I confess. 2012 got off to a S-L-O-W reading start with me. I just wasn’t in the mood to read. And I started panicking because here it was, mid- January and I hadn’t finished a single book yet and I have two challenges I’m participating in, and I had no idea what I wanted to read.

One of the Challenges I am doing is Bookish Resolutions, and my resolution is to read one book from my backlog each month.  I’m also participating in the ChickLit Plus reading challenge again this year.

In lending me some books last year, my friend Lisa came to the rescue. I stumbled across Undead and Unwed in the bookshelves in the study.  A chick lit book from my backlog! Two birds with one stone. And I’m back, people.  So, now that I’m back in the reading groove, let’s move on to my thoughts on the book.

Undead and Unwed is the first in the Queen Betsy vampire series.  When she was laid off from her job, Betsy Taylor thought her day couldn’t get any worse. Then, she was hit by a car and killed. Except she didn’t stay dead.  She woke up a most unusual vampire.

Undead and Unwed was published in 2004, before the Paranormal Romance phase really took off, and I wish I had read the book then. I like Mary Janice Davidson’s take on the Vampire rules and Betsy’s quirks. But I think we’re in a vampire overload right now, and it wasn’t fair of me to read the book with that take on it.

That being said, it’s a cute book. Betsy is a lot of fun, and she tries to maintain as much of her pre-death personality as possible. That makes for some fun reading when her ways don’t exactly mesh with what’s normal for vampires, much less the long fore-told Queen that Betsy finds herself to be.

I did catch myself smiling throughout parts of the book. Sometimes the banter was a bit much, but all the talk about fabulous shoes makes up for that.  There are some dated technology references (VCRs, for example) that for some reason distracted me, but once I got past that, I did enjoy the book.  I liked the powers that Betsy has, and how they are so different from other vampires.  I like Betsy’s living friends, and her relationship with them now that she’s undead.

Lisa also lent me the second book in the series, Undead and Unemployed, I plan to read that to see what happens next with Betsy and determine if I want to continue on with the series.   It was cute, and funny. I think fans of Paranormal romance with funny, likable heroines and brooding vampires will enjoy this quick, fun read.