Notice for Review Requests

I receive review requests weekly. However, my personal schedule is hectic and I no longer review actively. (I also manage another blog called The Toronto Cafe and Food Blog). I do read every request sent but I apologize in advance that I do not reply to them all.

If I do take on a request, I will forewarn that it may take some time before I can review it. I am now looking to review adult fiction and self-help books instead of young adult fiction because I have grown out of it. If you are to request a review for either adult fiction or self-help, I will more likely to give it a shot.

In the meantime, Stop, Drop, and Read! serves as an archive book review blog. When I have the time, I may post a review. Thank you for understanding.

Monday, September 28, 2009

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

Title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
Author: Beth Fantaskey
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 354
My Rating: 3/5

Jessica is a very logical teen girl. Yes, she loves math and dislikes anything that is made-up. But then, the gorgeous European Lucius steps into her ordinary life and proclaims that they are to wed because of a betrothal their parents made for them. Oh, and he is also a vampire.

What?!? Not only that, he claims that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess! And if they don't get married soon, their ancient clans will war together! Now what will a girl do when the fate of vampiredom rests upon her shoulders?

This is a very bi-polar novel. Very. Bi-polar.

So for the first 20 pages while I was reading it, I was like, "Oh no, please not another brooding Twilight novel..." because that was what it seemed to be heading. But the moment Jessica decided to pitchforked Lucius's foot, I changed my mind. It was entertaining for the next fifty pages and I was seriously ready to give the novel a 5/5. I really loved Lucius's European and sophisticated sense of humour. He was seriously one of the best vampire guys out there with his manners and freaking sexy accent. It was great to see his side of things when he wrote letters to his uncle back home because he made it so amusing every time as he criticized Jessica and the American culture.

But then...

Everything slipped downhill at a rapid pace after the 100th page or so. It started to bore me to tears once Jessica started moping over the fact that Lucius may be interested in the cheerleader Faith. For the next half of the novel, it was pretty much Jessica being depressed. I thought it was pretty cool to have a character who uses the left-side of her brain but when Lucius started to drift away, her personality was enough for you to close the book.

Not only did her face slip, but so did Lucius! He started to become this brooding, angry character. I wanted to cry, "Nooo! Where is my funny and caring Lucius?? Why God why???" I pretty much lost all hope for him to go back to his old self when I neared the end.

I am so so disappointed with this novel. It went from light and cute to angsty and, well, boring. I really wished that the entire story was consistent from beginning to end. I am rating it 3/5 for the times it made me laugh and Lucius (before he went all weird). But if there is a sequel, I am pretty sure I won't be running to pick it up any time soon.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was looking into reading this a while ago but I couldn't find it anywhere. I guess I will wait until it pops up eventually because obviously it isn't a "you must read this today!" kind of book. Thanks for the review.