Undead and Unfinished (Queen Betsy, Book 9)
by MaryJanice Davidson
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Book Summary Information
Author: MaryJanice DavidsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-07-06
ISBN: 0425234355
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780425234358
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Undead and Unfinished (Queen Betsy, Book 9)
Book Review: Queen Betsy Nine - MARMITE BOOK ALERT
Summary: 4 Stars
And it does appear to be unfinished - don't assume that this is the end!
I am not surprised that this ninth instalment in the comedy series which combines chick lit romantic comedy and vampire thriller has been getting mixed reviews. It's one of a couple of books from long-running series that have come out in the past few months which delivers a huge kick in the teeth at the very end (the other is "Cryoburn (The Vorkosigan Saga)" by Lois McMaster Bujold). And it's very much a "marmite" book which some readers will like and others hate.
On the plus side, there's some new twists in the incongruous way the story mixes up "Sex in the City" with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" which had me laughing out loud several times. On the minus side it's a bit all over the place, particularly with a rather bizarre form of time travel which dominates the book, and you have to work hard to follow what's going on in places.
And in particular, the shock ending in the three-page epilogue will have made most readers who like the characters of Betsy and Laura feel they've been kicked in the stomach.
If this is actually the end, I can see why so many readers who liked the series up to this point feel that it killed their pleasure, not just in this book but in the whole series. But remember, the title of the book is "Undead and UNFINISHED."
The key question: is this a shock end, not just to the book, but to the series? Or does the word "unfinished" in the title mean that it is not actually over?
Could it be like the moment at the end of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" when you think that one of the characters has finally proved he was really a bad guy all along - but you have to read one last book to find out if you're right? I note that one of the other reviewers on here contacted the author and was told that "Undead and Undetermined" will come out in July 2012.
For anyone on here who has not actually read any of these books and is wondering what the series is about:
Elizabeth Taylor (who prefers to be called Betsy) is a fashionista and former model, who to her own astonishment has become Queen of the Vampires. She has some unusually difficult family and relationship problems
* A sister who is the antichrist, and is rebelling against her parent the devil by trying to be good (but has some lethal ideas about how to do so)
* A husband who is King of the vampires
* A baby half-brother, whose guardian she has been since her father and stepmother died, who may have some unusual characteristics of his own, and
* said stepmother occasionally comes back as a ghost to haunt Betsy, when she's not being the head receptionist to Satan in hell.
The plotlines of the first six books were more or less resolved in number six, "Undead and Uneasy." The seventh, "Undead and Unworthy," kicked off what Mary Janice Davidson calls a new "story arc." This book, "Undead and Unwelcome" is third in that new story arc. The full list of Queen Betsy stories to date is
1) "Undead and Unwed (Undead Series)"
2) "Undead and Unemployed (Undead Series)"
3) "Undead and Unappreciated (Undead Series)"
4) "Undead and Unreturnable (Undead Series)"
5) "Undead and Unpopular (Undead 5)"
6) "Undead and Uneasy"
7) "Undead and Unworthy (Undead 7)"
8) "Undead and Unwelcome (Queen Betsy, Book 8)"
9) Undead and Unfinished.
And as mentioned, according to a review on the US site, the author has said that
"UNDEAD AND UNDETERMINED will be out next July ... and it starts about half an hour after UNFINISHED finished."
There is also a "Queen Betsy" novella, set at about the same time as book six, in Davidson's collection "Dead Over Heels," one of the three paranormal romance stories in that volume.
In my opinion you will get most out of these books if you read them in order. I would start with "Undead and Unwed" and work on from there.
Most of the "Queen Betsy" books are told in the first person by Betsy Taylor. However, one of the twists in this volume is that while most of it is narrated by a 21st century Betsy who was born a little over 30 years ago, dying and becoming queen of the vampires quite recently, a few sections of this one are narrated by a very different Betsy - I'd better not say more for fear of spoiling the story.
The first words of the series are "The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry."
Betsy is a former model and is still a fashion fanatic. At the start of the series, on the morning of her disastrous 30th birthday, she is working as a secretary. Her main interests are designer shoes, designer clothes, and her cat. In quick succession she gets fired, loses her cat, and is killed in a car accident. It is a great surprise to her when she rises again as a most unusual vampire. It is even more of a surprise when, through a sequence of bizarre events, she becomes queen of the vampires.
At the start of this ninth book, Betsy and her husband Sinclair have some serious rows: meanwhile Betsy and her sister Laura are invited to Hell by the devil. Betsy suspects that, of course, the devil is up to no good, but she has no idea how weird the events which follow will be ...
Mary Davidson has great fun by mixing up the vampire genre as in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or Laurell Hamilton's "Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter" series and Chick-Lit romantic comedy as in "Sex and the City." This series is way over the top, fairly sexy, and often very funny.
An interesting comparison with other authors who have written entertaining comedies by combining incongruous genres would be with Marianne Mancusi and Robert Frezza.
In the same way that this book gets plenty of laughs by combining chick lit with Vampires, Frezza write two very funny books which combined Vampires and Science Fiction ("Mclendon's Syndrome" and "The VMR Theory") and Mancusi combined chick lit with time travel in "A Connecticut Fashionista at King Arthur's Court" and "A Hoboken Hipster in Sherwood Forest." Anyone who likes this book is likely to enjoy all four of those, and vice versa, if you have read and enjoyed any of those books you will probably like this one.
OK, this is never going to win the Booker Prize or any other great award for classic literature, and it is fairly raunchy, so not suitable for children. However, if you have the right sort of sense of humour, this book is good fun. But be warned about the sting in the tail!
Summary of Undead and Unfinished (Queen Betsy, Book 9)
Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor returns in the ninth novel in the New York Times bestselling series.
Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is having a tough time getting through the Book of the Dead-until the Devil strikes a bargain. She offers Betsy a chance to finish the cursed (literally!) thing, and finally discover all its mysteries. There's just one catch...
Betsy and her half-sister Laura have to go to Hell long enough for Laura to embrace her dark heritage (after a rebellious youth of charity work) and finally make nice with her mother, aka Lucifer. That means interacting with their family's past. In doing so, they're impacting the future in ways they never anticipated. Of course that's what Mother wanted all along. Damn her.
Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is having a tough time getting through the Book of the Dead-until the Devil strikes a bargain. She offers Betsy a chance to finish the cursed (literally!) thing, and finally discover all its mysteries. There's just one catch...
Betsy and her half-sister Laura have to go to Hell long enough for Laura to embrace her dark heritage (after a rebellious youth of charity work) and finally make nice with her mother, aka Lucifer. That means interacting with their family's past. In doing so, they're impacting the future in ways they never anticipated. Of course that's what Mother wanted all along. Damn her.
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