Book Battle: Round 1 Winners (Part 2)

So we've got one more announcement for you today. And there will be a few more tomorrow too, so come back to find out even more winners. But right now it's time to concentrate on this one:

Bracket 1:
Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey VS. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
Judged by Raspberry from Two and a Half Book Lovers

Another difficult bracket, with two very different books. Silver Phoenix was one of the most highly praised nominations back in the beginning of April, and yet, the Goodreads polls predicted Jessica coming out as the winner, with a spectacular 80% of the vote.

So which prediction is correct? Judge Raspberry had this to say:

"I'm not a big fan of vampires for starters. I can get past the whole werewolf thing, angels, you name it. But vampires? Blood-sucking? Teeth in the neck, destroyed by sun thing? It's not often I find one of those main characters a good find. When I do it's usually written by Annette Curtis Klause or Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I'm also not a huge fan of the mystical Chinese world that the cinema can provide, and thought it wouldn't be any better in a book. In both cases I was wrong, making this a harder decision than I anticipated."

And with those thoughts, the winner is... Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey!

By a small margin, Jessica's Guide comes off triumphant. It will be moving on to Round 2, where it will compete against Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler in Bracket 13. And make sure you check out the full judging post to get all the details on why it won.

Meanwhile, Silver Phoenix still has a chance to get pulled back into the battle in Round 4. Will it make the coveted spot? Only time will tell...

Come back tomorrow for more winners!