Tag Archives: book series

2014 – Book #103

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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The hundred and third book I read in 2014 was Wolf at the Door by Mary Janice Davidson. This book is technically part of the Wyndham Werewolves series but Betsy Taylor from the Undead series plays her own part in this book so I am reading it in my Undead series re-reading. It says in the preface to this book that it takes place after Undead and Undermined (the tenth book in the Undead series) but I’m pretty sure that’s not true. In this book Marc is already up and walking around and everyone knows about him. At the end of Undead and Undermined, Marc had just died. I think this book really takes place after the end of the next book or maybe even the one after that. Anyways, I finished this book on 11/22/14. I rated this book 3.0 stars out of a scale of 5. This book was about Rachael Velvela, a werewolf accountant, and Edward, a Bostonian who lives with a vampire and vampire hunter.

Rachael is asked by her cousin Michael (leader of the Wyndham werewolf Pack) to go St. Paul and keep an eye on the vampire queen (Betsy Taylor). Meanwhile Edward in Boston gets a copy of the vampire newsletter and decides to go check things out. The two meet by chance in a Barnes and Noble and boink their brains out. And eventually solve the mystery of some murders.

This book was ok. My main problem with it is that the timeline doesn’t really work. There is a lot of mention of Antonia dying, but she came back to life at the end of Undead and Undermined. And Marc had just died and was not yet a zombie (spoiler alert). I’m glad I had already read the next book in the series or else I would be pissed and confused about that point. Other than those issues, the book was cute and slightly entertaining. Overall definitely not one of my favorites but was an ok read.

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

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-at-Door-MaryJanice-Davidson/dp/0425243117/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1416666186&sr=8-4

2014 – Book #101

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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The hundred and first book I read in 2014 was Undead and Undermined by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the tenth book in her Undead/Betsy Taylor series. I finished this book on 11/9/14. I rated this book 4.25 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up almost immediately after where the last book left off. Betsy and Laura have returned from hell unscathed and Betsy is determined not to let the future she saw become the future that actually happens. She will forewarn her friends and family and she will prevent disaster. Of course first she and Sinclair must have lots of sex before she can tell everyone what’s up and what she learned on her travels.

First thing Betsy notices (it’s hard to miss) is that she’s currently in an alternate timeline. Garrett is still alive, and not only are Jess and Nick (who goes by Dick now I guess) still together, Jess is pregnant! Fortunately that’s just about the biggest differences between this timeline and the last one Betsy was in so she is still the vampire queen, and Sinclair is still madly in love with her. Oh and I forgot one of the other biggest differences is that Christian Louboutin (famous shoe designer, Betsy has about a dozen pairs of shoes by him) no longer makes shoes in this timeline, and instead Betsy has about a dozen pairs of velvet clogs (barf).

Unfortunately, someone seems to have tagged along on Betsy and Laura’s travel back to their own time. The Marc Thing from the future pops up in Betsy’s kitchen while she is debriefing her fellow house-dwellers.They manage to tape The Marc Thing up to a fridge with about eight rolls of duct tape. Unfortunately, while they’re still trying to figure out what to do with The Marc Thing, Betsy and Laura end up in a pretty nasty fight and they tumble on back to hell. Betsy ends up tumbling through and ends up in Chicago and gets hit by a car.

Overall I very much liked this book, as I do all the books in this series. I especially liked the idea of alternate timelines and how Betsy affected her own past and future when she messed with the past in the last book.

Wkipedia page about Christian Louboutin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Louboutin

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

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Undermined-Queen-Betsy/dp/B007F7R9G4/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1415662918&sr=8-1

2014 – Book #99

Posted in Blue Heron series, Book reviews, Book series, Contemporary romance by

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The ninety-ninth book I read in 2014 was In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins. I have been very excited about this book for awhile (in fact, here is my “Waiting on Wednesday” post on the book) and couldn’t wait to start reading it. And once I started I couldn’t seem to put it down! I finished this book on 11/3/14. I rated this book 5 stars out of a scale of 5. This is the fourth book in the Blue Heron series. I have read the previous three books in the series as well and loved them all, though only one is discussed on this blog since the others were read prior to 2014. You can read my post on the other book in the series here. This really is just such a great series by one of my favorite authors and I highly recommend it!! I devour her books, I already can’t wait for the next in the series (hopefully Connor’s story!) to come out!!!

