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? 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?
(Summary from GoodReads)
Steamy, Victorian, steampunk. Those were the only words I needed to hear before buying Gail Carriger’s Soulless. Carriger did a fantastic job of creating tone, making this one of the most fun reads of 2013.
I love it when paranormal novels don’t take themselves too seriously. Soulless is full of vampires and soulless creatures like Alexia, but the plot surrounding them was never melodramatic. Carriger did a nice job of developing her world. If you’re looking for full-on steampunk, I will say this may not be the right book for you. The steampunk elements that are in the book are nicely placed, however, there aren’t a lot of them.
Carriger really captured my heart with the tone and characters in this book. Alexia is a smart character who made me laugh several times. Lord Maccon wasn’t my time, but I could see why Alexia was attracted to him. There are expectations on how Alexia should act as a spinster as well as manners on the whole. It was comical but sweet too see a romance develop between two well-mannered characters. While I’m on the note of characters, Alexia’s family made me laugh—they reminded me of Lizzie Bennet’s family in Pride and Prejudice.
Soulless was a great romp through adult paranormal and steampunk literature. While plot details no longer stand out to me, I loved the voice and characters. Carriger’s voice is one that I look forward to revisiting.
Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book.
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YAY! Glad to hear you loved this one! It's on my TBR and has been for quite a while. Like you, the initial YES PLEASE to the summary hooked me in, so I'm glad to hear the book matches up with the awesome premise.
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