Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson
A warning to my readers, all 2 of you--I've gone over to the dark side and am shopping in the romance section of the library, so don't be surprised if you see covers with half naked men on them. Done with the PSA. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson
Queen Betsy #1
Rating: 9/10
This was a hilarious read. Betsy Taylor has the worst day of her life - she's fired on her birthday and then gets killed in a car accident while trying to catch her cat. To make matters worse, she wakes up in the funeral home wearing a cheap pink suit and worst of all, shoes from Payless a size too small.
Betsy tries to kill herself permanently, but with no luck. She decides to make the best of her new condition. She saves the life of a young doctor, Marc. Finding out she's a vampire, he offers to find her dinner among the parents of his young patients, the adults who abuse their children. That's probably the most serious moment in the book.
Betsy quickly meets the other local vampires, many of whom are too cliche for Betsy's taste. Betsy is the opposite of cliche and sets her apart from the other vampires. She can wear and handle a cross, is unaffected by holy water and people don't react to her as a vampire. These are all signs of the foretold Queen of the Undead, so she's approached to overthrow the evil leader. She reluctantly agrees once designer shoes are brought to the negotiating table.
The characters stole the show, particularly Betsy's best friend Jessica and Betsy's adopted stray doctor. Jessica and Marc are her self proclaimed sidekicks and hate being left out of the vampire business. One of the vampires, Tina, was born when the American Civil War began and hates how people always ask her about the war, refusing to believe that she was too young to remember it.
The setting was probably the weakest part of the book. It's set in a fairly major city, but the city is very generic. I think it's set in Minneapolis, but I don't remember for sure. It's basically a generic city without character, unlike Harry Dresden's Chicago or Harper Blaine's Seattle.
I'm looking forward to reading the next Queen Betsy book, even though I have to venture into the romance section of the library.
Note: Harry Dresden books are by Jim Butcher and start with Storm Front. The Harper Blaine books are by Kat Richardson and the first one is Greywalker.