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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I Really Liked This Book, December 12, 2011
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This is the second book in a trilogy and I recommend strongly that you do not try to read this as a standalone book. To understand what is going on in Jessica Rules... I truly think you need to read Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side plus I think you will really enjoy the first book! Now that Jessica is married she is trying to settle down in the castle in Romania and before she can find her niche, her husband is accused of murdering one of the Elder Vampires. Jessica hasn't made a very good Princess up until now, but her anger eventually gets the best of her and she learns what she has to do to become the regal Princess we always knew she could be. Thankfully in Jessica's time of need Mindy and her hair salon on wheels enters the picture and plays a big part in helping Jessica to become the strong young woman and Monarch we knew she could be. This book has an excellent mystery going on and while I admit that I did suspect someone right off the bat, it really floored me when a secondary suspect comes into the picture. This was an excellent way to misdirect on the part of the author. The secondary story that follows Lucius's best friend Raniero and Jessica's best friend is priceless. I would love to see a series or at least one standalone book devoted to them. I mean a surfer Vamp? How funny is that?! This book has well fleshed out characters a great story line, is romantic but not overly-saccharine sweet and I loved the way the narrative played between each character. With each chapter (and they are very short chapters) written in a different persons point of view, it kept the story fresh for me.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Satisfying and Suspenseful Sequel, December 27, 2011
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What a suspenseful and engaging sequel to Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side. Jessica has married her vampire prince and is now known as Antanasia. She is adjusting slowly to life as a vampire princess. While she is committed to Lucius, she is less committed to being queen of the vampires. It isn't until a rival of Lucius's is killed apparently with Lucius's stake that Antanasia finally commits and begins really assuming her role as vampire queen. Lucius is imprisoned leaving Antanasia to try to find out what happened along with her best friend Mindy and his best friend Raniero. Mindy is a great friend but isn't interested in much beyond fashion and hair styling. However, she brings a lot of knowledge of interpersonal relationships with her. She knows about jealousy and envy. Mindy and Raniero met at the wedding of Lucius and Antanasia and had a relationship but broke up because Mindy couldn't deal with his lifestyle. After being condemned, Raniero has been living as a beach bum peacnik with no ambition. Raniero is reluctant to come back to Romania because he is blestmata - condemned - because he killed wantonly. Lucius got him spared but Raniero is afraid that he might lose control of the violence again. He despises that part of himself. Antanasia has some new friends too. Her cousin Ylenia and her Uncle Dorin Dragomir have befriended her in her new life. But Lucius doesn't like them and even Antanasia can see that they are cowardly. Mindy takes an immediate dislike to Ylenia too. The story is filled with twists and turns but one constant is Antanasia coming into her own as a strong, confident woman who will make an excellent queen. The story is told from multiple viewpoints. We hear from Antanasia, Mindy, and Lucius. The voices of all narrators are so distinct that the name of the narrator wouldn't have been needed at the start of each chapter. We get Mindy's self-deprecation and common sense. We get Lucius's viewpoint through the letters he writes to Raniero. And we get a lot of the story from Antanasia's viewpoint as she struggles to learn her way around a culture that is completely new to her and completely opposed to the way she was raised. This was a very enjoyable story. I was swept away in the intrigue even though I had a pretty strong suspicion of who the villain would turn out to be shortly after they were introduced. I recommend it to readers who enjoyed the first book and readers who like mystery and intrigue in their paranormals.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much More Serious Than the First Book, December 3, 2011
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The first book in Fantaskey's series had a ridiculous title and an awful cover. So why did I read it? Not quite sure, but I am glad I did. It was hilarious. It was a serious story peppered with the rantings of a persnickety vampire prince who just wanted his betrothed to come back to Romania with him and rule. What he didn't expect before he came for her was a vegan who worked on her family's small town farm and only dreamed of going to college- not becoming a vampire princess and settling a centuries old feud. After absolutely adoring Lucius' hilarious ramblings about lentils in the first book, I was looking for more of the same from Jessica Rules the Dark Side. Jessica, who is known as Anastasia now that she is a vampire princess, loves Lucius, but hates Romania. The other vampires think she is weak, she only has one friend, and she can't even order food from the kitchen because she can't speak Romanian. To top off the horrible experience, she knows her inability to be the ruthless princess makes her husband vulnerable with the rest of the vampires he is trying to rule. When one of the vampire elders is murdered, Anastasia takes the advice of her friend and suggests all the vampires produce their stakes to catch the murderer. What she doesn't expect is that Lucius' stake is covered in the murdered vampires blood, but he swears he did not kill the man. Anastasia believes him, but the Elders insist he is locked in the dungeon until he can go to trial... without the blood he needs to survive. Now Anastasia must solve the murder to exonerate her husband, but with the return of old friends and the revelations of many secrets, she isn't sure she can be the princess (soon to be queen) Lucius wants her to be. If she can't, her husband's life ill be over. I was a little surprised when I first read this book and saw just how dark it was. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good story, but compared to the light-hearted wit from Lucius in the first book, this one was much more serious. There were occasional moments of levity, but I definitely missed the Lucius you fell in love with in the first book. This story dealt much more with Jessica/Anastasia and her crippling fear of being the princess she needed to be. In fact, I was a little annoyed with her at times. At one point, her husband is locked, starving, down in the dungeon and she is lying in her bed feeling sorry for herself. I wanted to scream: "Get out of bed you twit! Take care of business!" Eventually she did rise to the occasion and take charge, but it was frustrating to watch her flounder so much. While the main characters were the focus in the first book, they faded into the background with this one. The supporting characters, like Lucius' childhood friend and Anastasia's friend Mindy from home, made up a lot of the meat of the story. Luckily, it was an interesting part of the story, and Mindy's fun take on the situation was a welcomed touch. This story is appropriate for a wide range of ages and will still hold the attention of anyone who liked the first story (as long as they could ignore the silly title). It is a good, easy read for any struggling reader to be successful with.
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