Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side - Beth Fantaskey
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
# of pages: 351 (pb)
Publisher: Graphia
Age Recommendation: 14+
**This is one of my summer reads that I apparently never reviewed. I'm trying to transfer all my Goodreads reviews over here, so here's this one**
I started this book in April and finally got around to finishing it in July. That rarely happens. But I just got to the point where I had to have a break from this sucker (no pun intended). Has that ever happened to you guys?
Well, the beginning was really good, the middle part was rubbish, and the ending was alright. Sorry for sounding crass - usually I try and sound more objective and mature when I write reviews, but this book just took all the emotion out of me. It's one of those up-and-down books: there were things that were really cool about it. For example:
Jessica as a character: I love well-rounded characters who undergo a transformation throughout the story - keeps them from being stagnate and boring. I like how she learned to be assertive and take charge of her life. Bravo.
I liked the vampire lore here: yes, even the biting. I mean, they're vampires, they bite! That's what they do. I thought the author, Beth Fantaskey, really brought a lot of creative material to the table, and I also enjoyed her writing style. She gave just enough information without being overdone, but every scene was described with care and precision. That's a very hard balance to maintain and I thought she did a good job. Except for the letters. Lucius' frequent letter-format correspondence to his uncle was meant to be funny and amusing, I know, but it just seemed incredibly... hmm, not a good idea to use the word I would normally use...it seemed incredibly lame.
And here's where I got turned off:
Lucius went from being intriguing to incredibly frustrating and then finally to annoying. I guess I just hate characters like Lucius, because I was not impressed by his actions one bit, and so I kind of wondered what exactly it was that Jessica saw in him. He was too bad, with practically no redeeming qualities. So as a reader, I'm supposed to like and connect to Lucius because he wants to keep Jessica safe, so he accomplishes this by screwing around with someone else? Hmmm. And that's my biggest beef with the story: the author had a great premise, but she blew it for me with the stupid Faith subplot. Completely unnecessary - there are so many other ways to have Lucius accomplish the overall goal of what he's trying to do. Wayward characters can just go die in a hole for all I care. Geesh! And so it seemed like Jessica all of the sudden decided she was in love with Lucius because...why? He's messing around with someone else...and she's...jealous? Maybe? I don't know, it was too weird. I don't really understand what she saw in him. I guess I like my boys unspoiled. :P
Anyway, it ended nicely, though, but I really sped through this one, just to be finished with it. A great concept that, in my opinion, was poorly executed. I don't know if I'd recommend this book to anyone - I know it's popular, and I'm sure other readers will enjoy it. I guess when it comes to vampires, I'm just more of an Edward Cullen type of girl. Albeit the sparkles.
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
# of pages: 351 (pb)
Publisher: Graphia
Age Recommendation: 14+
**This is one of my summer reads that I apparently never reviewed. I'm trying to transfer all my Goodreads reviews over here, so here's this one**
I started this book in April and finally got around to finishing it in July. That rarely happens. But I just got to the point where I had to have a break from this sucker (no pun intended). Has that ever happened to you guys?
Well, the beginning was really good, the middle part was rubbish, and the ending was alright. Sorry for sounding crass - usually I try and sound more objective and mature when I write reviews, but this book just took all the emotion out of me. It's one of those up-and-down books: there were things that were really cool about it. For example:
Jessica as a character: I love well-rounded characters who undergo a transformation throughout the story - keeps them from being stagnate and boring. I like how she learned to be assertive and take charge of her life. Bravo.
I liked the vampire lore here: yes, even the biting. I mean, they're vampires, they bite! That's what they do. I thought the author, Beth Fantaskey, really brought a lot of creative material to the table, and I also enjoyed her writing style. She gave just enough information without being overdone, but every scene was described with care and precision. That's a very hard balance to maintain and I thought she did a good job. Except for the letters. Lucius' frequent letter-format correspondence to his uncle was meant to be funny and amusing, I know, but it just seemed incredibly... hmm, not a good idea to use the word I would normally use...it seemed incredibly lame.
And here's where I got turned off:
Lucius went from being intriguing to incredibly frustrating and then finally to annoying. I guess I just hate characters like Lucius, because I was not impressed by his actions one bit, and so I kind of wondered what exactly it was that Jessica saw in him. He was too bad, with practically no redeeming qualities. So as a reader, I'm supposed to like and connect to Lucius because he wants to keep Jessica safe, so he accomplishes this by screwing around with someone else? Hmmm. And that's my biggest beef with the story: the author had a great premise, but she blew it for me with the stupid Faith subplot. Completely unnecessary - there are so many other ways to have Lucius accomplish the overall goal of what he's trying to do. Wayward characters can just go die in a hole for all I care. Geesh! And so it seemed like Jessica all of the sudden decided she was in love with Lucius because...why? He's messing around with someone else...and she's...jealous? Maybe? I don't know, it was too weird. I don't really understand what she saw in him. I guess I like my boys unspoiled. :P
Anyway, it ended nicely, though, but I really sped through this one, just to be finished with it. A great concept that, in my opinion, was poorly executed. I don't know if I'd recommend this book to anyone - I know it's popular, and I'm sure other readers will enjoy it. I guess when it comes to vampires, I'm just more of an Edward Cullen type of girl. Albeit the sparkles.
