Undead and Unwelcome (Queen Betsy, Book 8)
by MaryJanice Davidson
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Book Reviews of Undead and Unwelcome (Queen Betsy, Book 8)
Book Review: Undead and incomplete
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved the start of this series. Undead and Unwed is a well worn, battered book that I still drag off the bookshelf and read on those days when the world seems glum. This book did nothing to recreate that happiness.
The plot-such as there is, is simple. Antonia died at the end of Unappreciated. Betsy, Sinclair and Jessica go visit the Wyndham wolves to return the body. From the minute they arrive there is a threat that a war could happen-which seems vastly out of character for Michael and Derek. Betsy, hurt that her friend is dead, is upset because the wolves seem to blame her when she feels that the Pack never accepted Antonia in place and almost drove her out of Cape Cod. Short story long, a fight breaks out and Betsy gets staked-again. Plus something weird is going on with BabyJon-something that is really never clarified. Meanwhile back home Laura is flipping her lid. The road to hades is paved with good intentions and Laura falls down that slippery slope in a big way. Marc sends desperate emails (Laura has cancelled their phone services) that say things like, "Laura is LHFM!!!!" which makes no sense to Betsy or Jessica since they don't speak Twitter Text. They go home and walk into A Big Problem.
Part of the problem with the Queen Betsy book is that it's only about 50,000 words, and reads shorter than that. It feels like an incomplete novella that has a "To Be Continued" line at the bottom of the page. I have no idea why-outside of being a predator-everyone was mentally prepared for war. In the couple of Wyndham books I've read, Michael and his wife are pretty level headed. BabyJon has super powers butthey aren't that interesting. Betsy, Jessica and Marc are all apparently idiots for not sending emails that people can read. (After sending 2 SOS emails shouldn't Marc send one in English? I'm just asking) Shouldn't Betsy or Sinclair care that their phones don't work?
If this book had been $7.50 I would have been perfectly happy with the purchase. Instead I paid $15.86 (about $1.00 than JR Ward's 540 page Lover Ahvenged) and didn't get my money's worth. If the publisher wants to keep the Queen Betsy books as hardcover books, I suggest that a short story be added from another world to flesh out the purchase. Otherwise I suspect I'll wait for paperback.
Book Review: So a Vampire, a werewolf, and a bunch of Satan Worshippers walk into a bar...
Summary: 4 Stars
Wow, that was a a quick read...but I've guess we've come to accept that as the norm from MJD. I have to say I did enjoy this book much more than the last one in the series, however if you hadn't read the companion series for the Wyndham werewolves I don't think it would have been as enjoyable.
This book varies from the others in that it's told from two perspectives. The first obviously is from the point of view of Queen Betsey as she, her husband Sinclair, her infant brother and her best friend Jessica fly off to Cape Cod to take the body of their werewolf friend Antonia back to her original pack. They are also hoping to reach a diplomatic understanding with the pack since a war between the vampires and werewolves would be very bad.
The second narrator is Dr. Mark , their housemate who has been left behind along with Tina, the vampire couples undead right hand woman, and Laura Betsey's sister who also happens to be the daughter of Satan. He writes in a diary as a means of keeping himself entertained while most of his friends are away, but the diary soon turns into an outlet for his panic as things become gradually more alarming when a simple suggestion about what to do with a pack of bothersome devil worshipers is taken wildly out of context.
I'm certain this won't be the most beloved book in the series and I still have a fair amount of concerns. I really wish Betsy and Sinclair had a deeper relationship. I wish Garret's death had been handled with a lot more dignity, not as if he were a disposable tissue. I wish the books were a little less um, distracted, and provided a fuller story to follow like some of the other series available right now. I still dislike the new cover art, sigh. But having said that they do still make me giggle and that was one of the major reasons I read the series in the beginning.
Queen Betsey the Vampires Undead series in order:
Undead and Unwed
Undead and Unemployed
Undead and Unappreciated
Undead and Unreturnable
Undead and Unpopular
Undead and Uneasy
Undead and Unworthy
Undead and Unwelcome
Wyndham Werewolves:
Love's Prisoner ( a very good short story) in the anthology Secrets: 6
Derik's Bane
Dead and Loving it
Book Review: fast-paced wild but darker ride
Summary: 4 Stars
The vampire king and queen, newlyweds Eric Sinclair and Betsy Taylor feel obligated to accompany the corpse of werewolf Antonia back to his New England-based Wyndham Pack since he died saving her undead life. They leave the twin Cities for the Cape with Betsy grieving and feeling survivor guilt while her spouse fears a cross paranormal species war is coming.
