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#28 Soulless by Gail Carriger

There are certain things about Alexia Tarabotti that make her stand apart. There's her tanned skin, strong nose, dark eyebrows, and headstrong attitude. Not to mention that she doesn't have a soul. This gives her a unique ability to temporary turn vampires and werewolves back to their human state with just the touch of her hand. Her life becomes complicated when she accidentally kills a vampire at a social gathering. Before she knows it, other supernatural creatures begin disappearing. If Alexia doesn't want to count herself among the missing, she'll have to depend on Lord Maccon, the handsome Alpha of the local werewolves

The interesting thing about paranormal books is it draws a lot from other genres. Soulless borrows heavily from mystery and romance, but also alternate history and steampunk, which I haven't seen in a paranormal book before. In fact, this is the first paranormal book I've read that's taken place in Victorian England, making it a new experience for me. I really enjoyed the little details we got about the technologies that exist in this word, like airships and glassicals, and I hope the author will delve deeper into such aspects in future books. I also like how the author pays equal attention to the details of the time, such as fashion and food, giving it an authentic feel.

Soulless was a little heavier on the romance than I usually go for. In fact there's one particular scene were I do think it distracts a bit from the plot. Still for the most part, I enjoyed the romantic entanglements between Alexia and Lord Maccon. Although it happens a lot more now than it used to, werewolves aren't always cast as romantic leads. In fact they tend to play second fiddle to vampires, which does not happen here. This made me quite happy as I've always been more of a werewolf fan. I also thought that Alexia was a fantastic protagonist, given that she's so smart and opinionated. In fact I wish the book had focused on her a little more. It's written in third person unlimited, a tricky POV for even experienced writers. I didn't really like Carriger's habit of jumping from person to person's POV in the same scene. Although this is a valid way to write a book, I felt that the transitions were often a little jarring, and it drew me out of the story, especially in earlier chapters. Also, this method occasionally resulted in the breaking of the current golden rule of writing: show, don't tell, which was somewhat disappointing.

Soulless was a fun read filled with great characters, a fascinating setting, an intriguing romantic storyline and enough humor to keep me giggling. Although it is a somewhat flawed book, it's not too strange to find these types of flaws in an author's debut novel, which I believe that this is for Carriger. I do plan on continuing the series, as I believe there are a lot of great things Carriger could do with this world. I will be reading the second novel, Changeless, the first chance I get.

Rating: four stars
Length: 373 pages
Source: paperbackswap
Challenge: This book is not part of any challenges
Similar Books: The mixture of English manners and customs and supernatural action reminded me, strangely enough, of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (my review). The mixture of romance and supernatural is similar to what you'd find in the Sookie Stackhouse series (my reviews)
Other books I've read by this author: this is my first

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Tags: xxx author last name: a-h
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