Review and Giveaway: Undead and Unwary

Undead and Unwary (Undead/Queen Betsy - Book 13) by MaryJanice Davidson

Publication Date: 10/07/2014
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley Sensation
Genre: Paranormal
Pages: 320
ISBN-10: 0425263444
ISBN-13: 978-0425263440

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Sensation)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Indiebound

MaryJanice Davidson on the WEB: website, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads

Books in the series: 

Undead/Queen Betsy

     1. Undead and Unwed
     2. Undead and Unemployed
     3. Undead and Unappreciated
     4. Undead and Unreturnable
     5. Undead and Unpopular
     6. Undead and Uneasy
     7. Undead and Unworthy
     8. Undead and Unwelcome
     9. Undead and Unfinished
   10. Undead and Undermined
   11. Undead and Unstable
11.5. Undead and Underwater
   12. Undead and Unsure
   13. Undead and Unwary

Coverart: Click the Image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.

Excerpt from, Undead and Unwary, courtesy of Amazon's Look Inside feature.

Synopsis:

How do you out-devil the devil? For Vampire queen Betsy Taylor, the answer is relative—literally—as MaryJanice Davidson’s “sexy, steamy, and laugh-out-loud funny” (Booklist) New York Times bestselling series continues…

Thoughts:

MaryJanice Davidson returns with another book in the Undead/Queen Betsy series. Undead and Unwary is the thirteenth book in the series and fans will be thrilled with the humor and banter between Betsy and her cohorts. The Queen of the Vampires is up to her ears in new responsibilities and lots of family drama. Davidson excels at quirky characters with so much dysfunction that the reader can't help but laugh and she does it again in this book and gives readers just another reason to cheer for Betsy as she tries to re-organize Hell.

I've got to admit, first of all that this is my first Betsy book. MaryJanice Davidson has done very well for herself with this series and she has tons of fans to prove it. Being a paranormal fan, you would think I would have tried this series out by now, but it has somehow stayed off my radar. There were some things that I liked and some things that I found daunting, coming into the series at book thirteen. Davidson has created a world where a lot of impossible things are possible and that alone was reason enough for me to like this one.

Betsy has a very eclectic household, that includes a ton of characters. Which provides the reader a lot of different angles to view the story. But it was a bit confusing for someone who has never read any of the other books. It didn't take me long to figure out who Betsy's lover was, Sinclair, or who her sister was. Betsy refers to her as the Antichrist, which I found exceptionally funny. But all of the other characters were harder for me to place. I wasn't sure how they had all come to live together or what each persons significance was. Also there was the issue of some sort of time warp disturbance that had things in the house turned upside down. I said all that to say this... Read these in order, I think you'll understand it better and enjoy it more. That's not to say that I didn't have some good things going on in this one.

I loved the humor and the banter that MaryJanice Davidson uses in this book. Betsy has a penchant for sarcasm and I loved that. Her inner dialogue is irreverent and full of one liners that a person won't be able to pass up. The way she talks about her sister is just too funny. Now that they are tasked with running Hell, together, they are going to have to spend some time together and it was a riot. The humor was well written and added a lot to the story.

From what I could gather, Betsy is a bit new to the responsibility of Hell and she doesn't seem too interested in making a go of it. Add to that, that some strange things are going on in her household and it's a recipe for disaster. There were parts of the book that had a feeling of immaturity to them that I couldn't quite understand. I thought maybe Betsy was just a little irked with her title of Queen, but it was obvious that this was not what she had in mind for the way her life would go. It was a bit disconcerting to read. I wanted her to accept her life and her responsibilities and get on with it. She does come around a little bit, but I was still somewhat disappointed in the way she handled things.

The bigger part of the story is told through dialogue. There are pages and pages of it. And in some books that works and in others it doesn't. For me, it didn't quite work here. I had a terrible time trying to follow some of it and had to go back and re-read several portions to try to understand what was meant to be shared. As I said before, this is my first book by the author and perhaps that is just part of her style. But it was new to me and a bit too hard to understand. 

Bottom Line:

I liked the humor in this story, but I felt very out of place with most of the book. I didn't get a good feeling for the author's style and way of writing. It was hard for me to follow and seemed at times too immature for my tastes. However, none of that may be the fault of the author or writing. I am pretty old school when it comes to reading and this was just too different from what I was used to for me to enjoy, but that doesn't mean it won't be for you. Give it a try and see what you think!

Undead and Unwary is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 3 out of 5 apples from my book bag! Based purely on my own issues with it.

About the Author:

MaryJanice Davidson is the bestselling author of several books, most recently Undead and Unsure, Undead and Unstable, Undead and Undermined, Undead and Unfinished, Undead and Unwelcome, Undead and Unworthy, and Dead Over Heels. With her husband, Anthony Alongi, she also writes a series featuring a teen weredragon named Jennifer Scales. MaryJanice lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two children and is currently working on her next book.

Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Undead and Unwary by MaryJanice Davidson.

~ You must be an email subscriber to participate.
~ US addresses only.
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, November 4th.

1. Please leave a comment. Have you read any of the Undead books, what did you think?

2. Please fill out the FORM.