Archive for fantasy book
If you’re looking for a light summer read you might want to try Undead and Uneasy by MaryJanice Davidson. I’ll forewarn you that it has its moments of silliness, but if you approach it knowing that, you should might be okay. Maybe. Perhaps.
Most of the humor in the book occurs because of the heroine, Betsy. Or I should say, Queen Betsy. You see, Betsy is a 30-year old super master vampire with powers that other vampires would die for. Sorry about that.
Betsy can:
- walk outside on a sunny day;
- go for several weeks without needing to feed;
- survive being stabbed through the heart (it hurts a bit, but it’s not life threatening);
- drink holy water;
- attend church or other religious ceremonies.
However, Betsy is also:
- incredibly vain and egocentric;
- petty and shallow;
- dense as a thick fog.
These qualities can make her character a bit irritating.
Anyway, this installment in the Queen Betsy series finds Betsy finally preparing for her wedding to the incredibly handsome Sinclair, the “King” of the vampires. Sinclair makes it clear that he’s not interested in the marriage ceremony because according to vampire lore, he and Betsy are already married. He sees no reason for participating in a wedding, a human tradition. This results in an argument between he and Betsy and as a result, Sinclair leaves.
Betsy’s best friend Jessica is still battling cancer. This is a theme that you’d think wouldn’t fit in a lightweight book like this but it does. It gives Betsy someone to worry about besides deciding which shoes to wear and helps balance out the ridiculous machinations of the heroine. Jessica spends most of the book in the hospital and things are at times pretty grim.
Marc, the gay physician that lives in Jessica’s mansion with Betsy and Sinclair, suddenly disappears. Garrett and his werewolf girlfriend Antonia (who also live in the mansion) disappear as well. And Tina, another live-in vampire, is away in France attending a meeting. As a result Betsy ends up mysteriously alone and unable to reach anyone. Not even Sinclair, who has never left Betsy alone for an extended period of time. However since Betsy is such an airhead someone else has to connect the dots for her. Duh. Thus the central “plot” in the book focuses on Betsy’s attempts to find out who’s responsible for Sinclair’s disappearance.
Okay, you can probably tell that I wasn’t incredibly pleased with the book, even though I’ve read the other books in the series and knew what to expect from Betsy. The problem is that the “Betsy is a dumb blonde” theme can be a bit tiring. I’m not sure where MaryJanice Davidson is going to take this series because it’s starting to get repetitive. Let’s see: Betsy obsesses over some new designer shoes. A mystery occurs. Betsy has sex with Sinclair. She selects a new designer outfit. Betsy works on the mystery. She gets new shoes. Betsy stumbles upon the solution to the mystery. The End.
But then again perhaps the fans of this romantic paranormal fantasy series really like these qualities about Betsy. I wonder: is it just me?
So I went looking for other reviews of the book. Although what I found was a mixed bag the reviews were primarily positive. At Amazon.com, 79% of the 63 reviewers gave it 4 or 5 stars. Interesting. It doesn’t affect how I feel about the book though. I still think MaryJanice Davidson spends too much time trying to make us laugh about Betsy’s flaws which tends to overshadow and weaken the plot. Because so much time is spent on this effort the book, at 270 pages, feels more like an extended short story than a complete novel.
Unless you’re a big MaryJanice Davidson fan and are willing to overlook Betsy’s tiresome personality, I recommend that you borrow Undead and Uneasy from the library. I really wanted to like this book more but I just couldn’t get past the heroine’s tendency to plod along oblivious to the people and events around her.
For more about MaryJanice Davidson’s Betsy the Vampire Queen series see:
In this, the 3rd book in the Julie Kenner soccer mom urban fantasy series, our heroine, Kate Connor is back attempting to keep her town, San Diablo, California safe from body swapping demons.
It appears as if the town is being overrun with newly made demons that are targeting Kate, her teenage daughter Allie, and Allie’s hunky teacher, David. If you read California Demon you know that Allie was kidnapped by a demon (in a human body) that had endeared himself to the family. Because of that ordeal Allie now knows that her mother does more than just bake cookies (badly) and take care of the house. No, Allie is fully aware of the fact that her mother slays demons, sending them back to their place of origin (which would be, um, hell) and freeing the newly dead human body they’d inhabit.
Unfortunately Allie has decided she wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a Hunter. This makes for some interesting exchanges between mother and daughter:
“No, you’re not going out with me hunting demons tonight.”
“But Mom!”
“No, and that’s final.”
“Whatever!”
Okay, I totally made up that scene but you get the picture. My point is that Allie is a typical American teenager who sometimes does the exact opposite of what her parents tell her. This can potentially put her in harm’s way because it appears as if the local demon population is targeting her. However, as we discover in the book, she’s a pretty smart young lady.
Which brings me to the main mystery in the book: the demons are attacking Kate, Allie, and David, but they’re not going for the kill shot. Instead they’re attempting to extract information about a stone in which one of their fire-and-brimstone leaders has been imprisoned. They think one of them knows where the stone is hidden. Kenner does a nice job keeping us in the dark about the stone while the 3 main characters race against time to find it before the bad guys do.
I’ve read the first 2 books in this urban fantasy series and I’m happy to report that Kate is growing as a character. In some of the earlier books we saw more of the domestic side of her, primarily because she was trying so hard to keep her hunter persona secret from all of her family and friends. In this book she’s forced to share her secret with some of those around her - that’s probably why there’s more character development in this book. Kenner downplays the “soccer mom” aspect of Kate’s life and focuses more on the well-trained, smart, and calculating kick butt demon slayer persona. It’s a good move.
As in previous books Kate’s husband Stuart is totally in the dark about her secret life. In the earlier books I was exasperated with his character because he seemed to be too preoccupied with building his political career and not plugged in to what his wife was going through. In this book he’s still clueless but we get to see a different side of him which makes him much more endearing. I still think he too easily accepts the explanations Kate gives him about her bruises and injuries, but I think that’s what makes this fantasy series so effective and different. It doesn’t take place in an urban city, there’s no sophisticated team of hunters with modern day weapons, and the heroine doesn’t have magical powers. It’s all about a woman who uses intuition, common sense, and training to rid her little part of the world of evil.
To be honest it’s actually interesting (and sometimes funny) seeing Kate try to kill a body snatching demon just in the nick of time because she hears Stuart approaching. I used to wish he’d walk in on her while she’s in slayer mode, but now I like the fact that there are people close to her that have no clue about her alternate life.
David, Allie’s high school teacher, is still somewhat of a mystery to Kate. In the previous book she started suspecting that David was hiding something - and that he wasn’t exactly who/what he appeared to be. Specifically, Kate thinks he might be a reincarnation of her slain husband Eric, who was also a demon slayer. That mystery continues in this book and adds a level of suspense and uncertainty that keeps the storyline interesting. All I’ll say about this issue is that deception, lies, and betrayal are key themes in David and Kate’s relationship. You’ll be shocked to discover the truth. Kenner does a great job with the plotline throughout the book and even if you’ve not read the previous installments you’ll appreciate the book’s climax.
If you’re looking for something different from your average Hunter/Slayer type urban fantasy book pick up one of the books in the series. Two of the books in the series are now on sale at Amazon:
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| On Sale for $7.99 | On Sale for $4.99 | $11.20 |
Give the series a spin - I think you’ll like it.
