Jessica Rules the Dark Side

Jess and Lucius won me over in the first book (Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side). I found this to be a very good sequel and came to enjoy their story and appreciate the characters even more so in this book, even though all the events were not happy or lighthearted. Yes, Jessica was quite overwhelmed and insecure at the beginning of this story, but she has reason to be. At a young age she finds herself married and living in a completely different world from all that she has known growing up. But the point of the story is how she grows and overcomes that, rising to the occasion when times get tough. (Yes, with a bit of help from friends). I enjoyed Mindy and Ronero also, and felt they added quite a lot to the story. I find the writing is excellent, and quite compelling. I feel it flowed along nicely and I was able to follow the alternating points of view with the characters without any problem. I enjoy this author and her unique style. She takes a different approach and I find it interesting (and refreshing) how she chooses to potray the relationship between two young people with no real "love" scenes, scarcely including even a couple of "kissing" scenes or even mentions of kissing...The one closest to a "love" scene is only Jessica remembering their wedding night...for me the author made this a very poignant scene while including virtually no physical detail. (And I don't mean explicit detail, but only the kind of detail one usually finds in most YA or mainstream books). Yet she manages to make it touching and convincing. She relies on the characters themselves and the narrative of all the other events to really carry the story. It seems to me that is a true talent. I thinks the narration was good, and some of the accents were even just a bit more natural sounding than in the first book.

Jess and Lucius won me over in the first book (Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side). I found this to be a very good sequel and came to enjoy their story and appreciate the characters even more so in this book, even though all the events were not happy or lighthearted. Yes, Jessica was quite overwhelmed and insecure at the beginning of this story, but she has reason to be. At a young age she finds herself married and living in a completely different world from all that she has known growing up. But the point of the story is how she grows and overcomes that, rising to the occasion when times get tough. (Yes, with a bit of help from friends). I enjoyed Mindy and Ronero also, and felt they added quite a lot to the story. I find the writing is excellent, and quite compelling. I feel it flowed along nicely and I was able to follow the alternating points of view with the characters without any problem. I enjoy this author and her unique style. She takes a different approach and I find it interesting (and refreshing) how she chooses to potray the relationship between two young people with no real "love" scenes, scarcely including even a couple of "kissing" scenes or even mentions of kissing...The one closest to a "love" scene is only Jessica remembering their wedding night...for me the author made this a very poignant scene while including virtually no physical detail. (And I don't mean explicit detail, but only the kind of detail one usually finds in most YA or mainstream books). Yet she manages to make it touching and convincing. She relies on the characters themselves and the narrative of all the other events to really carry the story. It seems to me that is a true talent. I thinks the narration was good, and some of the accents were even just a bit more natural sounding than in the first book.

I waited for this release like almost two years and I am so sorry to say that it was not worth the wait. Jessica's character was nervous and insecure throughout the book. The plot would have been decent had the foreshadowing not been sooo overt - I knew the who and why less than halfway through the book. The narration was excellent but not even that could earn this book more than 3 stars. Truth be told the shallow character, Mindy, was enough to knock off a whole star.