Helen 2.0's Reviews > Soulless

If Charlaine Harris and Jane Austen's ghost got together and had a love child, this book would be it.

Soulless plays in Victorian era England, in an alternate world where shifters and vampires have revealed their existence to the common folk (much like a historical True Blood). Our main character is Alexia Tarabotti, a blue-stocking spinster with embarrassingly Italian blood and a preternatural - a human born without her soul. She has the ability to cancel supernatural powers by touch, which helps her deal with Lord Maccon (werewolf alpha and book BF material) and a horde of vampires and evil scientists pursuing her.

The Parasol Protectorate was different from other PNR or UF series I've encountered because:
-it's my first historical PNR read. Fun fun fun.

-Alexia isn't your typical eye-boggling hot heroine. Her big nose, dark complexion, and over-generous curves are a constant source of vindictive amusement to her family and societal acquaintances. Alexia also isn't your typical roundhouse-kick-to-the-ass heroine; she leaves most of the fighting work to others and uses her wits and spinster-hood to her advantage.

-the characters in Soulless are astonishingly blasé about murder and death. An entire organization is massacred over the course of the book, yet the perpetrators are met with nothing harsher than mild disapproval and an awkward air from society. Everyone acts like this is an everyday sort of experience.

-There is a flamboyant vampire lord who calls people "my darling" and "crumpet" and "honeybee". That was a new one for me.

-Accidental sex! Anyone know those MTV contraception ads that tell you "Sex is no accident!" For example:

Well in this book, it is. Blame the bumpy carriage.

I have no motivation to continue with the series at the moment, but if there's a buddy read somewhere I would keep going fo sho.