Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

By: Beth Fantaskey

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

Great book!

I must admit, at first I was a little off put by the reader of this book. She is a little older to be reading as a teenager, and her impression of luscious voice was slightly comical and difficult to listen to at first. Regardless, I loved this book! It has a wonderful story line and very endearing characters. I am very much looking forward to her second novel "Jessica rules the dark side". You will not be disappointed with this read.

Pretty Good!

This story started out really good, fast paced, engaging, funny, and really held my attention. Somewhere past the middle and towards the end it slowed up and started to drag a little. However, it came full circle with a very satisfying ending. It was worth listening to, and I would be open to listening to the next book in the series. This book was a selection in the Romance Package so I was able to listen for “free” with my subscription. A good choice!

A note about the narration which was great, great, great ALL the way through, even the slow parts. Both Katherine Kellgren, one of my favorites, and the male narrator did a totally spot on narration. It was a Real pleasure to listen to them(!), and definitely added to my overall enjoyment of the story.

Fun and Funny!

I really liked this book at first I wasn't sure what to expect... But I found that the characters were VERY funny... And I also enjoyed how the story had them truely falling in love with one other, although they were betrothed as babies. And at first a was not very happy about the narrator but, her voice did seem to grow on me.

I was fooled by the stars should have known better

I was hesitant to buy yet another teen vamp book but the 5 star rating convinced me to go for it. It was a cute story, but very predictable. I need to listen to my gut! I feel like I wasted a credit.
Again, the story wasn't bad, NOT 5 stars

Cute book

I love this book. The hate/love/hate relationship was endearing. My only complaint would be that it seemed to me that the characters evolved from young/innocent/clueless to adult/stubborn/do-the-right-thing a bit too fast. BUT... this is a paranormal book about vampires... so I guess anything is possible in this world!
Overall, I enjoyed it, and am not ashamed to say I cried at the end.

Unique and Well-done!

I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by this book. I found it to be a fresh and original take on the "teen-vampire-paranormal-love" genre. The characters were fresh and not so stereotypical of this kind of story. The story had more depth than I expected, especially as it progressed to it's conclusion. The writing is good, including meaningful dialogue, which allowed to highlight that the characters also had depth and were multi-demensional. Overall, this story won me over and made me care about the characters. I was impressed with the heroine, and how she stayed true to herself and stuck by her convictions and her belief in love, and the true nature of the guy she has come to love. The narration was good for the most part, though I did note that Ms. Kellgren seemed to read most of the story with a certain anxious, dramatic pitch that I definitely did not think needed to be maintained through most of the story in that manner.

A different telling on vampires

Where does Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Jessica's guide to dating on the dark side was a very interesting novel . I would have to say that this book ranks with the top 10 of my all-time favorite audiobooks .

What other book might you compare Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side to and why?

I can't say that I would compare this book to any other because it is a unique story . As I was listening to this story there was one other book that kept popping up into my mind , that would be vampire Academy by Richelle Mead . These two books are nothing alike but they have only the name Dragomir as the only connection between the two books . In vampire Academy there is the last Dragomir princess. In this book while Jessica is not the last of her line she is the last Royal Princess in her family .

Have you listened to any of Katherine Kellgren’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've never listen to a book that Katherine Kellgren has voiced for before . Overall I think she did an amazing job . Her tone throughout the book was rather consistent . Although I did feel that there were times where her voice did get a bit over excited . I thought she was easy to listen to and she transported me into the book very easily . I listen to this book in one day and this was very easy because of of the reader . I thought overall she a good variety of voices and no character sounded the same .

Any additional comments?

I would say if you were iffy about listening to this book don't be . The pace is very nice and it both together rather nicely. I think the author does a great job differentiating her vampire novel from other vampire novels out there today . I soon hope to be picking up the second audiobook installment .

excellent narrators, lack lustre book.

The narrators were excellent. The story started with a bang, the author has a clever and economical way with words. however, I found the development of Jessica/Anastasia's and Lucius' characters lacking which is the reason I found the middle and end of the book hollow and unsatisfying.

Pleasantly Surprised

I got this on a whim after reading the summary and figuring it would be a spoof on the whole YA vamp craze, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed it-so much so that after it ended I listened to it again that same day. My only reason for giving it 4 stars is this: it is a campy but funny take on the vampire dating scene-he's a Euro vamp living with an American family of vegans, he drinks blood from Orange Julius cups while at school, and the heroine is funny and appropriately eye-rolls everytime he insists that she's his vampire bride. Its all very funny and sarcastic. But then the second part of the book hits and it gets dark and serious, and I no longer regarded the characters as just the cast of a clever farce, but I came to genuinely care what happened to them. So basically I loved the first half for being comical and somwewhat flippant, and I love the second half for the tragedy and the love story and the darkness. But somehow I cant help but wonder what happened between part one and two. And yes, Katherine Kellgren is amazing, but she does give the male an over-the-top Euro accent that lends itself to the comedy at first, but after hearing the male narrator (and hitting the darker second half) it sounds just a little off. But still, I loved it, and will listen to it again. Neither of these issues distracted me from enjoying this audiobook at all.

Amazing

This book was amazing... It kept my attention the whole time...I wish there where more books by this author available ... i strongly recomend everyone to listen....