Soulless by Gail Carriger

Soulless (Orbit) (Parasol Protectorate, #1)

by Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is labouring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.
Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire - and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.
With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Or will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?
SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

Reviewed by ladygrey on

3 of 5 stars

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Exquisitely British, exciting with a very unique and fun voice. I liked the combining of paranormal and regency romance with a flare of steam punk. I really liked the characters, the heroine and hero and all the secondary players, actually the secondary characters probably even more than the primary ones. Except the mad villain, I quite hated him. It's rather more salacious than what I normally read but managed not to be terribly indecent about the whole thing. Also it was great to read some good third person omniscient because it's been a while.

The thing that makes this book so enjoyable, though, really are how fun and well developed all the characters are. It keeps you engrossed in the story even when things slow down a bit. They're vibrant and interesting and exceptionally amusing and, ok, admittedly I probably only liked the book well enough until Lord Akeldama's drones showed up and were so delightfully efficient. And Lyall and Floote, they were great.

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  • Started reading
  • 1 January, 2012: Finished reading
  • 1 January, 2012: Reviewed