Monthly Archives: October 2014

2014 – Book #97

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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**SPOILER ALERT**

As this book is a continuation in a series, some items are discussed in this blog post that reveal plot twists in previous books. Read at your own risk.

As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-seventh book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the eighth book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/26/14. I rated this book 4.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up about one week after where the seventh book left off. Antonia died in order to save Betsy’s life, and now Betsy is having trouble dealing with her grief over the matter. Not only that, but when she calls Michael Wyndham to inform him (Michael is the leader of Antonia’s wolf-pack) he requests that Betsy come to Cape Cod with Antonia’s body and also to discuss exactly how this has come about.

Basically the werewolves are all pissed. Apparently everyone is blaming Betsy for Antonia’s death even though the werewolves’ lack of acceptance with Antonia (she was a little “different”) is what drove her to leave for Minnesota in the first place so the blame should honestly be a little shared. And as if Betsy weren’t beating herself up about it enough already, she loved Antonia and is fairly devastated by her death. Anyways, so Betsy, Sinclair, Jess, and BabyJon stomp off to Cape Cod to answer a few rude werewolf questions.

While they are in Cape Cod, Betsy and Sinclair start noticing that everyone is acting a little weird around BabyJon. Derik gets really freaked out every time he sees the baby, and Michael is ignoring the baby as if it doesn’t even exist. Betsy starts to think there is some wrong, and when a teen changes into a werewolf for the first time and takes a bite out of BabyJon, her suspicions are confirmed. Meanwhile back at the homestead, Laura is losing her gosh-darned mind and has trapped Tina somewhere. Marc is trying to reason with her while sending garbled acronym-filled messages to Betsy that she can’t interpret.

I’ll say pretty much the same thing I said for the first book here, overall obviously I love this book or else I wouldn’t be re-reading the whole series. I can’t say enough good things about this book and this series. I very much liked this book, it was well-paced and I was interested throughout the story. I thought it was interesting that this book was almost like a tv cross-over special between the Undead book series and the Wyndham book series. Loved this one, would definitely recommend!!

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unwelcome-Queen-Betsy-Book/dp/B005X4AQDE/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

2014 – Book #96

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-sixth book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unworthy by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the seventh book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/25/14. I rated this book 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up about two months after where the sixth book left off. Betsy and Sinclair are settling into their lives as newlyweds. One night Garrett arrives and says that he’s been feeding the other Fiends his blood because he’s been feeling sorry for them. Apparently because they’ve been feeding on his blood though (which also contains the devil’s daughter’s blood and Queen Betsy’s blood) they became slowly aware of their surroundings and their predicament.

And apparently they’re very mad at Betsy. Like murder-on-the-mind kind of mad. And the Fiends are all on their way to the mansion to kill Betsy, following Garrett home to figure out where it was that Betsy lived. Normally Betsy and Sinclair would stay and fight but they don’t want to endanger the lives of Jessica and Marc (their human roommates) so they escape through the underground tunnels, since apparently there is an access in the basement of their house. So they hide out for a little bit while they get the whole story from Garrett. The Fiends really want to kill Betsy and they will bulldoze whoever gets in their way, as Marc finds out later in the story.

While all this is happening, Nick has also enlisted the help of Betsy to assist him in finding a serial killer. Apparently someone has been cleaning up the streets and killing all the bad guys that there isn’t enough evidence against to prosecute. Nick seems to think that it is possibly a rogue cop doing the killings. When Jess finds out that Nick is using Betsy in such a way though, she is beyond mad. And when Nick finds out that Jess won’t go stay somewhere else for a few days while this Field thing gets sorted out, Nick is beyond mad too.

I’ll say pretty much the same thing I said for the first book here, overall obviously I love this book or else I wouldn’t be re-reading the whole series. I can’t say enough good things about this book and this series. I very much liked this book, it was suspenseful and thrilling and I loved the plot twist at the end that connects the two story lines. Love this series, I can’t wait to get started on the next one! And I am very excited to see what happens in the new book in the series (lucky #13) that I haven’t read yet!

