Mundie Moms

Saturday, December 5, 2009

- Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey -

Release date: February 1st 2009
Publisher: Harcourt
# of pages: 351
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Synopsis:
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 fiancĂ©. 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.


After the first few pages you feel like you have read this book(s) before, maybe seen the movie- Princess Anastasia? Vamp/human love stories? Keep reading, is all I can say. I don't technically know when this book was written, but it seems, like Fantaskey was inspired by a little piece of this, a little piece of that, and turned into a great book. What I love most about this book, is the humor. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Jessica is a modern day female, getting ready for her Sr year. She has a crush on a local boy and it seems like something is about to happen between them. But the first day of school Jessica gets a surprise, in the form of a Romanian foreign exchange student, who seems to know a lot about her, like her birth name Anastasia. Jessica has always known she was adopted, she just didn't know the story behind her adoption.

At dinner that night she learns her parents were vampire royalty, who were murdered in the raids. Her adoptive parents spent time in Romania studying vampires and so Jessica was sent to live with them- the surviving vampires wanted to protect their princess, so that she will live long enough to get married to her betrothed vampire prince Lucius Vladescu (aka foreign exchange student) and bring peace & prosperity to their vampire kingdom. Lucius was raised by his uncle in Romania and he has come to America to "claim" his bride. Oh, and he is "their" foreign exchange student. He gives her a book, to help her understand her transition.

The vampires in this story are a little different, they're "human" at birth and when they reach puberty, the male transforms into a vampire. The females remain human until their male, bites them, although they may start to experience vampire "symptoms".

Lucius agrees to court Jessica, instead of forcing her into marriage. The "courtship" doesn't go very well, Jessica is not use to royalty, and thinks his ways of doing things are rude, snobbish, etc. but for some reason, she is drawn to him. Lucius is confused, he can usually have any girl he wants, but doesn't understand why, his princess wants a peasant. We get to see pieces of his side of the story through letters to his uncle. Just when it looks like something is about to start happening between them, the head cheerleader decides she wants Lucius, and Lucius takes her up on the offer. Princess Anastasia is ready to fight for what’s hers, save her vampire family and keep Lucius from making a huge mistake.

Absolutely Amazing!

Kara is amazingly talented and her's her finished work of Jace.
I think she captured what would be similar to Clary's drawing in of Jace. I totally LOVE the details of the runes. I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the fearless rune. It's my favorite one.
Here's what she says, "The title of this piece comes from the song "Destroy Everything You Touch" by Ladytron. Look it up on youtube, awesome song. In the books, Jace is often quoting "To love is to destroy" and various things, so it's an apt song."
You can see more of her work and what inspired this amazing drawing of Jace here:

The Mortal Instruments Series could be made into Comic Books

Th3rd World is starting to look like the "Little Publisher that Could."

Not only did Th3rd World Publishing recently land a deal with Del Rey/Random House to collect its new The Stuff of Legend comic book, but now comes word that the company will adapt the bestselling novel series, The Mortal Instruments, which could bring a whole new audience to comic books.

"There is a little bit of everything in there," DeVito said, "and I think unlike a lot of what is available in the comic format, it appeals to both male and female readers pretty equally, which was something I found really interesting. There is action, mystery, romance, you name it. Fans of everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter to Twilight to horror movies should find something here to like and then some."

DeVito isn't just throwing that Twilight reference in there for attention – The Mortal Instruments books are endorsed by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer and have an enthusiastic reading audience among female readers, particularly young readers, since the novels are classified as young adult fiction.

"I know some people will dismiss this as another vampire type book who are unfamiliar with the property, but it's definitely not. Cassandra has done a really unique job of bringing something different to the mythology for this series," DeVito said. "Her growing fan base is definitely a testament to that. Not only has it spawned a prequel trilogy and sequel, but it was also just announced that the film rights have been optioned."

You can read more here: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080925-Th3rd-World-Del-Rey.html

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