Written by: Gail Carriger
Genre: Paranormal Steampunk Romance
Pages: 388 (Mass Market Paperback)
Series: Book Two (ongoing)
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.
But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.
She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.
My Rating
Must Have: while I'll always warn potential readers that you must be in the right kind of mood for this book and its humor, this is a heckvua lot of fun and it had me thoroughly entertained. Better still, this book managed to take all of its interstitial ingredients and produce a stronger, more cohesive text than the first, which was still really enjoyable. No one element of historical fiction, paranormal fantasy, romance, mystery, and steampunk really stands out as a sore thumb, but rather all of these elements seem to strike a rather enjoyable balance. I really love Alexia as a character, and it's fun to watch her interact with both her friends, her enemies, and of course, her husband. The ending of this installment has me dying for the next, and trust me when I say that if I had Blameless in my hands when I finished Changeless, I wouldn't have taken a break between volumes.
Review style: There's not a whole lot I want to discuss, other than to note how this book passes the Bechdel Test as well as talk about some of the areas this book improves upon in comparison to the first. Spoilers, I'll be good. I don't WANT to be good, mind you, but I will be. So no spoilers. The full review is at my LJ for anyone's who's interested, and as always, comments and discussion are most welcome.
REVIEW: Gail Carriger's CHANGELESS
Happy Reading!
ALSO!!!
Book club selections @
calico_reaction. Hop on over! We'd love to have you!August: Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
September: So Long Been Dreaming edited by Nalo Hopkinson
October: Feed by Mira Grant