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unworthy-Queen-Betsy-Book/dp/0425221628/ref=tmm_hrd_title_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414262920&sr=1-1

2014 – Book #95

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-fifth book I read in 2014 was Dead Over Heels by MaryJanice Davidson. This is a collection of 3 novellas, one of which is book 6.5 in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/23/14. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5.

The first novella in this book is Undead and Wed: A Honeymoon Story. This story takes place only a few days after where Undead and Uneasy left off, Betsy and Sinclair are married and have ventured off for their honeymoon. What they don’t suspect however, is that Betsy’s best friend Jess and Jess’s boyfriend Nick are waiting at their hotel in NYC for them. Jess seems to think that this is the perfect time for Betsy and Nick to become bestest friends (Nick hates her guts for past events). But while they’re all staying at the hotel, kids start turning up dead, bled dry by vampires. I think the whole premise of Jess showing up on Betsy’s honeymoon is a little unlikely but other than that this was a fun story and a good addition to the Undead series.

The second novella in this book is Survivors. TV star Con Conlinson ends up stranded in a one man boat in the middle of the ocean. After two days he is thankfully helped by a silver mermaid who feeds him, drags his boat to an island so he doesn’t die, and telepathically calls to another mermaid to get a rescue team to come get Con. The funny thing is that Con was the star of a survival show, but he never would have survived another day if it weren’t for the mermaid, Ree (Reanesta). This was a cute story and I like the other mermaid books that MJ writes.

The third novella in this book is Speed Dating Werewolf Style Or, Ow, I Think You Broke The Bone. This book also takes place a few days after the end of Undead and Uneasy. Cain was one of the werewolves that Michael brought to Minnesota with him to try and find Antonia. Cain hadn’t seen many of her Pack members in years, so teaming up with them to take on the vampire queen really brought it home that many of her Pack members that are her age are now settled down with “pups” of their own. Cain decides its time for her to settle down and find a mate, and she enlists the help of her good old friend Saul. Short story made even shorter, Saul has been in love with Cain forever and she was just too dumb to realize it. To be honest I found this story to be a bit predictable and boring. It was cute just not my taste. 

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Over-Heels-MaryJanice-Davidson/dp/0425219410/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1414148725&sr=1-3

2014 – Book #94

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-fourth book I read in 2014 was Undead and Uneasy by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the sixth book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/22/14. I rated this book 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up about 3 months after where the fifth book left off. Betsy’s wedding is fast approaching and about four weeks before the wedding everyone disappears. And then Betsy’s father and stepmother die in an awful car crash and she is left to face their funeral for the most part on her own.

Betsy’s best friend Jessica is dying of cancer, and Jessica’s boyfriend Nick (who Betsy had previously had a little blood-crazy episode with when she first turned into a vampire but then they erased his memory of the incident, or so they thought) confronts Betsy and tells her to turn Jessica into a vampire and save her or he’d unload a bunch of bullet’s into Betsy’s head. Once Betsy gets over the shock that Nick has remembered what happened, she lets Nick know that she’s already tried that route and Jessica turned her down.

Sinclair has been missing for two weeks and Betsy thinks that he’s just in a snit because he doesn’t want to go through with the wedding ceremony. Sinclair seems to think that they’re already married since that’s what the Book of the Dead says, but Betsy wants the ceremony she’s been planning since she was a little girl. Kind of hard to do when the groom just up and disappears though. Once Tina finds out that Sinclair is missing, Betsy realizes that maybe she should be a little worried. As much as Sinclair doesn’t want to go through with the ceremony, its really not like him to just disappear for a couple weeks. He’d fight about the ceremony, not passively just not show up. Turns out Betsy probably should’ve been worried a little sooner.

I’ll say pretty much the same thing I said for the first book here, overall obviously I love this book or else I wouldn’t be re-reading the whole series. I can’t say enough good things about this book and this series. I think this book might be one of my favorite in the series so far. I love how Betsy overcomes the evil in the end of the book and what she does right after that, it was unexpected and a bit thrilling. Stay tuned for more adventures though as I try to read through the rest of the series this month. Going to take a Herculean effort since there are eight more books to go (7 and a collection of novellas). Great series though and I love reading it so it’s fun! I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who’s looking for a good laugh.

