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

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.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

To start with, I was intrigued by the cover.  The title made me think that the book would be a lighthearted romantic book.  While it was romantic, it was a darker read, to which the title didn’t seem to fit with me. 

Moving on though, the story itself was intriguing.  Jessica is a very logical girl, a mathlete, whose adoptive mother studies myths and other cultures.  Seventeen years ago she and her husband had been observing a sub-culture in Romania when a couple asked them to adopt their baby daughter before they were killed.  So, Antanasia becomes Jessica, and grows up an American teenager in rural Pennsylvania.  At first when Lucius tells that he is a vampire, and he is her vampire princess, she rejects it and clings to her logic.  Eventually he breaks through her defenses and rational barrier.  I enjoyed seeing Jessica’s growth as she came to know her destiny.  The vampire guide to growing up undead was hilarious: reminding me of other “growing up” books that your parents might foist on you or even read with you as a teenager (shudder!).

Rating: 3.5 stars

Pages: 351 (hardcover)

Published: February 1, 2009