er. hello…again.

oh blog. *pat pat*  i haven’t deserted you. i’m still here. just. slackingly so.  startlingly slackingly.

i’ll revive you soon, i promise.

review: jessica’s guide to dating on the dark side by beth fantaskey

title: jessica’s guide to dating on the dark side
author: beth fantaskey
genre: supernatural
dates: december 30 & 31
synopsis: The undead can really screw up your senior year . . .
Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war—and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction. (from barnesandnoble.com)
rating: 4 out of 5 stars

i ripped through this book like the world was on fire and this novel was the only thing that could save me.  i love that  jessica’s reactions to everything her parents and lucius threw at her were believable (in some cases, the girl immediately accepts whatever the swoon-worthy boy says point blank. not jessica).  the situations, however unrealistic, carried a realness quality to them that sucks you into the story.

i’m exceptionally happy with it.  well, all except the ending.  (spoiler alert: if you don’t want to know what happens at the end, don’t read the next bit! you’ve been warned!)

lucius has been putting up a real good fight against the pact his family has made for him and jessica.  he’s made me believe that there really might not be any hope left for her, or for her people.  then jessica comes raging in, all ready to sacrifice herself and leave romania for good…and now lucius has a change of heart?  <i>now</i> he can’t bear to lose her?  he sunk so low from pursuing jessica to dating faith and all the other “rebelling” he did, but now he wants to redeem himself?  it’s hard for me to believe that somewhere inside him a switch flipped so quickly.  maybe it’s just the place that i’m at right now, or…i don’t know.  i’m all about the happy endings and fairy tale love stories but come on.  that seemed like a bit of a stretch to me. /spoiler

all right.  you can look now.  i really WANT to like this book.  i mean i do, just ..overlooking that little bit.  i’ll probably reread it again in the future, and decide that i really do like the ending after all.

happy reading!

review: the everafter by amy huntley

title: the everafter

author: amy huntley

genre: supernatural/fantasy

dates: december 27 & 28 2009

synopsis:  Madison Stanton doesn’t know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this — she is dead. And alone, in a vast, dark space. The only company she has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things Maddy lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that with these artifacts, she can reexperience — and sometimes even change — moments from her life.
Her first kiss.
A trip to Disney World.
Her sister’s wedding.
A disastrous sleepover.
In reliving these moments, Maddy learns illuminating and sometimes frightening truths about her life — and death.
This is a haunting and ultimately hopeful novel about the beauty of even the most insignificant moments — and the strength of true love even beyond death. (from barnesandnoble.com)

rating: 3 out of 5

i was thrilled when i found this book unexpectedly in the ‘new’ section of my local library.  i had planned on buying it on my kindle since before then i hadn’t been able to find it at any library anywhere.

the everafter grabbed me from the moment i read the synopsis.  its premise is so unusual (or at least not often written about); i mean, a girl is in the afterlife and she gets to change parts of her life based on her previously owned objects–who wouldn’t want that chance?  however…i wasn’t as excited to finish the story once i got started.  i found myself skipping madison’s inner monologuing in order to get to the parts where she could re-insert herself into her life.  what parts i did read i really enjoyed–it was fast-paced and easy to read.

something else that i liked was the fact that readers aren’t told how madison died until close to the very end of the story.  i even forgot to wonder about that while i was reading.   i tried to piece together how it happened and ended up being surprised (sort of).  if you read it, you may not be as surprised as i was.  not knowing added an extra element of mystery to the story, something that made the story worth reading in the first place.

the bottom line is that i really liked this story, but i got bogged down by the time madison spent in what she calls is, or the afterlife, and preferred to stay with her in her real life, well as real as it could be for her since her death.  i think as a whole, though, the story is worth reading, so if you see it anywhere, pick it up and give it a try.

happy reading!

we interrupt this program with an important message: …

…don’t you just love that new bloggy smell?

just sayin’.