"Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side"

I finished Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey a couple of nights ago and I LOVED it! My good friend, also named Stephanie, recommended it to me with rave reviews and I am so glad she told me about it.

This is a young adult novel about a high school senior, Jessica, who encounters Lucius, a foreign exchange student from Romania. As it turns out, Lucius is a vampire, and Jessica is too! She was born a vampire in Romania, but during dangerous times, her vampire birth parents were killed and she was adopted by an American couple. She was brought up as a typical American, and had no idea about her past. Lucius has come to America because a pact was made when the two were babies that they must be married. Their families had long been enemies, and they were betrothed to bring a long-awaited peace to the vampire community. Jessica, of course, is very upset about this startling news, and even disbelieving at first. However, she soon discovers that it is true. Now not only does she have to deal with all the ups and downs of being a high school senior, she has to handle this vampire business too.

Like I said, I adored this book. I thought it was fun, engaging, and funny. It truly was a book I did not want to put down, and it went everywhere with me this past week. I even broke it out for a quick 5 minute reading session before each class all week if I was a little early, and read it as much as I possibly could. This was one of those rare books you HATE to see end. I was a bit wary going into it because I've never read much fantasy or vampire type books, but now I will definitely be reading some more like this! This was also the perfect book to have been reading during Halloween week. I highly recommend it and am looking forward to the author's next book Jekel Loves Hyde, coming out next spring. Fantaskey also wrote a mini sequel to Jessica's Guide on her website which I am looking very forward to delving into this week just as soon as I get some school work done... which always gets in the way of my reading!

Thanks again to Steph for the wonderful recommendation. I'm always looking for book recommendations and this was a great one.

Rating: 5/5

Now I want to talk a little about books and my love of reading because I am just very passionate about the subject. If the purpose of my blog doesn't make it completely obvious, I love reading; it's pretty much my life, or at least a gigantic portion of it. Books make me happy. I was thinking about this the other day because many people ask me "how do you have time to read with school and work?!" It can be tough, but books are my passion in life. I would not be who I am if I did not love them as much as I do. I could talk books all day, I could read books all day, I could write about and recommend books all day. I make time to do it during the hectic semester because I would go crazy if I couldn't or didn't read every day. I am fortunate to have found my passion in life and I hope that everyone else can too. What are you passionate about? What makes you happy? That's all I have for now.

Currently Reading: Official Book Club Selction by Kathy Griffin of "My Life on the D-List" fame. I've been looking forward to this one for a while because I think she's a complete riot! Come on, even the book's title is pretty hilarious. Hopefully have it finished with a review up within a week, but we'll see how that goes what with school and all... I am also reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James for my Lit. Analysis class. It's a ghost story written in 1898. The "ghost story" part intrigues me a bit... but the 1800's part?... not so much.