Jessica Rules the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica Rules the Dark Side
(Jessica Series, Book #2)
by Beth Fantaskey

Genre: Young Adult | Paranormal Romance

When Jessica Packwood found out she was a Romanian vampire princess, she had the shock of her teenage life. Turns out that was the easy part. Now, married to Prince Lucius Vladescu, she has to claim her throne and convince a vampire nation she’s fit to be their queen. But Jess can’t even order a decent meal from her castle’s Romanian staff, let alone deal with devious undead subjects who would love to see her fail.

And when Lucius is accused of murdering a vampire Elder and imprisoned without the blood he needs, Jessica finds herself alone, fighting for both their survivals. Desperate to clear her husband’s name and win his release, Jess enlists the help of her best friend Mindy Stankowicz and Lucius’s mysterious Italian cousin, Raniero Lovatu. But both of them are keeping some dark secrets. Can Jess figure out who to trust – and how to rise to power – before she loses everything, including the vampire she loves?

Full of romance, mystery, and danger, the highly anticipated sequel to Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side shows that sometimes a princess has to earn her “happily ever after” – with a sharpened stake in hand.

Settling into married life can be an adventure, but also quite difficult . . . especially if you're a newly-turned vampire princess ( Princess Antanasia Dragomir Vladescu ) who is lacking in power and your husband has been recently accused for a crime that could easily carry a death sentence. Having always had someone strong to stand by her her whole life, Jessica, for the first time ever, much now stand alone and hopefully gain some much needed strength/confidence/knowledge to free her husband from his falsely accused crime. Can she find the proof that Lucius's needs in time?

The murder suspense builds quickly throughout this continuation book for Jessica, but the overall tale carries a much darker plot line than the first in the series - something I did not enjoy so much. I felt the story was lacking the quirky romance that I praised so much in Book #1, but I did like that some well-loved past characters took on a stronger role ( Mindy & Raniero ). Expect lots of climatic vampire drama for the new couple, but the story fell short for me since Book #2 carried on like a whole new story (not part of a series) . . . sure there were the same characters, but the feel to the book was moody, bleak, and just very heavy with the grim subject matter (lots of gruesome death, dank prison cells, creepy cemeteries, etc.), making it difficult to enjoy throughout, compared to Book #1's silliness and whimsical charm.

Likes: Raniero grew on me! At first, I wasn't so keen on him, but in the end, I really liked him a lot . . . maybe b/c I'm such a fan of character development and his whole troubled back-story was revealed throughout the book.

Dislikes: Jessica was very whiny and hopeless at times, ugh!

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