Jessica Rules the Dark Side

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Call Number: Teen Fiction
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Eighteen-year-old vampire princess Jessica Packwood is in for the fight of her life--and her husband's--when Lucius is accused of a horrible crime and Jessica, trying to prove herself worthy of the throne, faces betrayal by those closest to her.

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3.5 submitted by Midnight on July 23, 2013, 9:29pm Jessica Rules the Dark Side (Jessica #2): Beth Fantaskey *Spoiler alert*
3.5 stars
Jessica marries her vampire prince, Lucius, and prepares for the role of the queen. Most of vampires are skeptical that she can rule because she doesn't have the confidence or iron hand that the vicious vampires need. The newlywed couple's dream shatters when Lucius is convicted of murdering an Elder, someone whom Lucius threatened the day before. Lucius claims that he didn't kill the Elder, then where did the blood on his stake come from? The Elders are more than welcome of removing an unconventional prince that's overstepping his place. Jessica, her friend Mindy Stankowicz, and Lucius' trusted cousin (aka. Mindy's on-and-off boyfriend) Raniero Lovatu must solve this mystery before Lucius is destroyed and the couple's dream of keeping peace between the Vladescu and the Dragomir is over.

Jessica is TOO weak. A little weak is okay because we aren't all made to be heroes but she's weak in about 70% of the book. She should have realized what's needed to be a queen earlier on. Too much of the book is her trying to please the never satisfied Elders, only a few things please them. ex. having controllable puppets. She simply isn't really to rule, instead cowers and freezes when the Elders voice their dislike of her. And she should have learned Romanian earlier because she's going to live in Romania for eternity. If you're going to deal with it forever, might as well get used to it earlier as opposed to later. The language barer isn't just going to disappear. Jessica admits that she sometimes starves herself because she doesn't know how to order in Romanian without Lucius. I bet that you can learn a few phrases in whatever language if you live in that country for a few months. And she could have just memorized five dishes off the menu and ordered them everyday. Five words isn't that hard to memorize, so a smart mathlete should be more than able.

Duo of comic reliefs, Mindy and Raniero are a lot more interesting compared to Jessica and Lucius. I loved Raniero's Buddhist/hobo/surfer/weirdo attitude. Lovatu wasn't always so carefree; he was as formidable as Lucius when he was at his height. He changed himself to add distance from his past. The philosophical him provided something laughable in the somber setting with serious Elders ( but I liked the serious one better, just saying). The political stuff is really important, but it's BORING. This is a YA book, not a history textbook. Mindy and Raniero should be the main focus, mainly so I can laugh more. Mindy was eh; I don't like girls that care so much about shoes, makeup, and Cosmo magazines.

I thought the betrayers were unexpected. So uncle Dorin is out of the picture; I liked his wimpy little personality...

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publication Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books


read my review at http://urbanhippies0.blogspot.com/2013/07/book-review-by-geling-jessica-rules.html