Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

By: Beth Fantaskey

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Author Beth Fantaskey injects a little humor into the vampire romance genre with this critically acclaimed debut novel. High school senior Jessica Packwood is a down-to-earth mathlete who's not sure what her future holds. What she definitely doesn't see coming is foreign exchange student - and vampire - Lucius Vladescu showing up at her door. According to Lucius, Jessica is actually vampire royalty, and they've been betrothed to one another since infancy.©2009 Beth Fantaskey (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"The romance sizzles, the plot develops ingeniously and suspensefully, and the satire sings." ( Publishers Weekly, starred review)

You get what you expect

I wanted an uncomplicated story, and this fit the bill.
I rather liked that Lucius' dark side has some genuine darkness and not purely teen angst.

fun but corny

fun but corny. more of a romance than a suspense novel. great performance by the readers.

great book

loved it!!!
such a great story and plot, the ending had the best twist to it!

Surprisingly Fun!

Okay, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I enjoyed this much more than I should’ve. It’s an easy, at times silly and way over-the-top, and even satirical(?) take on the whole young girl meets dreamy vampire trope, but it was well done in that sense and very entertaining if you don’t try to take it too seriously. I actually didn’t want to put it down!

Of course all our characters could’ve been fleshed out more and their development and motivations could’ve been better..well..developed, but for what it is, it’s fun and a good listen as is.

The narrators, especially Katherine Kellgren, did a good job with bringing the fun and over-the-top atmosphere to the story. Where she lacked in giving some of the characters distinct voices, she made up for in acting out the various emotions in Jessica’s inner-monologues, which was fantastic! One of the best narrations, in that respect, I’ve ever heard. And I also enjoyed the narration of Lucius by the other narrator (forgive me, I don’t have his name in front of me). He does an amazing job bringing his letters to life and giving this character a lot more depth than he would have otherwise.

Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys a fun listen/read in the YA paranormal, vampire, comedic/satirical, romance genres. And although I got it through the Audible Escape membership, I think it’d be worth a credit.

So different from the average vampire story and SO good!

I enjoyed everything about this book… the originality… the superb plot and writing… the rich character development especially the development and relationship between Jessica/Anastasia and Lucius (talk about having all the feels!)… the narration… literally everything. I’d highly recommend it for any fan of the genre!