Undead and Uneasy

Undead #6

by MaryJanice Davidson

Weddings are never easy. But when you're Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor, they can become downright deadly...In the days leading up to The Big Day, Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor seems to have a full house and the wedding guests have yet to arrive. Along with her human buddies, there's a ghost, a werewolf, and a Fiend crashing at her place. And though her fiance, Vampire King Eric Sinclair, conveniently disappears when the conversation turns to seating charts and flower arrangements, he does manage to make his oh-so-sexy presence known at other moments.

Cold feet are no surprise, especially with an undead groom. But when Sinclair truly goes missing-and not just to avoid wedding preparations-along with most of her friends and loved ones, Betsy is frantic. Alone and afraid for the fate of everyone she loves, Betsy can't trust anyone as she tries to find them and whoever is behind all the disappearances. And what happens next will shake the foundation of the vampire world forever.

Genres: Vampires, Paranormal, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Chick Lit

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 5, 2007

About the author

MaryJanice Davidson is an American author and motivational speaker who writes mostly paranormal romance, but also young adult and non-fiction. She is the creator of the popular UNDEAD series and the time-traveling historical fiction A CONTEMPORARY ASSHAT AT THE COURT OF HENRY VIII. MaryJanice is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes a bi-weekly column for USA Today and lives in St. Paul with her family. You can reach her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

www.maryjanicedavidson.org
@MaryJaniceD

MaryJanice's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/maryjanicedav...

http://us.macmillan.com/author/maryja...

Reviews

[Jilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know, I haven't been around as much as usual lately. sorry!! We've been moving and transferring internet and all that stuff has made me have to deal with "real life" lately. But, don't worry, I still never sleep and read really fast. So, I read this and the next three after it over the long (long for me - moving sucks) weekend.

And this book is the start of a downhill slope in the Betsy world. Things are getting serious and slightly (for now) depressing. I don't want sad or depressing in a world where the vampire queen is named Betsy and obsessed with shoes! I want silly, snarky, and fun. If I want sadness, I would watch the presidential debates - but I don't!


Looks like he picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!

Also, Betsy seems to be getting dumber by the book. Maybe when she died, her brain died. That would explain a lot.

As for the story - Betsy's wedding is closing in and everyone in her life disappears or dies. Instead of dealing with it, she hides her head in the sand and throws herself pity parties. Seriously? My groom disappears before the wedding? I find him - kick his ass, then spend the wedding money on male strippers and a cocktail-holiday for me and my friends. Not wedding dress shopping.

[Ronda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun read with Betsy and her friends/family and werewolves (yes, they join us in this one)!

Jessica is ill and yet MaryJanice Davidson manages to bring in the fun side of Betsy and her caring side all in one... I was rather worried but with the unexpected 'expected' (I know I know) ending, it turns it all around!!!

Things happen that I certainly didn't expect in this book and the 'penny' dropped when Betsy works something out... and this helped me understand what I thought was going to have to take place but doesn't have to after all (Yah)!!! Confused???? Read the books ;)

Anyway... the laughter continues and I look forward to continuing the series.

[Lissa Smith Reads'~A Bookaholics Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars:
The errors and typo’s have improved. The Queen Betsy Series is very funny and entertaining. A great lighthearted read that will make you smile, giggle, and laugh.

Among some of my favorites. Outstanding literary work. The characters are well developed, interesting. The liked characters are likable and the hated are unlikable. The writing is captivating enough to keep you interested until the end and leave you wanting more. It has a fairly original or uniquely well-developed plot. The pretense and romance was well balanced and done with properly distributed amounts of hints, behaviors and chemistry. Not so much predictable if at all. Overall, loved it, I recommend reading!!

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another dumb, but fun, trip through Queen Betsy's life. Several things come together at the end that make it slightly better than the last couple, but this will never be a top notch series. Still, Nancy Wu does a fabulous job of turning the drivel into a pleasantly distracting narrative for my commute. On to the next!

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Betsy's marriage is only a short while away, but where is Sinclair? Where is Antonia/Garrett? Why is Tina so frantic? Where is everyone?

Finally the wedding is approaching I have been waiting for it for several books now, so it is high time that we finally get to see it. But before that we have a whole book with werewolves, missing people, and Betsy suddenly getting a little baby as her son. Yep, you heard that right. Betsy's wish for a child has finally come true, though not entirely in the way she wants or likes. Her dad and her stepmother have died in an accident. :( Yep, I didn't expect that bomb to be dropped. So far no one from the group seemed to just die, so I was a bit startled. But this meant that we have an extra addition to the group, permanently.

