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: I'm on a rollercoaster....seriously....it's been going downhill steadily!
Summary: 2 Stars
I loved this series early on for Betsey, you just had to love her cluelessness, her obsession with shoes, her concern with nothing outside of her immediate world and how things just seemed to to work out desipite her best intentions. The writing was snappy but simple, and then we hit the seventh book and things just started going downhill.
I've enjoyed reading about the Wyndham werewolves as well, and the plot seemed relatively simple for this book Antonia died at the end of Undead and Unappreciated. Betsy, Sinclair and Jessica go visit the Wyndham wolves to return the her body. From the minute they arrive the Wolves are hostile to them because they feel that Betsey is responsible for the death of their wolf. Betsy is upset that she is unfairly blamed for Antonia's death when the Pack never accepted Antonia in the first place and "drove her" out of Cape Cod.
Fights break out and several sub-storys are going on; Babyjon seems to have some weird powers that never really get clarified and are really kind of boring. Laura seems to be sliding down a slippery slope and flipping her lid and Mark can't seem to write an email in full english. Laura disconnects their phones but no one seems all that concerned that the phones don't work (hello???). Somehow their email works though.
Also not sure why they insist on the hardcover format all of a sudden, we were perfectly content with paperback, LOL. The story lines certainly don't justify hardcover prices. Sigh. Think I'll be getting teh next book from the library.
Book Review: M.J. Davidson's breezy writing can't quite hide lack of plot
Summary: 2 Stars
Betsy, Queen of Vampires, along with husband Sinclair, heads to the werewolf palace in Cape Cod, bringing the body of their friend and werewolf Antonia. The werewolves were not big on Antonia while she was alive, but now that she's dead, they're hungry for revenge and seem likely to take it out on the vampires. Meanwhile, with Betsy away, her sister, Laura, decides to stop running from the Satan-worshipers who have hunted her down and start putting them to work. Betsy ignores Mark's frantic e-mails because he uses too many acronyms for her taste and doesn't have a clue that Laura just might be pushing the world to armageddon--all with good intentions, of course.
The Betsy series started funny but has definitely run down. UNDEAD AND UNWELCOME is certainly readable and occasionally entertaining. Betsy, with her self-absorbed, blonde-ditz, but essentially good personality, makes a wonderful protagonist as queen of the vampires. Sinclair remains dark, sexy, brooding, violent, and uh, did I mention sexy. To me, UNWELCOME seemed more like setup than an actual novel. We learn that little Babyjon is more than just a baby, and that sweet Laura may be heading in Satan's direction despite (or perhaps because of) her attempts to do good. That's about it.
Author Mary Janice Davidson can string words together, can paint a wonderful character profile, and makes characters who would normally seem unattractive come to life in a way that makes them sympathetic. This time, I thought the plot failed to hold up all of the superstructure.
Book Review: I'm sorry I even read it
Summary: 1 Stars
What happened to this series? It was fun, fresh and intersting. Now it's old, tired and unforgivable. I've had problems with the series since the cover art changed and the author announced she was going a different direction two books ago. I was worried -- and rightly so apparently. It's completely fallen off in quality and substance since then. The characters are acting like parodies of themselves or like other people all together. And wasn't Jessica's last name "Watkins" in all the previous books? Now it's "Wilson?" Didn't anyone edit this? Maybe I made a mistake with that though since no one else has mentioned it. But if I did, in my own defense, it's hard to figure out what's going on when the author insists on starting most chapters five sentences in from where she should and you have to read ahead and then go back so you understand what you just read. What rule does she have about not telling you who is speaking or where or to whom at the start of a chapter? And as much as I love Marc Spangler -- why, oh why did we have to have whole chapters where he calls himself "dude" as he supposedly writes in his journal? That seemed like a writer's device to me and didn't serve the story at all. (Though it did immediately tell me who was "speaking" and I didn't have to guess for those chapters it was still awful and felt forced and weird to me. I'm so sorry I read this and desperately want the old magic back. I'm dissapointed these beloved characters are no longer themselves or interesting in any way.Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
At the end of Undead and Unworthy, Queen Betsy Book 7, Betsy's friend Antonia, a werewolf, selflessly threw herself in front of Betsy when Chief Hamlin tried to kill her. Even though the gun wasn't loaded with silver bullets, the result was fatal. Now Betsy, her husband Eric Sinclair and her best friend Jessica are on their way to Cape Cod where they will deliver Antonia's body to the pack of Wyndham werewolves that shunned Antonia in the first place.
Even though the pack never fully accepted Antonia, there is a lot of bitterness towards Betsy who they blame for her death and Betsy has some serious doubts about getting home without getting staked.
Meanwhile back at home trouble is brewing for Marc and Tina in the form of Betsy's half sister Laura, the daughter of the devil herself!
First I have to say that no matter what, I am a huge Queen Betsy fan and I will continue to read each and every book in the series. Now that I have that out of the way I have to say that I was very disappointed with this book. I read it on one afternoon, in practically one sitting but there was just no "meat" to the story. I feel it just didn't have enough of a plot to be a standalone book even with the dual storylines. It read like it a continuation of book 7 that was turned into its own book by adding the problems with Laura.
This is definitely not a standalone book in the series and I only recommend it if you're already committed to the series like I am.
Book Review: An Author Who Just Keeps Getting Worse
Summary: 2 Stars
First of all, could the print get any bigger or have any wider spacing in this book? Probably, but if I'd dwelt on that, I'd've not gotten past page two. (However, I later was glad for the for it, since I got through the book quicker.)
I was quickly irritated when I realized Davidson must have run out of ideas for writing this book, because not only was it written from Betsy's point of view, but we now have to read one from Marc's. The journal approach was lame, to say the least.
Betsy's character continues to try to act smart, but is ever the dim-witted ditz. A small example is when she tends to complain about emails from Marc in that she hates his use of acronyms, lack of punctuation and all-around poor grammar. Why are we wasting our time with this? Repeatedly?
It seems like in the past couple of years my favorite series in the humorous chick-lit genre have gone to crap because the author's obviously running out of juice when it comes to a plot. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop them from trying to bleed their fans dry in the pocketbook. (pun intended)
After this stinker, I'll be using PBS credits to get books by this author and saving my money for books with more depth by authors who still know how to write.