Soulless by Gail Carriger – Audiobook Review

Published: June 22, 2010

Publisher: Recorded Books

Genre: Paranormal, Romance

Series: Parasol Protectorate #1

Narrator: Emily Gray

Length: 10 hour 52 min

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

Synopsis:

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 was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire–and then 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. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

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Another result of my unintentional purchase of extra Audible credits and a really good 2-for-1 sale. I’ve been wanting to read Soulless for quite some time now because I have a few of the other books in this particular series hanging out on my shelves, sadly unread. And oh my goodness, I fell in love with this book after about 4 pages (an estimate) and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. I was in an audiobook haze, it was so good.

Soulless is our introduction to Alexia Tarabotti, a half Italian, half English spinster with a sharp tongue and mad skills with her specially made parasol. She is stunningly intelligent and opinionated, much to the chagrin of her entire family, who gave up the hope of marrying her off before she even came of age. Alexia sneaks off to the library at yet another dull party, where she unfortunately comes across a half-mad, starved vampire who attacks her, despite her soulless state which renders vampires and werewolves both rather ineffectual. This launches a rather exciting series of events that involve her with the B.U.R. and the rather handsome Lord Collum Maccon… glorious day, those two so obviously like each other, but can’t bear to admit it even to themselves!

The story was well paced and just the right amount of supernatural and mundane drama blended together. Strolls in the park gossiping with friends, tea with flamboyant Rococo-styled vampires, and scandalously late nights spent fighting evil scientists with a penchant for cephalopods. Everything about this book was absolutely fun and there were several moments that I could barely contain my laughter. Gail Carriger’s writing appealed to me in her YA geared Finishing School series, but this is leagues above that in appeal!! I’ll be devouring the rest of this series as soon as time allows. I would highly recommend this book to fans of Victorian-era paranormal fantasy, witty heroines, and dry/weird humor.