Waiting on Wednesday (4): Blood Magick by Nora Roberts

Posted in "Waiting On" Wednesday, For the love of books by

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“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases.

This week’s spotlight is on:

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Blood Magick by Nora Roberts

Release Date: October 28, 2014

Blurb from the cover (Amazon): 

Book Three of The Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy
Blood Magick

County Mayo is rich in the traditions of Ireland, legends that Branna O’Dwyer fully embraces in her life and in her work as the proprietor of The Dark Witch shop, which carries soaps, lotions, and candles for tourists, made with Branna’s special touch.

Branna’s strength and selflessness hold together a close circle of friends and family—along with their horses and hawks and her beloved hound. But there’s a single missing link in the chain of her life: love…

She had it once—for a moment—with Finbar Burke, but a shared future is forbidden by history and blood. Which is why Fin has spent his life traveling the world to fill the abyss left in him by Branna, focusing on work rather than passion.

Branna and Fin’s relationship offers them both comfort and torment. And though they succumb to the heat between them, there can be no promises for tomorrow. A storm of shadows threatens everything that their circle holds dear. It will be Fin’s power, loyalty, and heart that will make all the difference in an age-old battle between the bonds that hold their friends together and the evil that has haunted their families for centuries.

Why Am I Waiting? 

This is the third book in Roberts’ Cousin’s O’Dwyer series. I really enjoyed the first two books in the series, and honestly I’m eager to see the villain defeated and for Branna to end up with Fin. This series has been an interesting take on old Irish magic and I love the backstory to Branna, Connor, and Iona’s ancestors and the source of their magic. Overall a very interesting story.

Link to author website: http://www.noraroberts.com/

Link to Amazon (pre-order): http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Magick-Cousins-ODwyer-Roberts/dp/0425259870/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1413987477

Gone Girl Movie!!

Posted in Books made into movies, For the love of books by

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So last week I went to see the Gone Girl movie that came out based on the book and I have to say, it was SUCH a great movie! Movies many time will miss parts of a book that readers find essential, mostly because it is just impossible to include everything from an almost 400 page book into a movie that’s approximately 2 hours. Luckily the magic movie makers for this film only left out really 2 non-essential plot items (the Desi’s mother gets involved at the end and that Tanner Bolt’s wife gets involved in prepping Nick for the interview) that I’m pretty sure they skipped only to avoid introducing more characters into an already full screenplay.

Other than that the movie followed the book almost to a T. I loved it. The whole movie I was sitting there thinking, this is exactly like the book, its just so perfect. And I have to say, I don’t think they could’ve picked a better actor for the role of Nick. Ben Affleck was just superb in the role of an arrogant and slightly creepy jerk. Really all the casting was so well done, Amy’s role was perfect and Margo’s was very good and Desi’s role was well cast too. I don’t think I could’ve asked for a more well-suited cast.

Anyone who read this book and at least somewhat liked it, I would definitely recommend seeing the movie! Just a warning though a few of the scenes are pretty graphic (sex and violence). Nothing too crazy, though I have to say the scene towards the end involves a lot of blood so if you’re squeamish I would close your eyes for that one. I thought it was a great movie though and a pretty much perfect adaptation of the book.

Link to trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi78622489/imdb/embed?autoplay=false&width=480

Link to my review for the Gone Girl book: https://rebeccabookreview.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/2014-book-78/

Link to Gone Girl movie IMDB site: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267998/

2014 – Book #93

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-third book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unpopular by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the fifth book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/18/14. I rated this book 4 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up about 4 months after where the fourth book left off (not sure of the exact timing of the short story stuck in between the two books).

