Equally entertaining sequel to "Undead and Unwed"
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This entertaining vampire romance is the second of a series which incongruously combines chick lit romantic comedy and vampire thriller. Think "Sex in the City" meets "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," from the viewpoint of a new vampire.
The book begins with a police record of an interview with a taxi-driver, who describes how he witnessed a supernatural attack, and how a mysterious, tall, very pale, and very beautiful girl had driven off a vampire. Those who have not read the first book will have no idea what is going on, but those who previously read "Undead and Unwed" will recognise Betsy Taylor from the description.
It continues the "Queen Betsy" comic vampire series, in which the initial group of stories consists of the following six books:
1) Undead and Unwed
2) Undead and Unemployed
3) Undead and Unappreciated
4) Undead and Unreturnable
5) Undead and Unpopular
6) Undead and Uneasy.
There is also a "Queen Betsy" story in "Dead over Heels" which is a collection of three paranormal romance novellas. There will also be a follow-up trilogy, which MJD describes as "a new story arc" featuring the same central characters begining two months after the events of both "Undead and Uneasy" and "Dead over Heels". So far only the first book in the follow-up "Queen Betsy" trilogy has been published, it is called "Undead and Unworthy".
"Undead and Unemployed" is mostly told in the first person by Elizabeth Taylor, who prefers to be called Betsy for obvious reasons and is a most unusual vampire. Unlike other vampires, Betsy can say the name of God, and touch the bible or holy water without being burned or hurt.
At the end of the previous book, Betsy was proclaimed as Queen of the Vampires, but she doesn't want the position. Instead she goes looking for her dream job: as death has not changed her fascination with expensive shoes, Betsy tries to wangle herself a job working on the night shift selling designer shoes at top store Macy's.
But although Betsy would prefer to turn her back on her title as Queen of the Vampires, the other undead are not ready to turn their backs on her. A gang is murdering vampires, and the others want Betsy to do something about it. This kicks off a chain of events which soon becomes hysterical - that is, hysterically funny ...
Mary Davidson has great fun with the incongruity of mixing up the vampire genre with chick-lit romantic comedy. 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 series 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 the "Queen Betsy" series 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 but if you have the right sort of sense of humour, it is pretty good fun. I can recommend both "Undead and Unwed" and "Undead and Unemployed," and enjoyed reading the rest of the series.
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Lovable characters and very witty!
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I totally love the undead series. This is my second book and so far I absolutely love them! Betsy is an extremely witty character and the sexual tension between her and Eric Sinclair is fantastic! I really enjoy reading MJD books and am becoming a very enthusiastic fan.
One thing though, some of the phrases to describe situations and characters in the books are a tad bit repetitive. That's the only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars. Also in the previous book I found a few typos HOWEVER, this hasn't put me off the book because the characters are so lovable and you really get to build a relationship with them and get engrossed in the story. I absolutely enjoy reading MJD's books! FANTASTIC!
A MUST-READ for those looking for a giggle and sauciness at the same time!
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Funnier
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I have to say that I found ‘UNDEAD AND UNEMPLOYED’ to be much more entertaining than it’s predecessor ‘UNDEAD AND UNWED’. While I enjoyed ‘UNDEAD AND UNWED’ I found the main character Betsy to be excessively irritating and the story, although funny at parts, to be a bit predictable. However, in Mary Janice Davidson’s second novel in this series, Betsy is still somewhat irritating but not excessively so and the story was much better thought out adding a bit more mystery to the story. Also new and interesting secondary characters were thrown in with the very charming vamps Sinclair and Tina (my favorite characters in both books) making for an even more interesting read. While this series may not gotten to a roaring start for me it seems to be getting better with every novel and has the potential to be very good if Betsy tones down the sarcasm a little and Davidson turns up the romance between Betsy and Sinclair. This is an amusing and very likable series and I look forward to reading the next installment and in keeping with the theory of each one being better than the last, I am hoping ‘UNDEAD AND UNAPPRECIATED’ will garner a 4 star rating but for now this one gets 3 ½ stars!
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laugh out loud
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i first came across this author just by chance i wanted to read a really good vampire book with romance but wanted it to be funny too and voila i came upon this book on my search on amazon , all the others were depressing or just plain stupid and when i read the synopsis i knew i just had to get it so i did and now i have all the Betsy Undead books and just waiting for undead and unreturnable.
This is truely a book that will appeal to all ages and Eric Sinclair is soo sexy in an undead way and u just cant believe how shallow betsy is but u have to love her for it cos underneath it all she's a decent and lovely person, albeit dead one, who wants to do right.
All the other sub characters are great for example her fortunately Rich best friend is kick ass fantastic and all i can say is Read it, Read it and then Read it again. Both my sisters and my friend have bought the books on my recommendations and love them, apparently its now my job to find good authors for them lol, others i recommend are J.R Ward,(newish author cool writing style abt Vamps), Kim Harrison,(Wonderful Witching), Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark Hunters fiery HOT!) and Kelley Armstrong (Vamps,witches and Demons Galore)for good story lines. Not as funny as MJD but sexy and interesting to read nevertheless.
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I only bought it because the cover looked cool...
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Yes I am one of those sad people that impulse buy books becuase of their cover and yes most of the time I regret it after, but with this book I struck gold. Im 17, love humour stories but it has to have romance or horror in it...this book had both. I totally love Betsy's character and her personality leaps though the page at you...she actually reminds me of a friend lol. Eric, I love, simple as. I was so gutted when my local WHSmith store said that the next book had been taken off thier database and thay had no information on it...straight onto amazon I went and I was sooooooo happy to see that the next TWO books come out in a few months!!!! Im so gonna buy them
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