Jessica's Guide To Dating On The Dark Side (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
The middle of this book was very very good. The beginning was very high school or maybe even middle school (which im not necessarily detracting for since that was the intended audience) but the ending was a real let down.Heroine: I think i could see how she would appeal to younger readers but i found her a tad obnoxious. She hates hero, she loves hero and no one else can have him, she doesn't believe in vampires, shes a vampire princess and has all the haughtiness of one. The author made it difficult for me to like her. The wishy washy feelings i could chalk up teenage absurdity, but her utter disregard for everything and everyone around her once she decided she loved the hero was outright obnoxious. Risking your horse's life numerous times, abandoning your best friend because shes worried about you? Lost me a little there, actually alot.Hero: Much like the book itself the middle is his shining moment. In the beginning he's haughty and condescending. He actually grows to be likable, very sweet towards the heroine and cute in his courtship of her. Then it all goes downhill and he grows cold and dark. That part is interesting, but dont endear him to me. Then he just grows cruel and his sudden switch at the very end isnt believable at allRomance: pretty abrupt and not terribly believable...as an adult. Thinking about my teenage romance.. well that makes it a little more realistic even if not necessarily better. What i dont like however is the message it sends to the intended age group. Basically it says if you love a guy and you think he loves you stick around no matter what he does and how cruel he is to you-he must have a reason for acting like an ass after all and that makes it all ok.Plot: Actually not too bad. It starts a bit slow and a tad high school but it goes to a fairly dark place. It had some interesting bits-like female vamps dont get fangs until bitten-but not alot of explanation as to why. In fact the whole mythology was pretty thin and there was no origin myth at all. The ending though...it was abrupt and made very little sense to me. I feel like the author could've done with a little less high school drama and a lot more development near the end. Or at least an epilogue to see how the couple fared. Writing: ok if a tad pedestrian. There were no errors that i noticed and it was an easy read. Again...it was geared towards a younger audience so i cant get too upset about that.Bottom line: It was a quick and fairly interesting read, but not for adults. Though with the romance part im really not sure its appropriate for the intended audience either. So in the end while its not bad im not sure who i could recommend it too I had high expectations from this book. Something about Vampire Princess- hell yeah. But sadly it didnt work out so. We had a hate at first sight sort of relationship here. The main character Jess had spunk at times but most times I was a bit disappointed in her. The narration was from her POV but there was this whole use of the word "begged" which really got on my nerve. I mean keeping aside the fact that you are a vampire princess, yes you dont believe that, but just a normal girl with spunk and self respect - you dont use "begged" ALL the time and forget that, a writer should use I mean some other verb please?Lucian's letters were amazing. Well written and completely different from the narration of the girl. And they were entertaining to read. About "Vampire" culture - there wasn't much in this book. I mean WHAT is it that makes a vampire different from humans. Just around a one page thing in the whole book. There was some history here and there but c'mon if you knew vampires were real - wouldn't you wanna know everrrything?Then moving forward, the "romance" the hate to love switch was flicked too fast for my taste. I mean the plot building up to that point wasn't smooth. And yeah lots of distraction here and there. So it was really hard for me to believe that "Im in love with you now." It felt the story dragged on after that. Oh and I though there'd actually be a "Guide on dating on the Dark Side" which would be funny or something. But there was just one quote and stuff here and there and they were not really funny.In a way, I do liked this book. But I just had really high expectations and hence was disappointed.
What do You think about Jessica's Guide To Dating On The Dark Side (2009)?
I hated this. It took me forever to get through. I wish I had never started it.
—Arpitha
Entertaining story and surprisingly sensual (without overt sexuality) YA book.
—Juebugs
When I read it a few years back I thought it was pretty funny.
—ramlah