This book opens with Betsy planning the guest list for her unwanted surprise party. Even though she has told her friends repeatedly not to throw her a party, she expects that they will not be listening to her anytime soon and therefore decides she might as well help them plan correctly. During the course of the planning, she finds out her best friend Jessica is sick. Jess has myeloma, blood cancer. This news is devastating to Betsy, and she thinks about possibly turning Jess into a vampire so that she won’t lose her forever.

This book was all about vamp politics. Some big-wig vampires from Europe arrive to pay homage to the new King and Queen (a little late, but whatevs) and madness ensues when one of Betsy’s vampire friends (Sophie) turns out to be the murder victim of one of the big-wig European vampires (Alonzo). Sophie goes a little crazy and demands that Betsy kill Alonzo. And while Betsy agrees that what Alonzo did is pretty awful, she can’t exactly kill an important vampire for something that happened over a hundred years ago, can she?

I’ll say pretty much the same thing I said for the first book here, overall obviously I love this book or else I wouldn’t be re-reading the whole series. I can’t say enough good things about this book and this series. I always end up laughing out loud. I would definitely recommend this series to other readers! This book wasn’t the most exciting in the series but it was interesting and touching in its own way. I like Betsy’s point that the friendships in this series make her stronger rather than weaken her, even though she knows she will outlive her friends by hundreds of years. I think that was an interesting point, definitely different than other vampires in the series but I guess that’s what makes her the queen.

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unpopular-Queen-Betsy-Book/dp/0425210294/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1413805719&sr=8-1

2014 – Book #92

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-second book I read in 2014 was Dead and Loving It by MaryJanice Davidson. This is a collection of 4 short stories, all 4 involving werewolves. The last short story, A Fiend in Need, is set between the fourth and fiftth book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/12/14. I rated this book overall at 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5.

Santa Claws tells the story of werewolf Laird Alec Kilcurt and human Giselle Smith. When Alec first meets Giselle in a Santa suit standing on a street corner ringing a bell for donations, he knows immediately that she is the one for him. Apparently he knows that because she smells like ripe peaches, but hey to each his own. I thought this story was ok but it was pretty steamy, more so than I am used to. Honestly was kind-of borderline erotica considering its a short story and the bulk of the story seemed to be about sex.

Monster Love actually starts off at the wedding of Alec and Giselle from the last story, which I thought was nifty. Werewolf Janet Lupo leaves Giselle and Alec’s wedding in a huff and runs into vampire Richard Will. They make a date for the next night but due to a significant misunderstanding, Richard ends up kidnapping Janet and holding her hostage for like 2 weeks. Richard doesn’t believe that Janet is a werewolf so when she Changes during the full moon and runs off, he is just bereft. Honestly, this story got a little weird to me. I mean if you like rough sex that’s fine, whatever floats your boat. But Richard basically rapes Jane in this story and I didn’t really think that was cool. Other than that and the fact that Janet swore in every sentence, the story was ok.

There’s No Such Thing As A Werewolf tells the story of blind werewolf Doctor Drake Dragon who falls in love with a girl named Crescent Muhn. Crescent has this fascination with trying to fly. She’s also apparently 24 to Drake’s 40 and is homeless so Drake takes her home, like a lost puppy he’s decided to adopt. Long story short, they do it, and through a series of events (including running into Janet and Richard from the previous story) we find out that Crescent is actually a fairy! Pretty cool. I liked this story, only thing I didn’t like was the age difference between the two main characters. Was a little weird but other than that the story was good.

A Fiend in Need is the novella between the fourth and fifth books in the Undead series. Antonia the future-seeing werewolf. Antonia has a vision that she can get something she wants by traveling to Minnesota and helping “the queen.” And so she travels, and meets fiend George, who she knows to be someone named Garrett Shea. Garrett falls in love with Antonia instantly and they do it and stuff. That’s pretty much it. The thing I liked best about this story is that we got to see Betsy’s household from an outsider’s point of view, I found that interesting.

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Loving-Undead-MaryJanice-Davidson-ebook/dp/B000PDYVUC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1413148507&sr=8-2&keywords=dead+and+loving+it

2014 – Book #91

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the ninty-first book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unreturnable by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the fourth book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/9/14. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up less than 2 months where the last book left off, Betsy and her household are preparing for Christmas.

