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

Publisher:  Harcourt Children's Books
Date:  February 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0547259406  
Pages:  368


I stumbled upon this book when I was just browsing and I'm so glad I did!

Quick Summary:  Jessica was adopted, she's always known that.  But to find out she's really a vampire princess?!  Jessica won't even entertain the thought that there are real vampires, much less royalty.  When her betrothed shows up, it gets interesting.

Jessica is practical, she lives on a farm, is in 4H for horses and her parents are vegan.  Oh yeah, she's a mathlete.  When a gorgeous (but creepy) guy shows up at her bus stop, then her school, then her house...she's freaked out.  The foreign exchange student, Lucius, claims to be a vampire prince and he's come to claim his betrothed - Antanasia Dragomir.  Or as she's known now...Jessica Packwood. 

Lucius seems snobby and duty-driven and I was unsure about liking him at all, but Ms. Fantaskey solves that issue by having Lucius write letters to his uncle.  Those letters show hints of the boy under the self-assured exterior.  Lucius learns to embrace American customs and being a teenager instead of royalty.

The minor characters are very well-developed.  The love interests of both Jessica and Lucius seem very real and have their own voices, as do some of the characters that only show up once or twice.  Ms. Fantaskey has spent a lot of time at developing characters.

This isn't just a cute novel about a girl and a vampire.  It's about identity and self-discovery.  You see, Jessica doesn't just fall head-over-heels for Lucius, in fact, she doesn't like him at all - even though everyone else does.  You watch Jessica and Lucius both go through a series of small changes over a long period of time.

And the title of the book?  Well, Lucius gives Jessica a book to assist her in maturing and becoming a vampire - it's called Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire's Guide to Dating, Health and Emotions.  It was awesome! 



 

The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire #1) by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith

The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire #1) by Clay Griffith & Susan Griffith
Publisher:  Pyr
Publish Date:  November 18, 2010
ISBN:  978-1616142476
Pages:  301


I received this book from the authors' publicist for a review.

This book combines alternate world history, steampunk and vampires.  In short, it's awesome!  I really loved the characters, they were all drawn strongly and had their own personalities.  The main characters are:
Princess Adele, The Greyfriar, Senator Clarke, Colonel Anholt, Lord Kelvin, Mamoru, Flay and Prince Cesare.

The story goes that vampires rose up in The Great Killing of 1870 and began killing all the humans.  Now it's 2020, is it the humans turn to do the same?

The vampires can't stand the heart, so most of the surviving humans have their kingdoms around the equator now, while the vampires take places around Europe (mostly).  The vampires can fly by changing their body density, so they're very dangerous.  However, they hate to fly over water - what if they change density, fall and drown?!  They do fly airships, but they use 'bloodmen' for that.  'Bloodmen' are the humans that serve them willingly, in hopes that eventually they'll be turned into vampires.

There are 2 vampire princes:
              -1 wishes to live in peace with the humans and is kind and thoughtful
              -1 wants to kill all humans, rule the world and uses humans to advance his cause

Both want Princess Adele, but for very different reasons.

Princess Adele of the southern European states is promised to marry Senator Clarke of America (which has decidely moved southward). She isn't really interested, but is willing to do her duty for her country. On a political trip her airship is attacked by vampires and she's rescued by the mysterious man known as The Greyfriar.  He's a legend and no one thought he really existed.  The Princess ends up as a pawn between the human and vampire worlds.  Prince Gareth (vampire prince #1) and The Greyfriar are trying to help Princess Adele, while Prince Cesare (vampire prince #2) wants to use her in their political battles.

 The vampires come across first as animals-like and savage, but behind that you see all their families, political structure, logic, and strangely, a limited dexterity of their hands - which causes some jealousy of humans.

Adele is tough and strong-willed, and sometimes uncertain and fearful, but at the same time decisive.  She's pretty real and how you would think a vampire-fighting princess should be.  There's some romance, to be sure, but mostly it's innocent and sweet.

Ahh, Senator Clarke.  Imagine on old west cowboy on a steampunk airship with the arrogance of a spoiled rich boy.  Got it?  How could you NOT hate him?!  I hated him instantly and delighted in it!  I had to marvel at the way he handled things, even when I was hoping he was being beaten.  What a great character!

This book was a real surprise for me, I agreed to read this one and the second one for reviews; but I didn't expect to like it this much.  I recommend that you read this one, it was definitely overlooked this year! 

Welcome to Bordertown Edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner

Publisher:  Random House for Young Readers
Publish Date:  May 24, 2011
ISBN:  978-0375867057
Pages:  544
Jacket Art: Steve Stone
Jacket Design: Ellice M. Lee

Contributors:  Terry Windlings, Steven Brust, Cory Doctorow, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Clare, Jane Yolen, Emma Bull, Janni Lee Simner, Charles de Lint, Sara Ryan, Will Shetterly, Dylan Meconis, Amal El-Mohtar, Tim Pratt, Annette Curtis Klause, Delia Sherman, Nalo Hopkinson, Christopher Barzak, Neil Gaiman, Patricia A. McKillip and Catherynne M. Valente.

WOW!  What a group of amazing writers!  Bordertown is a city on the border between the human world and the elfin realm.  There are several earlier collections: Bordertown: A Chronicle of the Borderlands (1986), Bordertown: Where Magic Meets Rock & Roll (1996) and The Essential Bordertown (1999).  I will be going to find the other books now that I've read this one.  These are the kinds of stories that drew me into reading fantasy and now I know where all the writers went - they all ran off to Bordertown!

The basis of this anthology is that the way to Bordertown has been lost for 13 years.  However, in Bordertown it's only been 13 days.  Imagine the issues that could cause!

I adore that some of the stories run together, sometimes it was hard to tell that it was a different author writing - that's an amazing talent.  Some of the characters went story to story and some of the settings were the same.  It was great to have short stories, poetry and graphic novels all in one book.