Undead and Unemployed (Queen Betsy, Book 2)

Some books you read for plot, some for thought, and some for character development. "Undead and Unemployed" is not one of these. Mary Janice Davidson's second foray into Vamp Lit Lite, is a fun piece of fluff to be enjoyed for its laugh out loud humor and general sassiness. As the story opens, Betsy Taylor, Queen of the Undead discovers that even Queens have to pay their bills, and vampire queens are no exception. So she does what any woman with a footwear fixation would do--she gets a job in Macy's Shoe Department (and gets an employee discount to boot). Between working and dealing with her prickly attraction to Sinclair, she and her friends move into new digs--a mansion as befitting her royal status--and track down a serial murderer of vampires. All of Betsy's old friends are here, and she makes a few new ones as well. There are hints of Anita Blake, Buffy, and other vampire literature in the story line, but Betsy is very much her own vampire. "Undead and Unemployed" is a book to read when you want the literary equivalent of a bon-bon. Enjoy.

This is the second book in the series, where Betsy, the new Undead and new Queen of all vampires, is trying to maintain her dream job, selling SHOES!!! while dealing with all the Vampire junk that comes with being Queen. Not to mention trying NOT to get a handle on the hunky King of Vampires, her consort, Sinclair. This book is the perfect cross between Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series and Janet Evanovich's "One for the Money" series. It has incredibly rich characters, an action packed plot, and enough witty humor to keep you chucking for days. Good luck trying to put this book down to go back to work.

I laughed a lot more in this book than the first, "Undead & Unwed". Probably because I'm familiar with the characters now. Either way, this is the best laugh I have had in a very long time! Let's hope those editors realize that a 3 book deal just isn't enough. This is such a fun story and it reads so quickly. I couldn't help myself though (finishing it so fast) and wish the author would have made each book the size of Stephen King's "The Stand". They're that much fun!

Our Vampire Queen with the shoe fetish is back. This time Betsy has decided to get a job to pay the bills. Although Jessica is happy to pay for everything, Betsy still feels she should contribute to the effort, and how is she to buy new shoes if she has no money? Unbeleivably, she gets her dream job, shoe clerk at Macy's. She could be so happy if those pesky vampires would just leave her alone. Unable or unwilling to admit to her feelings for Sinclair, she throws herself into her job. Unfortunately, her house has termites, so Marc and Jessica inform her they need to buy a mansion on the Hill. When other vampires begin to die, the Queen must investigate and protect her followers. Or so Sinclair says. The fact that the mansion has 11 bedrooms and a room to use as a morgue, finally convinces Betsy that they need to move. Sinclair and Tina have been staying in a luxury hotel since his house burned down in the last book. Betsy is not sure how she feels about Jessica inviting them to live with them. But she's pretty sure she doesn't like it. Now they have a gang of Vampire Killers to confront and then they have to discover who is financing them. Needless to say we have alot of fun and laughter as Betsy, Sinclair, Tina, Marc, and Jessica, as well as a host of others, fumble and stumble their way to the answer. This is a fun book, you can't put it down.

In St. Paul, the vampire minions consider Betsy Taylor as their Queen, but she wants to be left alone so that she can indulge in her shoe fetish. Rather than join Sinclair, the royal stud, who converted her three months ago, Betsy seeks employment. However, she quickly learns the first lesson from Remedial Vampirism 099 that using the glamour spell on a government bureaucrat never works as a civil servant must be officious to protect their butt. Next Betsy goes to Macy's where she scores a job selling shoes. She appreciates bureaucratic ineptitude as she figures SSA will not realize that the employer of a dead person is making payments. Bloodsucking visitors (not customers, but other vampires) keep arriving at the shoe department. Sinclair, who to Betsy's chagrin heats her blood though she detests how he failed to warn her that he is more dangerous than cigarettes, demands she join him. Her subjects demand she find out who is killing the Twin Cities vampires and stop that culprit. She feels it is unfair because she is the newest of the brood and all she wants is a new pair of shoes besides a bite or two with Sinclair, who she needs to help her with the inquiries. This sequel to the wacky UNDEAD AND UNWED, UNDEAD AND UNEMPLOYED is an amusing vampiric chick lit amateur sleuth tale worth sinking your teeth into as MaryJanice Davidson satirizes the three sub-genres. Betsy is a unique protagonist obsessed with expensive shoes while Sinclair is her perfect counterfoil. The rest of the cast enhances the comedic romp that takes a bite out of the acceptable norm of excesses that make up several fictional sub-classifications. Harriet Klausner