Review: Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson

Title: Undead and UnwedAuthor: MaryJanice Davidson
Series: Undead #1

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Berkley 

Published: 2 March 2004

Source of my copy: I purchased it.

 About the book (from Goodreads)

It's been a helluva week for Betsy Taylor. First, she loses her job. Then, to top things off, she's killed in a car accident. But what really bites (besides waking up in the morgue dressed in a pink suit and cheap shoes courtesy of her stepmother) is that she can't seem to stay dead. Every night she rises with a horrible craving for blood. She's not taking too well to a liquid diet.

Worst of all, her new friends have the ridiculous idea that Betsy is the prophesied vampire queen, and they want her help in overthrowing the most obnoxious, power-hungry vampire in five centuries - a badly dressed Bela Lugosi wannabe, natch. Frankly, Betsy couldn't care less about vamp politics, but they have a powerful weapon of persuasion: designer shoes. How can any self-respecting girl say now? But a collection of Ferragamos isn't the only temptation for Betsy. It's just a lot safer than the scrumptious Sinclair - a seductive bloodsucker whose sexy gaze seems as dangerous as a stake through the heart...

My Review

Imagine a day where you thought the worst thing that could happen to you was being fired, but you end up being run over and wake up a few days later as a vampire, even though one hadn't killed you with it's bite. You'd be pretty peeved and want to see your family right?

Betsy is a fantastic character who simply does not play by the vampire rules - mainly because she has no idea they exist, then as she discovers them, well she still doesn't! She is not the deepest character ever written but Betsy has a sense of being very real about her. She is loyal to her friends and family, she sees no reason why dying and becoming undead should change that.

Unfortunately for Betsy things were unlikely to turn out to be simple where they!!  There are vampires who want to draw her into their politics, sorry I mean under their control, like the other vampires. But there is a certain something about Betsy, turns out she might not just be a vampire but the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy about a vampire queen. Initially Betsy is far more interested in getting her designer shoes back from her Step Mother! 

Enter Sinclair. Attractive and totally full of himself as far as Betsy is concerned leading to a number of great scenes as she tries to battle her attraction to him. He however knows just how to get Betsy on his side, yes Manolo Blahnik's will certainly get him a long way!!  So she finds herself drawn into vampire politics.

It is fantastic that her best friend from before she died not only stands by her and accepts Betsy is a vampire with remarkable ease but she sets out to make Betsy a crime fighter too!

Undead and Unwed is a light-hearted (as far as vampire romance stories go!) race through Betsy's first few days as a vampire, the biggest problem of course is her new liquid diet :-)

Stacking The Shelves #3 & Showcase Sunday #2

Stacking The Shelves is a brand new meme for us all to showcase our book haul for the week. The lovely Tynga at Tyngas Reviews.

Showcase Sunday is another fantastic new meme where we can showcase our books, this is hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits & Tea.

I can't choose which of these memes to participate in so I'm going to take part in both!!! 

I only got one book this week and it's one I bought.

Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre

TGIF (Supporting Characters) & Book Blogger Hop #2

Friday is the day of following, friendship and questions in the book blog world. This week I am taking part in two further blog hops! TGIF is run by Ginger at GReads and the Book Blogger Hop is run by Jen at Crazy for Books. Look forward to getting to meet & know you my fellow book bloggers :-)

Q - Supporting Characters: We tend to gush over those main characters the most, but what about those supporting roles? Who are some of your favorites? 


A - Supporting characters? Oh, wow where do i start? One which really stands out in my memory is Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series! I love how quirky she is, always somewhere around but never really part of the action for a long time, oh but how she becomes so much more towards the end of the series!

Q - Who is your favorite book character? I’ll give you a maximum of two choices, but they have to be from different genres!

A - Mine? It is really difficult to choose just one or two!  What is it with the questions this Friday, LOL!!  I like quirky characters so I loved Alexia Tarabotti fro the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger! She is a fantastic character to read about and is wonderfully unique!

Feature & Follow Friday #7

What is Feature & follow?

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs!

The featured blogs: The Fake Steph Dot Com and Books Galore.

This weeks Question:

Q: This Sunday in the U.S. is Mother's Day. In celebration, what are some of your favorite books with strong mother/child relationships?

A: Okay this is a really hard question to answer! I am actually struggling to come up with strong mother/child relationships, all the books I can think of have poor relations or they are simply not even mentioned! Sorry I know my answer is not great this week, but I answer as I find!

UK v US Cover: Love Bites

How important is the cover of a book to you?

I'm sure I notice them more because I often see a book I like and go off to buy it, only to find the version I get had a totally different cover. I'm in the UK just in case the blog post title didn't give it away! So I thought I'd start up a feature on comparing UK and US covers (might bring in ones from elsewhere too if it takes my fancy!) (Quick disclaimer, I know this is not original but I can't remember where I've seen it so can't credit!)

I've picked out this week a book from a series which has only really come to the UK in the last couple of years despite it being around in the US for a while - that's fairly typical by the way!!!

Love Bites is the second book in the Argeneau series by Lynsay Sands.

Also for interest I've included the original US cover, changed a bit don't you think!!


Below the current US cover is on the left and the current UK cover is on the right!

Which do I prefer?
Firstly it seems amazing how much the cover of the current US edition is different from the original, so much less cute and promising a much more raw and sexy story.

From the current cover I much prefer the UK cover, I like the blue/green used on the titles and the guy on the cover is kind of good looking isn't he :-) I like the simple but effective design.  The current US cover looks like so many other books, there is little special about it, but there isn't really anything wrong with it either if you understand me!

Which is your favourite??

Waiting on Wednesday ~ Biting Cold

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine which spotlight eagerly anticipated upcoming releases.

Biting Cold is the sixth book in the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person looking forward to this one!!

Title: Biting Cold
Author: Chloe Neill
Series: Chicagoland Vampire #6
Publication date: 7 August 2012

Turned into a vampire against her will, twenty-eight-year-old Merit found her way into the dark circle of Chicago’s vampire underground, where she learned there was more to supernaturals than met the eye—and more supernaturals than the public ever imagined. And not all the secrets she learned were for sharing—among humans or inhumans.

Now Merit is on the hunt, charging across the stark American Midwest, tailing a rogue supernatural intent on stealing an ancient artifact that could unleash catastrophic evil on the world. But Merit is also the prey. An enemy of Chicagoland is hunting her, and he’ll stop at nothing to get the book for himself. No mercy allowed. No rules apply. No lives spared. The race is on.

Teaser Tuesday ~ Angels' Blood

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Relaxing only slightly, she shot a quick look downward. Her eyebrows rose. A plastic message tube lay next to her lush red begonias. She scowled. The begonia stalks were easily breakable. If whoever had dropped this had so much as bruised the plants she'd babied to blooming health despite the cool kiss of summer's end, there'd be hell to pay. Finally convinced the area was secure, she lowered the gun and clicked open the door."

p.77, Angels' Blood  (Guild Hunter #1) Nalini Singh