Thursday, April 15, 2010

Review - Betsy Taylor books 2 & 3



My library happens to have almost the whole Betsy Taylor series as audio books and so I listened to the first three books back to back. I vowed not to do this, but it couldn't be avoided because they were the only downloadable audio books that interested me. *Sigh* Poor planning will do that to a girl. Here are reviews of books 2 and 3 in the Betsy Taylor series.

Title: Undead and Unemployed
Author: MaryJanice Davidson
Publishing Date: 2004
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: B-
Sensuality: Warm
Book Disclosure: Downloaded the audio book from my library.

Undead and Unemployed is the second book in the Betsy Taylor series. In this book Betsy the designer-shoe-loving vampire gets a dream job as a shoe salesman for the Macy's department store. At the same time a vigilante killer is on the loose and targeting specifically women vampires.

I don't know what it was about this book, but it just didn't captivate like the first one did. Nancy Wu is still the narrator, and she does a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life for the audio book. However, Undead and Unemployed just wasn't as funny as I found the first book.

One section in particular when the characters discussing who the possible vampire killer could be was incredibly boring. Betsy's character is a little slow on the uptake and so Davidson really spells things out for the reader. Some readers might take insult to this since they don't need things spelled out like Betsy does. In any case, certain parts of the book dragged for me. I will say that the ending totally took me off guard. It was riveting and saved the book from getting a lower grade.


Title: Undead and Unappreciated
Publishing Date: 2005
Rating: B
Sensuality: Warm

Undead and Unappreciated is book number three in the Betsy Taylor vampire series. Betsy discovers the she has a half sister she never knew about. Not only does she learn of her sister, but she also learns that her sister was sired by the Devil and is fated to take over the world, according to the Book of the Dead.

Undead and Unappreciated was a little bit darker than the first two books. It still had Betsy's snarky humor and sarcasm but not everything was all light and fun. Davidson is able to keep things in the series moving forward and fresh by bringing in new characters. I also liked that Davidson changed things up between Sinclair and Betsy. Betsy has to reevaluate what she wants in her relationship with Sinclair. This puts an interesting spin on things.

4 comments:

~ames~ said...

I stopped reading this series at book 4. But I did find the first few very funny. Especially that first one.

LOL I just noticed here's another series that I stopped at book 4 - the other being Stephanie Plum. That's kind of funny.

Jill D. said...

Ames, So far I think I will continue with the series. Plus it is easy to follow along, as an audio book. I can't believe their are so many books to the series. I think like 9 or 10.

Tracy said...

I have to say I still read the series but I don't love it as much as I used to. The first couple of books were the best for me, I think. The problem is, for me, is that the books are spaced that by the time the new one comes along I struggle to remember what happened in the last one. *sigh* Is it the books, or me? lol

Jill D. said...

Tracy - I have the opportunity to read them all back to back. Not that that is a good idea, because I could get burned out, but I do know what you mean. Sometimes with other series, I can't remember what happened from book to book because a whole year passed between books.