Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

By: Beth Fantaskey

I enjoyed this book quite a bit.....I found it to be creative and original - somewhat different from the typical vampire stories that I see in the bookstores. It was well written and the story flowed evenly throughout the book. The ending was satisfying and fulfilling, with no loose ends.

The characters are very well written. Jessica is intelligent and independent, good characters for a teenage girl to have and she is not one to define herself by whether or not she has a boy on her arm. Lucius, the teenage (vampire) exchange student who tries to convince Jessica that she is his betrothed vampire princess, is on the flip side, arrogant and rather annoying, but shows signs of promise as well. He reminds me of the "typical" (and I use this word extremely loosely here!) male vampire. In all the vampire books I`ve read, the male seems to be on the arrogant side, so I guess my opinion is a bit predisposed there. In any event, I thoroughly enjoy reading books that have strong female characters. These types of characters are lacking in so many books these days!

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the humor scattered throughout the story. Lucius's letters back home to his uncle Vasile were absolutely hilarious! ("...you know I have always wondered about eternity, but I need not be curious anymore. I have sampled eternity in Miss Campbell's fifth period Social Studies class...") Ha!Ha! And some of the other "nonchalent" references....."the good news was that the Dragomirs had an impressive estate of their own. The bad news is that it is open to tourists 4 days a week." (But hey, motor coach traffic is up sixty-seven percent!) I love a good sense of humor, and the author certainly doesn't lack one.

There is no sex in this book, but some of the scenes were a bit sensual. The sensuality, though, was an integral part of the story and was, in my opinion, beautifully written. And there is some language to deal with. Not a lot, but I thought it worth mentioning, just in case some might be wondering. I consider this to be 5-star writing, but I chose to remove one star for the language that was in the book. It really isn't a lot of bad language, but the author is so creative that I thought she could have written the story just as well without it. I saw no point to it.

Another theme that we deal with in this story is that of love and redemption. Our favorite arrogant vampire has feelings of worthlessness (I won't reveal why, it would spoil too much) and feels that he is unforgivable. Yet we see glimpses of kindness and love, even when he refuses to acknowledge their existence. It is a powerful, emotionally charged story that takes the reader on Lucius's emotional roller coaster ride with him, and has us sitting in the sidelines, cheering him on and hoping he finds the forgiveness he desperately craves.

All in all, I found this to be an excellent book. I finished it in 2 days, as I found myself not wanting to put it down. I originally chose this book so I could later donate it to my daughter's high school library. Now I'm actually seriously considering keeping it for myself...yes, I enjoyed it THAT much! I understand that this is the author's first book; I hope she will give serious thought to writing another one. It would be a shame not to have more wonderful books to read from such a fresh, new voice.

The Fetch

By: Laura Whitcomb

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was creatively written and easy to follow. On the other hand, I was a bit put off by the general message of the story, which wasn't expressed until the very end of the book.

Calder, our Fetch protagonist, is a very likable and empathetic character. He has a good heart and a humble spirit. He feels unworthy of his job, yet he prods on and does what he was trained to do. The reader can't help but like the guy. He thinks he has fallen in love with a human, so he breaks his holy vows and swaps places with a human who is close with the woman he thinks he loves. From this horrific mistake to the end of the story, Calder tries to rectify what he's done and it takes the entire book for him to finally make amends with his mistake. Then, and here's where I have mixed feelings, instead of being punished or even reprimanded for his huge transgression, he is generously rewarded. To me, this implies that even in Heaven one can do whatever one wants, without fear of punishment. If that were the case, there could be anarchy in Heaven as every celestial being took it upon himself to do whatever he wants, and whenever. I just didn't think the ending was appropriate, but I still enjoyed the book overall.

One of the things that I think would enhance the reader's experience of this book is if s/he knew a litle bit about the Russian royal family before beginning to read this book. It certainly isn't necessary to know anything about them in order to understand the story, but I think the reader would enjoy this book more if s/he knew just a few basic facts about the Romanov family and, especially, Rasputin (and his many "assination" attempts!) To wit: 1) Why Alexis was so important to this family, 2) The signifigance of his illness, 3) The execution of the family, 4) Why Ana and Alexis were presumably selected out of the 5 Romnanov children. A quick Google search would suffice, as it is not necessary to study the family in depth, but just a quick preview of the lives of the royal children and Rasputin's character.

The back of this book indicates that it is a book for teens, but I hesitate to recommend it to teenagers. Not because there is anything inappropriate in it (because there isn't) but the theme seems a bit heavy and, just because the main characters are teenagers, doesn't mean a teenager will like the story. My 16 year old daugher simply couldn't get into this book....she was bored and confused by the historical signifigance of the story.

Overall, I found this book to be creative and easy flowing. I finished it in 2 days.