I purchased Undead and Unemployed from a used bookstore having no idea that it was part of a serial. The title was catchy, the cover was pretty, and the blurb seemed interesting. A little Shopaholic in a way, which I was down for with a paranormal twist. Unfortunately, it is a serial and does require you to read the first book before diving into this one, which of course wasn’t at the store, but I picked up on things fast enough. Plus a trip to the first book’s Goodreads page filled me in on all the details I couldn’t deduce on my own.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel. Seeing as I was reading it with a concussion, it was easy to read. The flow was nice. The ideas weren’t too outlandish. Easy, fun, and a little silly. Betsy as a main character is bound to rub people the wrong way, but considering I write a somewhat similar character in my PNR serial, I get her. She handles her feelings by burying them beneath materialistic thoughts and uses her snark and sass as a defense mechanism. We only see snippets of her softer, less vain side, so I can see why people don’t warm to her, particularly in the reviews. But I didn’t hate her. She made me roll my eyes a lot, but you kind of just have to accept her as she is and move on–or stop reading the book.

I didn’t get a chance to meet Sinclair in the previous book (because I haven’t read it), but I actually liked the weird dynamic that he and Betsy had, with her “hating” him and him being gentlemanly and sweet (though having moments of ridiculousness — ie trying to get her fired). For some reason, they kind of just worked for me, despite the romance not being a central focus of the book. I liked them. I’d read more of the books to see what happens with Betsy and Sinclair.

The plot overall was interesting enough to make me gobble the book up, but as soon as the Big Bad showed up, I knew that character was the Big Bad before it was revealed.

Overall, I didn’t hate the book, didn’t love it. I enjoyed it, definitely, and will be on the hunt for more in the series at used bookstores.

Post-review note: I didn’t recall it as I was writing the review, but some of the vocab used by the characters is a bit childish. “Retard” gets thrown around casually. So. Prepare yourself for that.

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