Betsy is all alone, and of course she isn't going to just sit down and do nothing. Oh no, this girl just goes out on her own to figure things out, and maybe see if she can do something. Plus you can't just expect her to leave her best friend in the hospital and not visit her. But I do think that Tina was sighing and shaking her head if she had a clue what her Queen was up to (then again I do think she knew darn well what Betsy was doing).

We also finally meet the Wyndham werewolf group! I loved seeing them in this one, I read about them in the short story collection (though it was mostly from the POV of others in the pack or those near the pack). I am not too sure how I feel about them. I hated how they immediately went to bitch-mode when Betsy was confused about what they wanted. I mean really, you guys should know yourself how close-lipped Antonia is about stuff, so you guys could maybe understand that she has no clue about anything. But I am glad how it ended up for the pack and also for the vampires.
I am still curious as to why one of them was so afraid of the baby. Maybe I missed something, but I just thought it was weird as it wasn't really mentioned later (or at least I couldn't see anything about it).

I did think Betsy's mom was a bit rude and harsh. Thankfully she slowly starts seeing that maybe her daughter just has more on her plate than just clothes and marriage and trouble with her hubby. But I just didn't like that it took Betsy to flip for her mom to understand. You would say a mother would feel that her daughter is having trouble, and that she would understand. Maybe later would ask for an explanation or if her daughter wants to talk.

I am also glad to see Delk again, yes he is a little prick, but I did think it was nice that Betsy went to him (yes, with all sorts of terrible scenarios in mind). This way they could put things aside, talk it over (without a glaring Tina or Sinclair), and also get a bit closer again. Hopefully he will take on Betsy's offer, though I am not sure if Sinclair's very amused by it.

Nick? I had my suspicions of course, he seemed too involved and too much suddenly there at the right moments. Though his actions in this book made me dislike him greatly. I get that he is pissed given what happened in the first book, but really? Betsy was still a new vampire then, plus she tried her best to fix things then. :|

What happened to everyone, most importantly Sinclair? It first was pretty much Betsy being pissed at Sinclair because he left in a huff right before their wedding, but then she got very worried when it seemed that he wasn't responding to any calls (or faxes or whatever else that Tina tried). I loved how hard she tried to find her hubby and how eager she was to find him again. Plus it was just OH MY at the end and what she did there. I would have done exactly the same if someone did that to my hubby.

The ending, what happened after the battle with this book's villain (I didn't expect that person to be the one doing all the stuff, but then again I could have guessed)? Mm, on the one hand I loved it. We discover more queen/vampire powers, plus it shows that Betsy can kick some serious ass (though we already knew that). :P But I am more talking what happens to everyone around her + one other person. It was just too much of a deus ex machina. I think the one thing that bothered me the most was how it fixed a certain terrible situation for someone very close to Betsy. I get that there was barely any other option for that person as things got pretty Oh no, please no, but still. :(

Hehe, poor Sinclair he surely had to grovel a lot after what happened to him and what he did. Hopefully he will learn to next time just leave a note or just not go.

And of course we end with the marriage which had me squeeing in happiness. Ah, finally these two are together, and boy, do they have some plans for that first evening as official husband and wife.

Phew, I think I have mentioned everything I wanted to mention, though I may have missed something as this book was a rollercoaster of fun, mystery, excitement, and more. I know I couldn't stop reading.
So this was a terrific book, I am just sad that this is the last full book for me (I am only going to buy the short story collection that follows this). I wish I could continue, but I absolutely HATE the covers that book 7 and further has and refuse to buy them. :| This may sound silly, but I just don't want them in my collection. :(

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Danyelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this series!

[Suz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best one yet. Shades of character development although most of it happens toward the end. It will be interesting to see if it continues.

[Kat Hooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

That's probably the last one of these I read.
www.fantasyliterature.com

[Svenja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Auch der sechste Teil ist wieder sehr unterhaltsam und humorvoll.

Mir gefällt es, dass sich die Geschichte und die Protagonisten immer weiter entwickeln.

