Jessica Packwood: Bella Only Wishes She were This Awesome
Name: Jessica Packwood, from Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey
Age: 17 (18 by the end)
Why She Pwns Bella: When the Really Hawt exchange student from Romania, Lucius Vladescu, tells Jessica that he's a vampire and her long-lost fiancee (they're both vampire royalty and were betrothed as infants), Jessica, who's adopted, tells him to feck off and take his bag of crazy with him. Unfortunately, he's living in the apartment above her family's garage and they're both seniors, so she can't exactly avoid having to see and talk to him, but that doesn't mean she has to be more than polite. Her parents back Lucius' story, but it takes her a while to finally accept that they're telling the truth--but she's still not going to marry a guy she hardly knows and doesn't much like.
Slowly, she does come around as she sees he's not a total jackass and Lucius loosens up and becomes less arrogant, and it's right about then shit starts hitting the fan and Jessica ends up having to go to Romania after to claim her birthright and try and talk some sense into Lucius.
Publisher's Weekly says "This first novel quickly bursts ahead of the pack of Twilight-wannabes...", and they're right. Jessica is an Everygirl who doesn't think at the beginning she's anything special to look at, has a crush on Jake, a nice Everyguy in her grade, has a BFF she shares everything with, and makes decent grades because she studies and does her homework. She's good at math and has been a Mathlete through high school, wants her senior year to be the best ever, loves and respects her parents but butts heads with them from time to time, and has weaknesses but doesn't feel the need to bring them up every five minutes. Oh, and she doesn't have lots of guys drooling and tagging along at her heels. She fumbles through overtures with Jake in a way that was painfully familiar to me because I have so been there before.
Age: 17 (18 by the end)
Why She Pwns Bella: When the Really Hawt exchange student from Romania, Lucius Vladescu, tells Jessica that he's a vampire and her long-lost fiancee (they're both vampire royalty and were betrothed as infants), Jessica, who's adopted, tells him to feck off and take his bag of crazy with him. Unfortunately, he's living in the apartment above her family's garage and they're both seniors, so she can't exactly avoid having to see and talk to him, but that doesn't mean she has to be more than polite. Her parents back Lucius' story, but it takes her a while to finally accept that they're telling the truth--but she's still not going to marry a guy she hardly knows and doesn't much like.
Slowly, she does come around as she sees he's not a total jackass and Lucius loosens up and becomes less arrogant, and it's right about then shit starts hitting the fan and Jessica ends up having to go to Romania after to claim her birthright and try and talk some sense into Lucius.
Publisher's Weekly says "This first novel quickly bursts ahead of the pack of Twilight-wannabes...", and they're right. Jessica is an Everygirl who doesn't think at the beginning she's anything special to look at, has a crush on Jake, a nice Everyguy in her grade, has a BFF she shares everything with, and makes decent grades because she studies and does her homework. She's good at math and has been a Mathlete through high school, wants her senior year to be the best ever, loves and respects her parents but butts heads with them from time to time, and has weaknesses but doesn't feel the need to bring them up every five minutes. Oh, and she doesn't have lots of guys drooling and tagging along at her heels. She fumbles through overtures with Jake in a way that was painfully familiar to me because I have so been there before.