title: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
author:  Beth Fantaskey 
description: Starred Review. A romance involving a high school girl and a handsome vampire may sound a little too familiar, yet this first novel quickly bursts ahead of the pack of <i>Twilight</i>-wannabes. Down-to-earth mathlete Jessica Packwood is completely horrified when, a few months shy of her 18th birthday, a Romanian named Lucius Vladescu shows up on her doorstep, claiming that he and she are vampire royalty betrothed to each other since infancywhat's worse, her adoptive parents verify the betrothal story and explain that her birth parents identified themselves as vampires, too. Fantaskey makes this premise work by playing up its absurdities without laughing at them, endowing Jessica with a coolly ironic sensibility and Lucius with old-world snobberies that Jessica's girlfriends find irresistible. Jessica's laidback parents serve as foils for imperious Lucius (Can I ever again be happy in our soaring Gothic castle after walking the halls of Woodrow Wilson High School, a literal ode to linoleum? he asks sarcastically); a scene at a steakhouse where the vegan Packwoods meet the carnivorous Vladescus is first-rate comedy. The romance sizzles, the plot develops ingeniously and suspensefully, and the satire sings. Ages 14up. <i>(Feb.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: Nehalem Pack 13
  The Wolf’s Hunter
  Jessica Hoyt escapes heartbreak and job loss after her ex-fiancé knocks up, then weds, her employer’s daughter, shotgun style. She
  moves to Enclave, Montana to start over with a possible new job opportunity. Meeting Garrett Campbell and Seth Dawson her first night
  in town brings about unsettled lust between the trio and a wickedly satisfying relationship begins.
  Garrett and Seth have a long-standing reputation for non-permanence with women. Their ex-fiancée burned them years ago with
  unforgivable betrayal, but Jessica has her own heartbreaking story, and the two men are smitten with her from the moment they meet.
  Jessica explores their ménage lifestyle enthusiastically. While some disconcerting mishaps follow her initially, Jessica soon makes several
  friendships at Old West Town, settling into her new life. Until trouble in the form of her ex-fiancé demanding something she’s unwilling to
  part with threatens to put her in jail and possibly drive the lov