Undead And Unworthy

It's short, it's addictive and has no literary nutrintional value. But I love it!

It's the return of Queen Betsy. Monarch on the Undead. With her anti-christ sister and brand new baby half-brother.

Reading this series should be read in one long marathon read. It's romance lite so each book is kinda like half a book.

My best recommendation, wait for the paperbacks. The hardcovers will bleed you dry.

This is the first of a 3 book story Arch for the Betsy series, which made me laugh to bits, and also think dreamily about *Eric Sinclair*. This book gives you enough of a conclusion to feel satisfied, but also leaves you hanging for the rest of the story! Can't wait for the next!

This book, like many others, begins with a short "Note To The Reader". What the author has to tell her fans is that although this is Book 7 in the Queen Betsy series, it is also the beginning of a trilogy of books that will contain a whole new story arc. Hmmm, I wasn't too sure how to take this news. I've been a Betsy fanatic since 2002 when Undead and Unwed introduced us to this crazy, vampy, broad. Each book since has told a little more about what it's like to wake up as the newly undead Queen of the vampires. A few times this series has veered over to unite with Davidson's Wyndham Werewolves stories, but that was great, as it was an added bonus to see just how Betsy would deal with a furry pal.

My main concern about the new story arc is that the scope of the series is going to become larger and more complex. This seems to worry to me because while reading Undead and Unworthy, I kept feeling as though the story was a but disjointed. There was much more happening in this instalment that in the previous six, action-wise, and I found myself going back and re-reading a sentence or two just to make sure I had the sequence and characters right. (Just like to add here that I normally have no trouble following action, dialogue - maybe I was tired or not concentrating enough)

As far as the plot is concerned, I was very pleased. For any readers of this series, the Fiends have been a loose end for the last couple books. So I had been curious how this was going to be negotiated - Undead and Unworthy tackled this in a really interesting way. But rather than tying up all the ends it merely unravelled a whole slew more. Which I will be looking forward to following in the next few books.

Overall Undead and Unworthy was a good addition to the series, although not as strong as the previous books. Also, even though this is book 7 within the series, it would also work as book 1 if you weren't interested in reading the first 6 (however I highly recommend starting right from the start, as you would be missing out on some fabulous fun reads if you didn't). If you are looking for a brilliantly hilarious vampire heroine (with a pack of side-splitting side-kicks) be sure to check out MaryJanice Davidson's Queen Betsy series.

I love the Undead series but Betsy's irresponsible attitude is often grating, even for the devoted. This book started off with a bang of surprises and kept going but I found that the new developments in Betsy's life didn't appear as expected aka: BabyJon. I was truly looking forward to hear about the ways Sinclair was adjusting to being a father but BabyJon NEVER appeared in the story! That is, until the epilogue, when she realizes that she had to stop fobbing him off on other people and actually be his mother.

The fiends also reappear in a grand way and made the crisis-du-jour interesting but it was another clear view into Betsy's complete lack of interest in anything other than what directly involved her personally. She lists off all the reasons she hadn't been able to help cure them due to all of the craziness that revolves around her family. Unfortunately, as a reader, I realised that her excuses didn't fly because months pass between each story.

I can't say that it's cause for me not to read Betsy stories but I don't necessarily derive as much pleasure as I used to. It would be reeeaaallllllyyyyyy nice if our Queen would grow up just a little bit.