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

I read the first two books in this series back in 2004. I know, that was ages ago. I loved Undead and Unwed so much I gave it an A- at All About Romance. I loved the sarcasm and the over-the-top superficial heroine and the in-your-face sensuality all of which wasn't overdone yet back then. It was a case of the right book at the right time. I was burning out on traditional romances, after having read too many in a row. I wasn't as thrilled with Undead and Unemployed though. It seemed to pretty much go nowhere and ennui quickly set in as Betsy and Sinclair’s relationship lost its lustiness. After getting through it, I didn't feel the urge to continue the series and mostly forgot about it. So why am I reading book 6 now, you ask? Honestly, only because the battery on my Ipod died, I needed something to listen to on my commute and I had this audio on CD all nice and handy like.

I think the time and space and perhaps skipping four books in the series may have been a good thing because I thought this book was fun. Yes, it is mostly filler, and still missing that lusty goodness, but I appreciated the funny quips and unending sarcasm even when nothing much at all is going on. Basically Betsy The Vampire Queen wants a genuine wedding to her lover Sinclair The Vampire King. The mysterious “Book of the Dead” proclaims them already married and that’s good enough for Sinclair but Betsy’s still a girl and she wants the whole shebang. He gives her a few million to get it done and then promptly disappears for a good chunk of the book. This leaves Betsy all alone and forces her to make some decisions and find her inner power when a Big Bad enters the picture. Betsy is miffed; she moans and complains (for most of the book) but never got the impression that she was overly bothered by Sinclair’s extended absence. His assistant is the one who fears he might be dead but Betsy doesn't give it a second thought until she is forced to.

So what else happens because surely that can’t fill five hours of audio, right? Well, since you asked, here you go. Betsy is saddled with the care of her baby half-brother, all of her live-in friends and hangers-on have gone missing too, and werewolves show up and try to shoot her dead because one of them is missing as well and they blame her. Something fishy is afoot and Becky eventually investigates.

Basically all of the key characters are out of the picture (which is ok for me since I don’t remember most them anyway!) and this book zooms in on Betsy. It’s mostly sexless (boo) but it is funny, silly, mindless fluff and it didn't at all annoy me. It won’t change your life or make you look at the world any differently but it might make you laugh and sometimes that’s better than nothing, right?

Here’s a little taste of the twisted humor. If you find this amusing you might want to check the book out or seek help. Whatever works.

“Garrett would eat his own balls before he’d ever hurt Antonia, and he’d never, never kill her.”

Derik shuddered and covered his eyes. “Must you use phrases that I’ll never get out of my head? Eat his own balls? Who says that?”

Betsy does, LOL. I love how she can squick out a big bad werewolf with only her words.

And just when I was about to doze off, the dialogue and turn of phrase catches me off guard and forces me to keep on listening.

“So you, uh, don’t love me, yeah, I’m getting that.

“Not fucking likely, you blonde leech on legs. I dream about locking you up in a sunny cell.”

I don’t know, maybe it’s my mood but I found this stuff funny. Feel free to join me in my dark little corner of shame over here.

Narration Notes: Nancy Wu has an upbeat voice that’s perky, slightly bratty and truly fits the sarcastic Betsy. Sinclair though? Ugh. He sounds rather snooty instead of alpha whenever he utters his dialogue. Snooty is not sexy. It’s just snooty and a little off-putting. Isn't Sinclair supposed to be sexy with his “big hands, big teeth, big dick”? Or am I remembering him wrong? No matter, he’s hardly in this book anyway.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a fun read to finish before bedtime, UNDEAD AND UNEASY will do the trick. It only takes about two hours to read from first page to last, and you'll get in a few laughs along the way.

Betsy is still preparing for her wedding to Vampire King Eric Sinclair, but this time there are even more complications than usual -- Jessica is still sick with cancer, some people close to her have ended up dead, Tina has been sent to ease ruffled vampire feathers in Europe, and the King himself seems to be hiding away, sulking. Oh, and there's BabyJohn to take care of, and sister Laura to handle, and the Devil to avoid, and even a visit from the Wyndham Werewolf clan.

Overall, this is a fun, easy read in the Queen Betsy series, and readers will be happy to find some answers to a few previously unanswered story lines.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book with Betsy and Sinclair! It's two weeks before the wedding. There is a double funeral, and everyone starts to go missing. Betsy's best friend, Jess, is currently in the hospital undergoing chemo treatment.
With everyone else missing, Betsy has to try to figure out what has happened to her fiance and friends.

[Bud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 6 is the new best of the series IMHO. This Book seemed so short because I reached the end so fast. When you can not wait to get back to the story, you have a winner. Never saw the villain in this one until the end. Very good read. On to book 7.

[☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this one so much funnier than her previous ones. Poor Betsy got her ass kicked but she took it like a champ. Hahahaha This was quite entertaining and the baby was too cute and the other characters were fun as well. Oh and the threats too.

