Novel Review: Undead and Unpopular (Undead, #5) by MaryJanice Davidson

Genre: Adult Paranormal/Supernatural Romance

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Penguin (Berkley Sensation)

Spoilers?: Very Minor.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor already has plenty on her plate. For one thing, next week is her birthday - the big 3-1 in human years, and one in undead years. (Yes, she bit the dust on her birthday last year.) On top of that, she still has wedding plans to finalize - and it's not helping that the prospective groom is avoiding anything to do with it. And then there's her decision to stop drinking blood - something she has yet to share with Eric Sinclair, her fiancé - who also happens to be the vampire king...

So the last thing she wants to deal with is uninvited guests, even if they happen to be the powerful European vampires who have finally come to pay their respects the week before her birthday. Some of them don't want Betsy as their queen and will do anything to get rid of her. As if turning thirty last year (not to mention dying) hasn't been traumatic enough. And trying to give up blood is making her really cranky... But who has time to sulk? Well, Betsy does...

Available on Amazon.

Review:

I don’t seem to have too much to say whenever I read a volume of this series. It’s usually just pretty good, not amazing, not bad. I go through the volume rather quickly and then want to read the next one right away.

There was a lot of the same stuff in this book, much like all the others. I like Davidson’s writing, I like the characters, and I usually like the humor, but sometimes it’s a little too much. I wouldn’t mind some serious time, and sometimes the jokes seem to be trying too hard and fall flat. Sometimes, though, it doesn’t, and it’s nice when that happens.

In this book, some new vampires come to town to greet their queen, and some of them cause some trouble. We see Liam and Sophie again, who I very much like (who were in a previous book, as well as having their own story in an anthology). There’s some serious drama between the group, with a somewhat surprise conclusion that I liked. There was a scene where I thought Betsy might do something to take charge, to prove that she’s the queen, she’s in charge, and if they do something wrong she’s going to do something about it, but she didn’t get to. That makes me wonder if she’s going to do something in the future or not, because I really hope she does.

There was also a zombie in this book, which was a surprise and made me feel a bit bad for Betsy because of how rattled she was from it. I’m not quite sure what’s to come of it, but I’m looking forward to it.

There was also some drama for Jessica that was sad. Betsy's birthday happened, and that was nice, although didn't get much attention. There was some blood drinking issues between Betsy and Sinclair that were interesting and I liked the conclusion of, as well as Sinclair's continuous avoidance of wedding plans, which I hope changes in the next book, and I hope there's more attention for them in the next one as well.

I'm still enjoying this series, and hope to start the next book as soon as I get it.