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:

Undead and Unreturnable

Check it out:

Here’s what you need to know about the Hunter series from Sherrilyn Kenyon:

• Acheron (“Ash”) is sexy as hell. He’s a drop dead sexy bad boy. And I do mean bad.
• This quote accurately describes Ash: “he had been built to please, and trained to pleasure. Everything about him from the sleek muscles that rippled to the deep, erotic timber in his voice seduced anyone who came into contact with him.“
• The Dark Hunter books represent steamy paranormal romance at its best.
• The Dark Hunter series is an incredibly popular vampire fantasy series that has sold millions of dollars. The “Hunters” have fans worldwide.
• Acheron is available now at Amazon.

Get Acheron (Dark-Hunter, Book 12)

See also:

May 1, 2008

Darkness Everlasting (Guardians of Eternity, Book 3) by Alexandra Ivy “Darcy Smith always sensed she was different from everyone else-if only she knew how different. Possessing a secret strong enough to end an entire race of demons, Darcy unwittingly becomes a pawn in an epic battle between the vampires and the weres as she discovers a new world filled with ecstasy-and dark passions.”

May 6, 2008

The Host: A Novel by Stephanie Meyer The author of the best selling Twilight Series has written a book specifically for adults. “Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.”

May 6, 2008

From Dead to Worse (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. by Charlaine Harris “After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the manmade explosion at the vampire summit, everyone—human and otherwise—is stressed, including Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is trying to cope with the fact that her boyfriend Quinn has gone missing. It’s clear that things are changing—whether the weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie—Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, leader of the local vampire community—is caught up in the changes.”

May 27, 2008

The Touch of Twilight (Sign of the Zodiac, Book 3) by Vicki Pettersson “On the surface she’s a sexy, sophisticated socialite, at home among the beautiful people of the Las Vegas upper crust. But Joanna Archer inhabits another world: a place ordinary humans can’t see and could never enter … a dangerous dimension where an eternal battle rages between the agents of Light and Shadow. And Joanna is both.”

May 27, 2008

Blood Noir (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 16) by Laurell K. Hamilton “A favor for Jason, vampire hunter Anita Blake’s werewolf lover, puts her in the center of a fullblown scandal that threatens master-vampire Jean-Claude’s reign—and makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen’s new rise to power.”