Undead and Unworthy (Queen Betsy, Book 7) by MaryJanice Davidson
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Book Reviews of Undead and Unworthy (Queen Betsy, Book 7)
Book Review: outstanding
Summary: 5 Stars
overall i enjoyed the book. read it in one sitting and even though all the flashbacks were rather monotonous i really enjoyed the book. it was a good read and worthy of the first book
as for the cover i really didnt pay much attention to it so i neither liked it or not
Book Review: Great book, fast shipping
Summary: 5 Stars
I love any MJD novel, especially her Betsy Vampire Queen series. Undead and Unworthy was a great read, as action-packed and humorous as always, and I received the book the day it came out.Book Review: Great Book
Summary: 5 Stars
enjoyed this, but garret's death was useless. i hate that she killed off a character for what feels like no reason/Book Review: "Queen Betsy" book 7 kicks off a new comic vampire trilogy
Summary: 4 Stars
This comedy vampire thriller is number seven in a series which incongruously combines chick lit, romantic comedy and vampire thriller - from the viewpoint of the new and very unlikely Queen of the Vampires. Imagine a cross between "Sex and the City" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and you've roughly got the idea.
The full list of Queen Betsy stories to date is
1) Undead and Unwed
2) Undead and Unemployed
3) Undead and Unappreciated
4) Undead and Unreturnable
5) Undead and Unpopular
6) Undead and Uneasy.
7) Undead and Unworthy
The plotlines of the first six books were all more or less resolved in number six, "Undead and Uneasy." Hence this book, "Undead and Unworthy" kicks off what author Mary Janice Davidson (MJD) calls a new "story arc" - she also says that this will be a trilogy.
There is also a "Queen Betsy" story in "Dead over Heels" which is a collection of three paranormal romance novellas. 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.
The "Queen Betsy" books are told in the first person by Elizabeth Taylor, who prefers to be called Betsy for obvious reasons. 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 seventh book, the initial chaos which resulted from Betsy's accession to the Vampire Throne appears to have died down. Then, shortly after her honeymoon and in quick succession,
* Betsy's ghastly and recently-deceased stepmother Antonia ("the Ant") starts haunting her
* Local detective Nick Berry, who is also the boyfriend of Betsy's best friend Jessica, asks Betsy for some discreet help in solving the horrible murders of a number of gangsters. Nick suspects that a rogue element of the police force has found a way to get rid of local criminals without the tedious business of gathering evidence or attending court, by paying a vampire or fiend to murder them.
* Betsy and her friends are attacked by a pack of ungrateful fiends.
There will be a lot of confusing and amusing shenanagans before all this is sorted out ...
Mary Davidson has great fun with the incongruity of mixing up the vampire genre as in Laurell Hamilton's "Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter" series (or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Chick-Lit romantic comedy a la "Sex and the City." This series is way over the top, fairly sexy, and usually 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 one of those books you may well enjoy 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, it is pretty good fun. I can recommend "Undead and Unworthy" and also enjoyed reading the rest of the series.
Book Review: New Direction
Summary: 4 Stars
Received my copy of the book today and I read it in one sitting. The story itself is well thought out and has it's typical Betsy moments. MJ states at the start of the book that this is the first of a new 3 story (book) arc.
I understand why she had to end this book in the way that she did, with the death of two back story characters, but it's still very sad to loose them. My only concern in where MJ maybe taking the next few books is that the story could be very unoriginal.
***SPOILER*** Vampires against Werewolves. This type of story has been done to death, pun intended. The character in question makes a choice and knows the possible consequences, so any negative outcome from this act wouldn't make sense.
I know with these types of books in order to bring in new characters that some must be lost along the way, but it's still sad to loose the ones we've come to know and care about. I just hope that MJ is able to create something new and original from their passing and doesn't take the easy way out in the next two stories.
Basically, if your a fan, which I assume you would be to purchase this book in hard cover, I think you'll be pleased with the purchase. I know MJ wants to keep a mixture of humor in the books and I think that's possible even if Betsy grows up a bit more.
Betsy still acts too young, (her language isn't that of a thirty year old women) for her age especially with everything that she's seen and done, which really is becoming a bit annoying. She is a Queen now and her behavior should slowly start to register this growth. Based upon the ending, I think that some development will start to happen.
I liked seeing her and Sinclair act more as a couple, since I'm a Sinclair fan. You can see that MJ is making an effort to have him lighten up a bit. This would make sense since Sinclair really seems to care for his bride and Queen. Though I like him having more enjoyment in his life I'd love to see him really have some action in defense of Betsy. Other then in the first book, he hasn't had a chance to show his physical strength.
All the other charcters are back, I still wish she's bring Marc a real love interest that adds to the story, he's a good man and deserves a main squeeze.