So, In Your Dreams is about police woman Emmaline Neal and town favorite Jack Holland. (Just for reference, Jack is brother to Faith and Honor, who were the heroines in books #1 and #2 in the series.) Emmaline had her heart squashed by her fiance 3 years ago and moved to Manningsport, NY to start over. Unfortunately, the dating pool is limited in the area so when she receives an invitation to her ex-fiance’s wedding, she has to find a man and fast. Luckily, Jack is skilled in helping out damsels in distress. He has been a last minute date for many functions in the past for various women in town, though he doesn’t expect to enjoy spending time with Emmaline quite so much.

Hoenstly I just loved this book. I literally couldn’t put it down, I read it in two nights because I got lost in the world that Higgins created. She is so gifted in character development and drawing you into the story. I love the characters she’s formed in this series and I love their individual stories. It was a great read and I would highly recommend trying it! For that matter, I would highly recommend the whole series!!

Link to author website: http://www.kristanhiggins.com/index.html

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Dreams-Blue-Heron-Series/dp/0373779313/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1415105684&sr=8-1

2014 – Book #98

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Fiction, Paranormal comedy, Undead series (Betsy Taylor) by

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Unfortunately I was not able to read the whole Undead series during the month of October for my Spooky Series Reading Challenge. That may have been over-ambitious on my part considering the amount of work that has been piling up this month (this is my second-busiest season of the year) but I tried and I will continue to finish the series over the next month. You can never really fail at reading, so I consider my first reading challenge to be a great accomplishment overall and it was fun! And so, the ninty-eighth book I finished in 2014 was Undead and Unfinished by MaryJanice Davidson. This is the ninth book in her Undead/Betsy Taylor series. I finished this book on 11/2/14. I rated this book 4.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book picks up about two months after where the last book left off. The dreaded month of November is upon Betsy’s household and as usual she is avoiding anything and everything to do with the horrid month (Betsy has some intense opinions about November).

Betsy decides to teach her sister a thing or two about Hollywood’s version of the Antichrist, and together they watch many of the cinematic versions of Laura. Laura admits to being curious about her biological mother but its only after Laura wakes up naked in a public area that Betsy decides she’s going ot have to hike up her big girl panties and take Laura down into hell. And since Sinclair is being such a distant, cold jerk, there couldn’t be a better time for Betsy’s little field trip to hell.

When they arrive they learn that the lesson for the day for Laura is going to be time travel. And off Laura and Betsy trot to travel through time and space. Apparently since Laura is half human she needs physical contact with a blood relative (Betsy) until she gets the hang of doing the traveling on her own. And since Betsy is the one she’s punching in the face, they end up following a path of times in the past that end up being meaningful to Betsy’s life. Like seeing Sinclair when he was a little kid, and making sure that Tina turned Eric after Eric’s family died. Apparently Betsy’s interference was necessary in many ways to keep the time stream operating as she knew it, and one bonus thrown in that she was able to fix something she wished she could undo.

Overall, the idea behind this book can be a little unbelievable if you think too hard about it. Why did Betsy have to go back in time to fix it so that things happened that should have already happened? And why was that one bonus thrown in that she made it so she never bit Nick? And why did she only get to go to the future for one stop, and why was it so unbelievably sucky? I personally loved the story line to this book, it was different, it kept me interested, and it had plenty of twists and turns along the way. I saw on Amazon that a lot of people were upset about the direction of this book but I thought that it was a great addition to the series.

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

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Unfinished-Mary-Janice-Davidson/dp/B004R07A1G/ref=tmm_hrd_title_2

Spooky Series Reading Challenge – Wrap-up

Posted in Reading Challenges, Spooky series reading challenge by

So! As you guys can see, I wasn’t able to read all of the books in the Undead series like I had planned. I did get through a good chunk though, I read 8 in the series and 2 connected novellas. I just finished the ninth yesterday and I plan to finish the rest of the series this month even though my spooky series reading challenge has ended. So if you were just dying to see what happens, stay tuned! We will get to the end. And even though I’m pretty sure no one else participated in my Spooky Series Reading Challenge (besides my mom :-)) I still had fun doing it! And maybe someday I’ll have reading challenges with lots of other people involved! Thanks everyone for reading! Hope you all enjoyed Halloween!

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 #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

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