A Vampire and a Werewolf Walk Into a Bar

In this installment of the Queen Betsy series (The first being Undead and Unwed), we take a trip to the Wyndham Mansion. We also find out some interesting information on Betsy's sibling (Oh My!). They start to either exploit their heritage (cough... Laura... cough...) and Baby Jon starts showing some powers of his own. The fact that half of the book is seen from Mark's view at the Jessica's house and the other half is from Betsy's fear of a possible impending war between vampire's and werewolves.

This book is not the best in the series by far. Text speak has irritated me ever since it started, but I also feel that it helped me feel involved. However, there was just a little much. The Laura issue/finale could have went a little more. Although I love the happiness of this series, the fact that it wound up so quickly and neatly kind of bothered me. Argue a little more, fight a little more, love a little more. I just really, really wanted more to the story than what I got. I found it slightly anticlimatic and short for what I've been waiting for. However, it more than ties me over for my next MJD fix.

Ok, so MaryJanice Davidson's new book Undead and Unwelcome was better than the previous book in the series. This is back to the light hearted, fun loving, and always crazy Betsy we love. This is another interesting addition to a series that interested me in paranormal romance in the beginning. For that Mrs.Davidson, I thank you. Actually, I couldn't thank you enough.

With reviews listed by Kim Harrison and Jeaniene Frost I couldn't afford NOT to read this. Both of those authors are AH-mazing and really know their stuff.

BTW: Kim Harrison (if you read her stuff, you know. if not, you HAVE too!) is coming out with a teen series. Well, just color me excited read more HERE!

Ok, now to the subject at hand. It took me a while to read this book because I just so happened to get distracted by the TV show True Blood. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which I think will turn out to be an amazing series. Mira is a little bit of a Mercedes Thompson, Rachel Morgan, and Cat Crawfield mixed together. All of these series I love.

Anyway, the book begins with us meeting Mira. A strong, fire starting, red-headed heroine of all sorts. Mira is the only of her vampire known to have the gift of controlling fire before she was turned and retain this ability. She currently lives in "present day" Savannah Georgia. She is following a hunter named Danaus. He has currently been roaming through her domain killing vampires trying to locate her. She catches up with him, and the story really begins. They have a fight and Mira leaves him in a burning house.

Later, he follows her to a club where he tells of the return of the naturi. Naturi are the equivalent of fey in other books. They are also the greatest nemesis to both humans and vampires alike. They both seem to believe in and even mention the enemy of my enemy is my friend mantra. Also, Danaus brings a peace offering of sorts. A naturi name Nerian who, with several others, tortured Mira at Machu Picchu (one of many strong spiritual places for the naturi) and attempted to sacrifice her 500 years earlier. After she finally kills Nerian, she goes on a quest to meet with one of the coven leaders to alert them of the resurfacing. After meeting with the coven member, she gets going across Egypt, Europe, and Italy encountering mishap and trouble along the way.

Although I truly enjoyed the story, it was slightly slow paced and repetitive. However, I truly believe that with more experience (considering this was Jocelynn Drake's debut) the series will excel! Although this isn't necessarily a romance book, it definitely has the potential. There is already a sequel out which led me to read the book to begin with. I am currently reading this and will let you know if it gets better or worse.

A personal favorite of mine is "funny" vampire books. This is one of those series. There is plenty of laughs, plenty of romance, and plenty of paranormal activity. Really... Each book goes into particular couples (very popular now). Therefore, we will delve into this books main focus.

This particular book goes into the new undead life of Simone Sweet. Simone Sweet is one of the original "turn bloods" from the series. The turn bloods are vampires that were infected by a vampire (Lorcan). This vampire was infected with a blood disease called the taint. This all took place in a town called Broken Heart, Oklahoma. That's a very, very short background on how it all started.

Simone Sweet is the resident mechanic of Broken Heart. She has been single since her husband died year before. and has a daughter named Glory. They are currently living with Glory's great-grandmother. The prologue to the book is Simone stating how she killed Braddock Hayes. Towards the end of the prologue, one of the guardians asks her why. She simply states to herself, "Strangely enough, I had killed Brady and Jacob for the same reason. Freedom."

After the shocking introduction, we start at the beginning. We get reacquainted with Simone's immense talents with metal and anything mechanical. Because of this, she is helping the consortium (think sheriff, deputy, head vampires) create an invisi-shield to take Broken Heart off the map. During this time, she sees a lot of Braddock (or we'll say Brady) Hayes. Allow me to describe him really quickly for you... hot, hunky, human. He comes by every night at 9 pm to play Candyland with Simone's daughter who hasn't spoken since her dad died (Say it with me: "Aw!"). While out working on the posts for the shield, a local werewolf is getting under her skin and Brady says they have a date.

This is all news to Simone. However, she is not opposed one bit. She allows him to drive her home and the whirlwind romance begins. It's not going to be all roses and cupcakes, not in Broken Heart. This is where the plot thickens. I don't like to go too in depth with the plot because I feel I'll ruin the book for potential readers. Here's my highly abbreviated *no spoilers* version. During the course of the book, there are intermittent chapters as Brady recalls his years in a anit-paraterrorist branch of the military. Said branch shows back up with a ghost from the past and reeks havoc on poor Simone, Brady, Glory, and all of Broken Heart! During these trials, we find out what we would do for our children, for love, and for freedom.

This book was slightly more serious than the rest of the series. A lot of that has to do with Simone's abusive past and Brady's life in a bad branch of the military. I still love this series for the simple fact that I'm a major fan of light hearted vampire romance. HOWEVER, I don't recommend trying to start with this book. You can tell from my very abbreviated summation at the top that you might get a little lost. Go pick up I'm the Vampire That's Why which is the first book in the series.

I fully intend to post a review for previous books in the series very shortly in the future. However, this is just a sneak peak of the one most recently on my mind!
Enjoy! If you have any questions, comments, blurbs, or want to say hi please feel free to contact me. Don't worry... I'm waiting for you.