AWESOME! That sums it up in one word. MJD has managed to write a book that had me laughing-out-loud from page one, and kept me laughing all the way to the end. A new twist in vampire stories, I can't wait for the next installment, UNDEAD AND UNEMPLOYED. For anyone who likes hot romance mixed with humor and a healthy dash of paranormal, UNDEAD AND UNWED is NOT to be missed. ( )

Betsy is having one heck of a bad day. First she oversleeps, is promptly laid-off when she arrives at work, and comes home to find her cat missing. Then, when she tromps outside in the snow to rescue said cat, she is hit by an out-of-control car skidding on the ice. When she wakes up rises, she is inside a pink silk-lined coffin on a table in a mortuary, and (horror or horrors,) is wearing cheap Payless BOGO shoes! Not to mention the fact that she is dead... er... undead. Things couldn't get much worse, right?

After explaining to her friends and family that she has become a vampire, (and taking back her prized Manolos from her grasping, evil stepmother,) Betsy settles down to what she hopes will be a normal afterlife - relatively speaking. Unfortunately, she soon finds out that the other vamps in town have other plans. They believe Betsy is their long awaited Queen - their vampire savior, so to speak - the one who will help them to "overthrow the most obnoxious vampire in four centuries," Nostros. As she gets a crash course in "Vampire 101," Betsy finds something she lacked while alive: a purpose. But will it be enough to unite "her" people against the enemy?

Undead and Unwed got off to a slow start for me. The writing irritated me, and it just generally took me awhile to really "get into" it. Once I did however, I didn't put it down until I had finished. The story was good - hilarious, really - and I couldn't get enough! I've already placed a "library hold" on book 2 of the series, to be picked up next week. Betsy was a pretty obnoxious heroine - not necessarily a bad thing - but she could sure kick up some serious shenanigans! Her antics were quite amusing to witness, and had me snickering throughout the book.

The humorous plot is really all this book has going for it. The writing is so-so, which is such a pity since the idea behind the story had tons of potential. It was pretty crude - and not in a "fun" way - and the dialog was terrible in places. I'm hoping, as is the case so often in series reading, that the next book will improve upon this one, and generally, the series will get better and better as I read on. I'll probably give the series 2 more books or so before I poop out altogether, unless there is some REAL improvement.

Overall, this book was just ok for me. I've read better, and I was really hoping for something with more substance. Don't get me wrong, Undead and Unwed is exactly what it appears to be, I was just disappointed that it didn't live up to my expectations. I was looking for something "Anita Blake-ish" and wound up with something more like a cross between "Buffy" and "Clueless." Just, meh, tolerable. ( )

Hilarious and natural, Betsy's a real character. She has this charisma and wit and lots of charm and sexiness. I'll read it over and over and still laugh again. Looking forward to all the books in the series! ( )

Betsy Taylor (lover of shoes and Gone with the Wind) loses her job on her birthday, gets run over trying to entice her cat back inside during a freak April snowstorm, and awakens to find herself undead, yet otherwise (mostly) unchanged ...

The first sentence (“The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry.”) sets a tone that is maintained throughout the book.

Enjoyable fluff for holiday reading - if you're looking for something light on plot, reasonably amusing, and refreshing in its complete and utter lack of any pretensions to be anything other than what it is. ( )

Make Buffy a vampire & you have Betsy (don't call me Elizabeth) Taylor (the original movie Buffy). She's a caricature valley girl who can be bribed with the latest fashion shoes. Over the top for me, but I've never cared for the type, don't even find them particularly funny. She's super vain, powerful & pretty stupid, but somehow the book was readable & amusing. I won't go out of my way to get another, but if I come across one cheap, I will pick it up & read it. ( )