Soulless - Gail Carriger

Victorian steampunk adventure with vampires, werewolves…and wait? What’s that? A soulless heroine with sass and spunk? Where do I sign up?

“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?”

All you publishers sure know how to get this girl to pick up your book and read it, and that is with cover love. The title was catchy, set in a unique print. You show us our hero, Alexia Tarabotti, looking fierce and strong with her awesome umbrella and misty gray London background. Thankfully, this was not just case of cover love…the story was actually very good.

We follow Alexia around as she gets involved in the case of vampires appearing without a hive and werewolves disappearing. Alexia is unique in the paranormal world as she is soulless, and being soulless, she as the ability make a vampire and werewolf temporarily human. As long as she is in physical contact with the individual, they are human. Which proves to be most handy when near the end of the book Ms. Tarabotti is kidnapped and all sorts of shenanigans go down.

Alexia Tarabotti is an interesting and fun character, filled with proper Victorian values that she up holds to the letter, but does tend to push the envelope when it comes to Lord Maccon. Their interaction is fun and light hearted at first, but then turns all hot and steamy all of a sudden from out of absolutely no where. Alexia’s family did make me laugh in their ridiculousness and how they tend to embarrass Alexia.

I did have a hard time at first getting into this book and it could have been the writing style. However, the action and mystery picked up and the villains were a nice balance of mustache twirling bad guy and smart and clever dastardly evil doers.

This was a nice read that made the flow and combination of steampunk and paranormal. The ending left me with an arched eyebrow and glad that I had picked up this book from the library. I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in this series.