Book Review: Soulless is a comedic, Victorian, paranormal, romance leavened with a bit of steampunk. The pseudonymous Gail Carriger seems to have checked a few of the required boxes. The spinsterish (all of 26!) Alexia Tarabotti has a certain condition (hence the title!) that helps in dealing with the vampires and werewolves that have integrated into British society (they're still outcasts in the colonies). But now some of the supernatural creatures seem to be disappearing and others are acting most inappropriately. Miss Tarabotti is caught up in the midst of a London replete with hunky werewolves, gay vampires, and Victorian mores (the Queen even makes a cameo!). Soulless is all good fun, charming entertainment, deliberately paced but a quick read, with plenty of chuckles to be found, and Austenish touches to boot -- Gail Carriger does it all. Not a lot happens, but all of it is enjoyable. Alexia is charming, romantic, heroic -- a character for our times, or those times, or any times. At times Carriger has problems with maintaining tone (Alexia breaks character occasionally) and balancing the Victorian with the paranormal, but all in all this was a fun read and refreshingly entertaining. And certainly different for me. If curious if this is for you, read the first couple of pages of Soulless and you'll know. A good summer-read, beach-read kind of thing; I'm reading the second one (Changeless) now. [3.5 Stars]
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