into arrogant/angsty. However, the two together definitely made for an entertaining pair.

While I feel like it would have been best to keep a more consistent tone (aka comedic), overall this book is really fun!