Betsy has not taken well to learning that not only is she a vampire but the queen of the vampires. Sure, her mother and her best friend adjusted to the change amazingly but even with that support, Betsy cannot seem to stay out of trouble. When Betsy learns that she has a half sister, she is drawn to investigate. Just like everything else in Betsy's life, nothing runs smoothly. In between dealing with a strike at her vampire club Scratch, and dealing with a hurt Eric, Betsy now has to keep a close eye on her sister because she is the child of the devil and destined to the rule the world.I know from the introduction, it seemed that a lot happened in this book but that is certainly not the case. Only in the most generous description can Undead and Unappreciated be called a filler and I say that because the entire series is absolute mindless fluff. It begins with Betsy going to AA and pretending to be an alcoholic in order to deal with her need to drink blood. Look, I know that for a lot of people vampirism is a metaphor for addiction but to be clear, it's a horrible analogy. So, Davidson has Betsy do this horrible thing and it goes absolutely nowhere. It's nothing but a launching pad for Mark to tell Betsy that he is a recovering addict and for her to temporarily beat herself up for not knowing such an essential detail about a man she calls a friend before going back to obsessing about shoes and Eric's control issues.Betsy goes all evil vampire Queen when she finally gets around to reading the Vampire bible. It only took her two books to get around it and naturally she decides to barricade herself in a room with it, ignoring the advice to read it sparingly because it causes mental illness. Also, can I get a side eye on the whole woo woo causing mental illness? In Betsy's supposedly mentally ill state, she attacks Jessica, calls Marc a leech, has sex with Eric and tries to kill Tina. When Betsy gets back to herself she has a mess to clean up. Though Jessica isolates herself for a few days, she is quick to forgive Betsy and Tina and Marc follow suit. Betsy is briefly able to go outside during the day but beyond that, nothing much happens.Then there's Betsy's kid sister Laura. Betsy's father lets slip that Ant has been pregnant before and gave the child up for adoption. When Besty learns that Laura's mother is actually the devil and that Laura is destined to rule the world, Betsy is in with both feet temporarily and I say temporarily because Betsy gets over the whole hell spawn thing pretty quickly and starts to angst over her fear that Eric is into her kid sister. Betsy has amazing priorities doesn't she? Even when she meets the devil, she considers selling her soul for a pair of shoes. The Devil/Laura storyline goes absolutely nowhere. When I said that nothing happens in this book, I absolutely mean it.Undead and Unappreciated wouldn't be a MaryJanice Davidson book without loads of problematic language. Betsy is still obsessed with Gone With The Wind and each time it's mentioned my skin absolutely crawls. Marc is Betsy's gay BFF, who at this point is single with no chance of a relationship and seems to have nothing to do with his spare time other than to be in Betsy's corner. We did learn that Marc is a recovering alcoholic in this book and Betsy did actually notice that she has not taken the time to learn anything substantial about Marc. Yes, that's progress for Betsy but it does nothing to make Marc less of a servant. Then there's Jessica, Betsy's Black BFF. Yes this woman has a collection of marginalized servants. Jessica seems to exist to serve Betsy and beyond being there to advise Betsy on her love life and pay the bills, Jessica has no real purpose in the story. For much of this series this far, Jessica's race serves as comic relief. Yep, Blackness as comic relief, feel free to roll your eyes.Read More
I'm fairly patient with chick-lit (and vampire chick-lit) - I don't expect it to be unusually clever or well-written. It's just something to pass the time and make for incredibly light reading. This book was a little too fluffy and insubstantial for my tastes, but I was really bothered by a particular detail- the author writes intricate descriptions of the character's clothing and shoes... and the implication is clearly supposed to be that the character is shoe-obsessed and has good, albeit expensive tastes. If this is the goal - the author really needs to have an editor or consultant to who knows something about fashion. It was so distracting to me. Much like the Sookie Stackhouse novels written by Charlaine Harris - you immediately realize that the author knows nothing about clothing and style and she would better serve her character by simply skipping the fashion obsession as it is in no way convincing. It's enough suspension of disbelief to try to immerse yourself in a novel and say "Ok. The main character is the queen of the vampires. Her half sister is the daughter of Satan? ok... She DOESN'T want to sleep with the gorgeous vampire king character. hmph... Wait. She's wearing PENNY LOAFERS AND A MOCK TURTLENECK?"No. No you didn't. That's where I draw the line. Does anyone even SELL mock turtlenecks anymore? Dear god, that's absurd. I think L.L.Bean is the only place you've been able to buy them since... what? 1992? That is RIDICULOUS. And if a character owns Manolos, she wouldn't be caught dead in Penny Loafers. Unless she was being IRONIC.It was that bad. Everything else might have been entertaining if those details weren't ABSURD.