50,000 plus howling werewolves scream for their blood so the werewolf council demands an accounting as to why one of their own died protecting a vampire. In St. Paul, Betsy's half sister Laura fears for her sibling's life and being the daughter of the devil plans to take action against her enemies. The Minnesota royal supporters struggle to keep her from going over the deep end and causing the hostilities to heat up which Eric hopes to prevent from happening. Alas adding to the cross paranormal mess is the royals' legal ward of her infant half-brother BabyJon who has fangs flying everywhere; hell even Eric who did not want to be a daddy for a few more centuries is over the edge when it comes to the baby.
The latest Undead and ... tale is a fast-paced wild ride filled with much darker but as hilarious humor as its predecessors. Now two years as the queen, Betsy still struggles with the intra and inter etiquette between the supernatural species as well as with humans and vamps; she especially struggles with those who pee and those who never urinate (don't ask what is left). The story line is loaded with off beat zaniness as Eric expects an unwelcome greeting in Cape Cod while St. Paul is out of control. Betsy puts the potential cross species war in proper perspective: her shoes have no scratches so far.
Harriet Klausner
Book Review: Not up to the rest of the series
Summary: 2 Stars
After the events of Undead and Unworthy (book 7), Betsy finds herself in a tense situation. Returning the body of Antonia the werewolf to her Pack, isn't exactly the Vampire King and Queen's idea of a good time. But politics aren't always fun, so Betsy and Eric head to Cape Cod in attempt to make peace with the Werewolves. While events are unfolding on the Cape, things back home are spiralling out of control for Marc. Laura has slipped a little to the dark side, and without the Vamps around to help him Marc is left with a desperate situation.
The first part of Undead and Unwelcome seems to be mostly a recap of what happened in book 7. There's quite a bit of explaining who all the characters are and an endless amount of retelling the story of Antonia's death. Personally, I think by book 8 in the series it's time to stop with the endless exposition. (If people want to get caught up they should read some of the earlier books. Fans already know who everyone is.) Things do pick up in the second half of the book when the story finally starts to move forward, but I wouldn't call this one of the more eventful Betsy stories. And there's a definite lack of character development. Much of the story occurs during internal dialogue from Betsy and Marc, while Sinclair and Jessica barely even have lines. There is some interesting development with BabyJohn, which I enjoyed, but not a lot else happens in this outing.
Definitely one of the slower stories in the Betsy series, I think Undead and Unwelcome would have worked better as a short story with all the repetition cut out.
Book Review: Undead and Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, well, well. Queen Betsy is at it again. Sorry to say there's no shoe shopping in "Undead and Unwelcome", MaryJanice Davidson's latest. However, Betsy and Sinclair DO learn a bit more about werewolves and BabyJon...and Betsy's sister, the daughter of Satan. Sound funny? Oh, the whole series is a side-splitter. Picture a self-absorbed, shoe-loving, fairly normal, not-so-bright, teetering-on-30 woman. She goes out on her birthday, has a horrible time, gets hit by a car, and wakes up a vampire--not just any vampire though. Oh no, she's the prophesized Queen of the Vampires! Has this changed Betsy? Uh, nope. She's still self-absorbed, still loves a shoe sale more than anything, still has more stereotypical 'blonde moments' than are good for her, and still hangs out with her best friend from way back. But the last two years HAVE seen some changes: she's now married to hunky Sebastian, found a sister she never knew about (yes, the one who turned out to be the daughter of Satan), accidentally bit a friend, cured a werewolf who couldn't change, and many other exciting and zany adventures you'll just have to read about.
Why do I enjoy this series? It's vampires without the angst. I mean, Queen Betsy is the antithesis of angst...unless we're talking knock-off shoes. The series is a bit sillier than Charlaine Harris' 'Sookie Stackhouse' and maybe I just like the fact that reading about Betsy's antics and though-processes makes me feel like a genius. I laugh, I shake my head at Betsy, and I laugh some more. How can that be bad?