Despite what the paltry number of reviews I’ve written tell you, I am a voracious reader. I love getting into series, even more so when I have some assurance that the series ends well. I was excited when I saw Narfna’s review of the last book in Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series. I didn’t even read her review, I just bought the first book and read it as quickly as I could. I am now deep in book two and have the remaining books on my kindle, waiting to be read.
Alexia Tarabotti lives in Victorian London. Vampires, werewolves and ghosts are known and out in society. What is known only to a few is that Alexia was born without a soul, and her touch renders the supernatural human and mortal, though only for as long as she stays in contact. He family declared her a spinster early, not because she had no soul, but because she is half Italian, too tall, too curvy, too intelligent, to opinionated, too dark skinned, and her nose is too big. I love her already.
The plot moved along in a sprightly manner. The characters were quickly sketched and sharply drawn. Carriger assumes that the reader can put together what alternate London would look like. The whole read was a delight. I especially enjoyed that the romance, while providing a bumpy road to marriage, was relatively drama free. Alexia was delightfully straightforward about her sexual desires.
Both on it’s own merits and as a setup for a series, Soulless was A+. I may end up reading the rest of the series before writing another review, because that’s the way things are going this year.
