Review: Unsure about Undead and Unsure

Undead and Unsure by Mary Janice Davidson. Book 11 in the Undead Queen Betsy series.

Yes I am Unsure about how to review Undead and Unsure. I love Queen Betsy, I really do. Along with her yummy man Sinclair. I think the author is witty, talented and has a great agent. Of all the series written by MJD I appreciate the werewolf books and can't stand her mermaid books, love Betsy books.

In preparation of this release I re-read all ten Betsy books. The read didn't take long. MJD is funny, snarky and great with internal monologue. The reading is fast and fun, light and enjoyable. Her books are not plot heavy. The stories have a simple plot and are filled in with Betsy's unique view and thought process.

Undead and Unwed is the introduction to the Betsy series. On her 30th birthday Betsy Taylor loses her job, her party plans are spoiled, gets hit by a car and is killed. She wakes up in the morgue, realizes she is a vampire, tries to kill herself, rescues someone else from killing themselves and goes home.

Her mother and best friend are elated, the local vampire population - not so much. But vampires Eric Sinclair and Tina believe she is the foretold vampire queen because she isn't burned by a cross and can go to church. They want Betsy to put an end to the reign of Vampire King Nostro, read kill, and rule.

Betsy isn't having any of it but of course that is exactly what ends up happening. Oh and now Sinclair is her consort for the next 1000 years. Fun.

And book 2 Undead and Unemployed continues the fun. Betsy gets a job selling shoes at the mall. Someone tries to kill her. Sinclair rushes to the rescue because he loves her and Betsy lives on because she is the all-powerful vampire queen.

But her last release, Undead and Unstable used a terrible 'trope of going back in time and changing the past so the future is what it is, or was. I didn't and don't care for this storyline arc. Undead and Unsure started off (after the now familiar pages of acknowledgements where the author mainly pats herself on the back and add a few pages to the book) with Sinclair talking baby talk -terrible, yucky baby talk- to puppies. Not in character and repellent, that is not our familiar sexy hero.

As in some of the other books another character jumps in and tells the story for a chapter or so. That irritates me. In this case the character is Sinclair which is good and bad if you can get past the earlier baby talk crap.

If I was not a fan I would have stopped reading. The first half of the book is unnecessary internal dialogue to turn a short story into a book. After reading above you may wonder why you should read the book. If you are a fan, plow through because the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the book is worthwhile.

If you haven't read the books, this is not the place to start. Start with Undead and Unwed and enjoy! The first two books can stand on their own. But don't jump on the Undead series trolley in the middle of the series.

Remember, I love Queen Betsy and the series but don't start here, this is a bit of challenge to wade through to get to the good stuff even for a fan.

For a complete list of Queen Betsy books click this link: Amazon.com Widgets