There are a number of different things all going on at once in this book, it was a little all over the place for me. Betsy is getting to know her half-sister Laura, who also happens to be the daughter of the devil. While spending time with Laura, Betsy becomes slowly aware of the fact that Laura has an anger problem. I think it really hit home when Laura stabbed Betsy with her hellfire sword. Laura also help Betsy babysit for Baby Jon (son of Betsy’s dad and the Ant, full brother to Laura minus the devil-ish parts) and we find out that the Ant recognized her all along. While Betsy is getting to know Laura she is also planning her wedding to Eric Sinclair. Betsy accidentally lets it slip that she can read Eric’s thoughts when they’re doing it. Eric decides this means he’s not the king (since he can’t hear her thoughts) and they almost call of the wedding. Jon from the Blade Warriors (I think from the last book? Book 3) asks Betsy if he can write her biography, and a hard copy of the 300 page manuscript goes missing. A scary empty vampire librarian starts a newsletter and asks Betsy to write a column for it. Oh! And Jessica goes on a date with Detective Nick Berry (the guy Betsy fed on in the first book who she turned into a puddle of crying mess and Sinclair had to wipe his memory). Now that I think of it we didn’t see Marc much in this book. Oh! And I almost forgot there is a serial killer called the Driveway Killer and Betsy meets one of the ghosts of his victims and the ghost helps her find the killer and stop him from killing again. I think that’s everything. Like a said, kind of all over.

Overall I liked this book but it is not my favorite in the series. Even still, I was laughing out loud throughout the book.I’ll say pretty much the same thing I said for the first book here, obviously I love this book and series or else I wouldn’t be re-reading the whole series. I can’t say enough good things about this book and this series. I always end up laughing out loud. I would definitely recommend this series to other readers!

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unreturnable-Queen-Besty-Book/dp/0425208168/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1412861438&sr=1-1

2014 – Book #90

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the nintieth book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unappreciated by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the third book in her Undead series about vampire queen Betsy Taylor. This is the series I will be focusing on this month for my Spooky Series reading challenge for the month of October. I finished this book on 10/5/14. I rated this book 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up 3 months after where the last book left off, starting about two weeks before Halloween. Betsy’s Dad stops by one morning to let her know that even though she received an invitation, no one expects her to come to her stepmother’s baby shower. During this unpleasant visit with Dad he lets it slip (oops!) that the Ant had a baby almost 20 years ago and gave it away.

After interviewing the Ant, Betsy finds out that Eric knew she had a sister all along. Apparently its written in the Book of the Dead that “the Queen’s sister shalt be Belov’d of the Morning , and shalt take the Worlde.” Betsy is just so sick of finding out about all this stuff from the Book of the Dead whenever Eric or Tina deign to let her know about her own life, so she decides to just sit down and read the whole thing. Bad idea. After going crazy from reading the book for too long, she physically attacks Jessica, emotionally attacks Marc, boinks Eric, and tries to kill Tina. Busy afternoon. Once they all figure out that Betsy went a little cukoo, they lock her in a room until they decide what to do with her.

Once Betsy wakes up though she is back to her old self. Unfortunately she remembers everything though and has to work hard to make it up to the people she hurt that she loves. While all this is happening she also has to deal with finding and meeting her sister, rebellious and eventually murderous employees at Scratch (the nightclub she inherited after she staked another vampire in the last novel), and trying to decide if she really loves Sinclair or if she’s just hurt that he has stopped chasing her. All very compilcated.

I’ll say pretty much the same thing I said for the first book here, overall obviously I love this book or else I wouldn’t be re-reading the whole series. I can’t say enough good things about this book and this series. I always end up laughing out loud. I would definitely recommend this series to other readers! The thirteenth book in the series is coming out tomorrow so if you’re looking for a light, fun, easy-read this whole series is perfect!

Link to author website: http://www.maryjanicedavidson.net/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unappreciated-Queen-Berkley-Sensation/dp/0425207226/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1412612573&sr=8-1