[Vfields Don't touch my happy! · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a hot mess. Betsy does everything the hard way and her pending nuptials are proving to be a ridiculous event.

[Nic · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the best dollar I’ve ever spent

[Madeleine Knutsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jag både gillar och inte gillar den här serien. Den är rolig och får en att vilja läsa vidare men samtidigt så fastnar det inte vad man läser och berättelsen går ibland lite fort fram med mycket som är ganska onödigt.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book WAY better than the last one. Things were kinda lame and boring in the last book. I rarely laughed at a single moment, so I didn't have high hopes for this book. I was just praying that things would pick back up and I was pleased that this book upped the standards.

There wasn't much Sinclair in it for obvious reasons (the dude's missing), so I was suffering from a bit of Sinclair/Betsy interaction withdrawal. I felt like this book was more about Betsy as a character and how she'd grow. Betsy isn't the most self-relient person and she can be clueless at times. Whenever a problem occurs, she always has 5+ people there to help her out. In this book, Betsy was truly alone. Her world was falling apart all around her and there was really no one she could go to. I felt like Betsy matured more when she didn't have Sinclair and co to fish her out of trouble.

I thought there was definitely more going on plot-wise in this book than in the others. Of course, it wasn't a lengthy thought provoking novel, but there was something more than random events happening. I legit was confused for most of the book. I didn't understand where everyone had disappeared to and I felt bad for Betsy. I had no idea who the culprit was until the moment Betsy found out. The whole scheme was unveiled and I felt stupid afterwards. Everything made sense at the end and I had been lame and hadn't picked up on the clues.

I kinda wish that this book was the end because I've heard that some of the later books aren't as good. Plus, I don't know how much more of Nick the cop I can stomach before I'll want to stab someone (that guy is a douche!). I'll read the rest of the series, but probably not til later since I'm happy with how this book ended.

[Brittany (booksandbottles) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg. I can't believe everything that happened in this book!!!! It was definitely better than the last 2. But oh Jesus. I'm about to start book 7 after typing this and I just can't believe that I've knocked out the first 6 books in about 2 weeks (it would have been sooner if I didn't have to wait on 4-6 to come in the mail lol). I can't wait to see what is in store for Betsy in the next book. Especially now that her and Eric are OFFICIALLY married, and not just seen as queen and king by the vampire world.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

These books lately just seem to be missing out on what I loved so much about the first couple - the spunky humor with Betsy. Trying to add in serious elements mixed in with the fun-loving Betsy just doesn't really work as well together. I did like this one better than the previous volume (but since I pretty much hated that one, that's not saying much) and I will continue reading but I wish the feel of the first book would return.

[BJ Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, I'll admit it - Queen Betsy is my guilty pleasure, and I don't even have her shoe fetish!

This story has more angst than previous books, in good part because of the author's intro letter. After reading that, I was a bit apprehensive, wondering which of the main characters was going to be killed, so I reached the final pages with a combination of feeling displeasure/pleasure at what happened to whom.

Loved the werewolf pack! I'll bet we see more of them - at least we'd better!!

[Diana S · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uneasy! Yep, that's how I felt while I was reading this book. I couldn't wait till I finished it. It's not funny! I don't see the appeal and found it in many ways crude. The only thing I liked about the book was the cover. :(

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still fun, some twists you don't see coming, and quite entertaining in general. There are some laugh out loud moments, so watch out if you're reading it and there are some people near you! Missed the gang for great part of the book, though.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I have been really enjoying this series. I love how Ms Davidson has not stayed within the old vampire stereotypes. And put her own twist in it. And the characters in this series are ones you can not help but love and enjoy their antics

[Val · Rating 5 out of 5]

Besides the first book this is the best of the series so far!

[Cynthia McCloud · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really didn't have to think to breeze through this. A friend told me the brain needs some candy once in awhile. This'll rot it for sure.

[☀Rachael☀ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah a Vampire wedding!!

[Rachel Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book I read in the series. Liked it so much that I had to track down all the before and after books! I think I've read them all.

[Alison (Lady Coffin) S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny series with Betsy the "Vampire Queen",I know right, Betsy, aka Elizabeth Taylor, as if that is any better, because still people ask about that. lol!

[H. Amirian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey, how refreshing, finally a good book in the series, I really liked it especially as Beth gets to show some cool vampire queen bits. Hope the next book turns out to be even better...