2014 – Book #91

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by rebeccabook17

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

6Oct2014

2014 – Book #90

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by rebeccabook17

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

5Oct2014

2014 – Book #89

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by rebeccabook17

As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the eighty-ninth book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unemployed by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the second 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 4.5 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up three months after where the first book left off. Betsy is still mad at Sinclair for his trickery and refusing to speak to him. She also decides that she can’t mooch off her friend Jessica forever and it is high past time she got herself a job.

Through some dumb luck she lands her dream job, working in the shoe department at Macy’s in the Mall of America. Sinclair can’t seem to leave her alone though and he corners her at work to try and convince her that their stalemate has gone on long enough. Around this time Betsy also has to solve the mystery of why a bunch of vampires are being killed. And when the group confronts Betsy herself and tries to kill her, there isn’t any avoiding the issue anymore (Betsy can be very good at that.) And so she enlists the help of Sinclair and Tina to help solve the mystery of who the bad guys are.

Along the way Betsy has to deal with a number of other issues, including her stepmother becoming pregnant, her boss firing her, a gang of vampire killers and their anonymous benefactor, and a power-driven, Sinclair-lusting, crazed vampire. She deals with all of the above with the utmost class (*cough*) and aplomb. Ha! She actually deals with everything with her sarcastic wit and issue avoidance.

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! I am looking forward to re-reading the rest of the series this month as well as the new release coming out on October 7th!!

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

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unemployed-Queen-Betsy-Book/dp/0425197484/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1412548291

5Oct2014

2014 – Book #88

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge by rebeccabook17

As part of my October spooky series reading challenge, the eighty-eighth book I read in 2014 was Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the first 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 10/4/14. I rated this book 4.25 stars out of a scale of 5. This series is about Betsy Taylor, who wakes up one day to find herself naked on a slab in the morgue. She had been hit by a car and when she wakes up she is, surprise!, a vampire.

Since she doesn’t recall being bitten by a vampire, though she does recall being hit by a Pontiac, why she is waking up as a vampire is a mystery to her. She decides not to think about it too much at first though and lets her friends and family know that she is alive (well, sort of). She is met with mixed reactions, from relief and elation to denial and fear. After letting her family know she is ok, she meets up with a bunch of other vampires, and the leader guy tells her that she must pledge her allegiance to him. Betsy finds this amusing, she just wants to continue her life as she knows it, she definitely does not want to get involved in vamp politics.

Unfortunately this is something she can’t seem to avoid, since yummy Sinclair seems to think she’s some foretold Queen from the Book of the Dead. Sinclair and the current leader Nostro don’t get along. Betsy agrees that Nostro seems like a complete jerk, though she doesn’t find the arrogant Sinclair to be much of an improvement, but she doesn’t understand why we can’t all just get along.

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. Betsy is such an unlikely heroine. She is vain, sarcastic, and childish but she somehow seems to figure thing out as she goes and blunders her way through. And despite all her screw-ups she still maintains her circle of close friends and family, who all love her even though she is completely self-absorbed. Awesome books, fun and interesting plots, and I love re-reading the earlier books and picking up on different nuances that stand out based on my knowledge from the later books.

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

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unwed-MaryJanice-Davidson-ebook/dp/B002YKOXGG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412546723&sr=8-1&keywords=undead+and+unwed

1Oct2014

Spooky series reading challenge – October 2014

Posted in For the love of books, Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge by rebeccabook17

Halloween is almost here! And one of my favorite series (the Betsy Taylor series by MaryJanice Davidson) has a new book being released this month! And since it is the 13th book in the series, I’ve been thinking what I could do to celebrate Halloween through my reading and incorporate the new book in my plan. So I came up with a great idea! Spooky series reading challenge!

So here’s the plan. For the month of October I plan to read through the Undead / Betsy Taylor series in its entirety. I also plan to read other spooky books here and there (witches and warlocks and werewolves and vampires and whatnot). But my main goal will be to read the Undead series. Make sure to follow my progress through the series and through the reading challenge throughout the month of October.

And I would love to invite you all to join the reading challenge for the month of October with me! You don’t need to be at the beginning of a series to join in. And I know plenty of spooky series so if you need ideas I can definitely provide suggestions! Just make sure to link up to this post so I can check in on your progress with the reading challenge!