Review : Soulless
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Pages : 357
Genre : Paranormal, Romance, Steampunk
Series : The Parasol Protectorate, Book 1
My Rating : 
From the back of the book :
Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she is being rudely attacked by a vampire to whom she has not been properly introduced! Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire, and 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.
I’ve been juggling with the idea of this review for a while now, but since I’m about to read the next book, now seemed like a good time to share my thoughts on the first one.
I’ll admit that, at first, Soulless was a huge disappointment from me. Part of it did came from the book itself I guess, but mostly it came from a misunderstanding on what the book was about. I got my copy soon after it came out, and read only a handful of reviews before reading it myself. Still, from all the publicity I saw on the blogs and various websites, Soulless was to be a paranormal novel set in a steampunk world. While this isn’t false, it isn’t true either.
Because Soulless turned out to be more about a paranormal romance than about the steampunk world. While I don’t have some prejudice against paranormal romance (I even read and enjoyed a few of those), it was a bit disappointing to see how little place took the steampunk elements. You could have easily suppressed them and made it a victorian paranormal romance, without much changes to the storyline.
That being said, I did enjoy my reading of Soulless. After having taken some distance from it, I have kept a mostly good memory of my time with Alexia. She annoyed me a little at times, and there were some repetitions (mostly about her physical appearance), but the writing had some great moments, too. The book definitely gave me a couple of smiles, and while the romance was a bit too buttery for my personal taste, it will definitely please those who enjoy some scenes of romantic hotness.
Gail Carriger has a unique voice and I’m sure this will shine even more through the following books. Now that I know what I’m in for, I am looking forward to reading Changeless!
Series Reading Order :
- Soulless
- Changeless
- Blameless
- Heartless (date to come)
I am reading this one right now and so far I am liking it a lot, I knew exactly what I was in for …it also happens to me that I get into a book expecting something and when it doesn’t materialize I get mad unless the book is exceptionally good which is not often the case
I’m really happy to hear you enjoy this one! I’m hoping that, knowing more about Garriger’s style, I’ll be able to enjoy the next books more! It makes me sad when I don’t enjoy a book for reasons that have nothing to do with its real worth!
I thought this book was steampunk too! I’m drawn to the cover, but I’m not into romance, so I think I’ll skip this one. Thanks for your review.
I’ve had this series on my radar for a while, mostly because of the attention-grabbing covers, but am still not entirely convinced it’s one for me — especially with the paranormal romance. But I enjoyed your review!
Kathy : It’s still technically steampunk, and maybe those elements are more present in the next books, but there’s definitely a lot of romance in there!
Meg : The covers really are gorgeous. I have to say that, from what I know of the books you usually enjoy, this wouldn’t come to my mind as something I would suggest to you. But, who knows? Maybe if you gave it a try you’d be pleasantly surprised!