What do You think about Undead And Unappreciated (2005)?
I'm really surprised - almost stunned - at how much I'm enjoying this series, since I'm not all that crazy about most urban fantasy. But how can you not love a 6-months-dead vampire who turns out to be Queen of the Vampires AND who has a shoe fetish?! Granted, I don't even recognize the names of many of the expensive shoemakers, but Betsy does know an expensive shoe when she sees it, especially when the she-devil is wearing it (I jumped ahead just a little with that detail).Betsy is still trying to come to terms with her death, her queen-status, and her feelings for Sinclair, but now she has something serious to worry about - the Ant (her stepmother) is pregnant for the second time. And then the vampires learn that the devil borrowed the Ant's body for her first pregnancy, and the devil's daughter is loose somewhere out there in Minneapolis or St. Paul, and they have to find and destroy her before she destroys the world. WAIT! Betsy's dad is the father, so this devil's daughter is her half-sister. What to do??!!
—BJ Rose
This is the third of the Betsy Taylor Queen of the Vampires series and is the one that in my mind lives up to the howling hilarity of the first. The first two being Undead and Unwed (buy a copy of this immediately) and Undead and Unemployed.Betsy is irascible as ever, she insists on trying not to drink blood, preferring coffee and trying to encourage her friends Jessica and Mark to eat things in front of her so she can enjoy the experience second hand. She's Evanovich's Stephanie Plum in vampire form; bumbling, well-meaning and just a teensy bit not the sharpest tool in the shed.She's still stuck ruling the vampire world with sexy Eric Sinclair at her side, although their relationship must be improving as she resists calling him Finklair for this instalment. Betsy's unlife is about to get worse as her step monster Antonia is due to give birth to a new half brother or sister and is characteristically snotty about Betsy attending the baby shower. Things really get messed up when Betsy learns that Antonia was pregnant before, the usual story girl meets married man tries to trap him into cementing the affair by getting pregnant...gets possessed by the Devil instead, gives birth to the Anti-Christ who is destined to dominate the world and then snaps to one day a year later and gives the baby up for adoption...you know how it goes.This instalment is a hoot, Betsy very unwisely reads the Book of the Dead and goes slightly Uber-Evul attacking her friends, getting down and dirty with Sinclair under the influence and finds herself having to make amends and track down a nefarious sibling and demi-evil, as well as deal with slacker employees striking at her vampire nightclub Scratch.Davidson delivers in spades in this one; the humour is witty, you just want to hug poor alienated Betsy and she handles the new addition of the Devil's daughter Laura really well. I love the fact that Laura is a perfect shiny and wholesome girl and that Betsy says she must be evil as she can eat tons of sugary snacks and not gain a single pound! Equally priceless is Betsy meeting the Devil for the first time and being deeply covetous of her shoes.This is brilliant, funny, romantic fluffy vamp chick lit at its finest and I can't wait for the newest ones to come out.
—Melissa Serrano
Better than the first two books, but still not good enough to keep me hooked. I have a weird relationship with Betsy, kinda love-hate. Sometimes I think she is funny and witty, but then there are other moments in the books where I just wish somebody would smack something really hard in her head. But now, at least, she has accepted her relationship with Eric, which makes me wanna like her a bit more. Eric is a sweet and lovely hero. Although I liked him much more in book 1 where he was strong, powerful and mysterious. Now, he just seems kinda sissy, LOL, not my type oh hero, but I still like him, he's very loyal and caring. I love Jess too, she's a really charismatic character.Although I think that Marc isn't a good one at all. He doesn't do anything, he's just always there. The new character, The devil's spawn, or Betsy's sister, is an amazing incorporation to the series. I think it was what the plot needed to become more interesting.I don't know why, but I just don't like this series as much as I love the Argeneau and the love at stake series, which are really similar in topic and genre, but much better. I WILL STOP READING THIS SERIES.While I did not hated it, nor had a bad time reading the first 3 books, I did not get hooked. So I won't waste any more time reading the books in it.
—valee
