Book Review: Undead and Unwed (SPOILERS)

About a month ago I made a post on reddit asking for advice on what to read. I stated that I loved the Sookie Stackhouse novels and was looking for something along those lines. Someone suggested the Queen Betsy series, which starts with Undead and Unwed.

I loved the book at first, and thought that I would like it as much as the Sookie novels. I finally had the book 'candy' I'd been wanting. A quick and easy read that left me wanting more, but then I got a few more chapters in and realized that it probably wasn't for me. I don't mind when the first man the woman meets becomes the love interest. It's happened in a lot of paranormal romance books that I've read, but what I do find annoying is that a woman is so willing to forgive offensive behavior. Betsy watches Sinclair in 'action' and still goes on to say how attractive she finds him. Why would a woman willingly forgive behavior that she's repulsed by, or that she used to be repulsed by? Suddenly her standards lower because she's a vampire? I don't get it. I remember a time when my ex repulsed me so badly that I lost all attraction to him. Suddenly, the thought of him disgusted me, and I would think it would be the same for a character in a book. Anyway, I also thought the idea that the vampires had to have sex with the humans they fed on wasn't that great. I guess the author was trying to add their own spin on vampires, but I will admit that it was a spin that I didn't like. The Betsy character (I thought that I would love her), began to get on my nerves. She never waited to see what other people were trying to explain to her, and she seemed to live in the own little bubble on her head. The best friend, Jessica, also got on my nerves. She was allowed to be a racist and say racist things, but I'm not sure why. Why did the author think this was cool? It was actually the first thing about the book that got on my nerves. I remember thinking to myself that reading about Jessica was annoying, but for some reason I decided to keep reading. I would have found her a sympathetic character if not for her racists behavior. I'm not intending to trash the author with my review, in fact, I wanted to enjoy this book. I actually wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't. If anyone knows of any books like the Sookie Stackhouse books that they would like to suggest please comment down below. 

The problem with paranormal romance

I know what you're thinking, how can I have a problem with paranormal romance if I write it? Well, I don't have a problem with all paranormal romance, what I have problem with is when the MC still likes the male love interest after he does something that she would normally find repulsive. Usually she gets annoyed with the male character throwing his relationships with other women in her face, but the MC accepts it because he's hot. I'm sorry, but is he the only hot guy she's ever seen? Most people won't get into a relationship with someone who repulses them, mocks them, or does other things that annoy them. That's not how romance works, or not how most romance works anyway. I hadn't read anything for awhile, but I've been reading Undead and Unwed and I have a lot of thoughts about the book, but the thing that annoys me the most is the romance. I've seen this in other series (like when Clay bit Elena in Bitten, or when Bones pretty much kidnapped Cat in Halfway to the Grave). It's not that I don't enjoy those books, I just find it odd that the heroine would fall for a guy who did something like that to her.

Building an online presence

Recently I've been guilty of posting short blogs that end without any real conclusion, and I need to stop doing that. I need to treat my blog as if it is an extension of my writing. I've just been so busy working on the Fortune Teller's Gift lately. I've been focusing most of my energy on the book and not getting to know readers and that bothers me. I feel like I don't have the online presence that I want to. I feel almost like I don't know how to build an online presence, because I want to connect with readers and I'm mostly connecting with other writers. I know that most writers are also people who love to read, but I would love to connect with book bloggers or vloggers. I'm going to try reaching out to them myself, but I don't know how that's going to work. Honestly, I don't know much about marketing, other than it's a good idea to carry business cards. Marketing is something I plan to focus on in the coming months. Please let me know if there's anything that worked for you when building a presence.

What's in a name?

During the creation of The Fortune Teller's Gift I changed my main character's name about three times. While I had no trouble coming up with a first name for her, it was harder to come up with a last name. I thought about giving her the last name King. I thought the first name and last name went together well. Her first name is Mackenzie, but everyone in the novel (other than her father) just calls her Kenzie. I was editing the novel and decided to post about it in one of my writing groups, where someone informed me that there was someone who the same name, so I decided to change it. I googled most popular last names in Louisiana and came up with another last name that didn't really go with the first name, and then I just changed it again.