Changeless (The Parasol Protectorate) [Mass Market Paperback]

This book continues on from Soulless, I think that the books do need to be read in order to fully comprehend the situation and understand how all of the characters fit into Alexia's life. Alexia still has her parasol, but now an upgraded James Bond version. For those who have not read the first book, the series is set in the Nineteenth century where werewolves, ghosts and vampires are the norm. Alexia is the only preternatural in London, a person without a soul, who with her touch can take away supernatural powers. Alexia is highly intelligent, half-Italian and too brown, too curvy and too exotic to be considered attractive in society. Still Lord Maccon (a werewolf alpha) finds her very attractive.
Alexia is now married to Lord Maccon, and the relationship is still as unique and physical as in the first book, not soppy and romantic, but funny and entertaining. In Changeless we see many of the characters travel to Scotland to visit Lord Maccon's old pack. They are there to investigate a strange moving phenomena, where all supernaturals in an area lose their powers and stay mortal.
I found this book to be even better than the first, the writing is witty and sharp. The plot is interesting and the end of the book has a great new storyline set-up for the third book, Blameless - which I am now desperate to read!

Alexia returns in this second novel to Victorian London a happily married woman, still minus a soul and now the Alpha-in law to a large pack of werewolves. So when she awakes one morning to find her husband Lord Maccon shouting at their resident ghost about matters supernatural she decides to investigate for herself. She soon discovers that the werewolf and vampire populace are becoming human within a certain radius. A changeless werewolf is a vulnerable werewolf so concern all around - Alexia herself becomes under suspicion as her soulless state induces these very conditions. So in order to prove that she is not the cause of some new weapon she has to follow the source of this condition; leading her straight to the former pack of her husband in Scotland. Combine this with a French hat-maker, a scandal raising best friend, some attempts at murder and a fraught dirigible journey and Alexia's life gets very complicated.

Alexia is a brilliant character, she is exactly what you've always wanted historical heroines to be - sassy, feisty and a minefield of ettiquette. Lord Maccon is still all roar and bluster with his amorous intentions towards his wife still a principal distraction for him. Their relationship is still based upon wit and some dashing verbal altercations. For me this is one of the main appeals of the novel (and the series) while the language and manners are all very proper and correct, Alexia and Maccon are both incredibly forthright and often rude with sarcasm knowing no bounds. Carriger's style of writing is detailed, after all this is the Parasol Protectorate and outfits must match accordingly with accesories. In keeping Alexia's new parasol has received a Bond-ish upgrade and now includes poison darts, acid and other tricks.

The novel skips along at a good pace, each chapter leading you into the next until you realise you've read half the book! Its been a while since I read anything that left me grinning from ear to ear but Carriger manages it beautifully. If you like your history a little alternative, if you like your supernatural with a pinch of realism, if you think heroine's should do the rescuing as well as being rescued or if you just fancy something that will make you laugh out load every now and then - then this is for you. Read it's prequel Soulless snap this one up then order the next tile Blameless. Long may this series reign.

When a friend emailed me with studying woes and angsting over Literary Analysis I sent her two things as a pick-me-up via snail mail, a box of Chocolates, and a copy of "Soulless" with a post-it note stuck to the cover saying "the book equivalent of chocolates".

A pick-me-up is exactly what these books by author Gail Carriger are for me. They're face paced, they're funny, they're witty and they have that rare ability to draw you completely into a fantasy world without you even realizing they're doing it. In this instance the world is a slightly lopsided Victorian London full of werewolves and vampires, that somehow manages to be both comfortably familiar and completely fantastical, and most of all...surprisingly plausible. After discovering this world in "Soulless" I immediately pre-ordered "Changeless", and was not disappointed by my second visit.

"Changeless" picks up several months after the events of "Soulless" with Alexia nee Tarabotti, ensconced as Lady Maccoon and Alpha Female of the Woolsey Pack. Being wonderfully pragmatic in addition to having no soul, and therefore being a sort of walking antidote to the excess of soul of the supernatural set, Alexia is just the sort of woman to keep a pack in line and report as Muhjah to Queen Victoria. And, as "Blameless" opens, her skills and parasols are put to the test as she is faced with her first major crisis: a loss of supernatural ability is sweeping through London, and moving north and no one knows what is causing it. But Alexia plans to investigate.

However this is not the only thing on Alexia's plate. A regiment encamped on her lawn, a husband who mysteriously runs off to Scotland without telling her, a best friend determined to make a fool of herself both in her choice of headwear and her flirtations, a mysterious and not un-suspicious French Inventor and a self absorbed half sister who can't seem to grasp the big picture, all round out the things Alexia has to contend with. Oh yes and someone is apparently trying to kill her.
Like "Soulless" I read most of "Blameless" not aware that I was quite literally wearing a huge smile the entire time. It's impossible not to enjoy these books, they make me laugh and grin with anticipation the whole way through and I may even have told off a character out loud towards the end while completely wrapped up in the story (fortunately I wasn't in public, I've learned to read these books in privacy since they make me laugh out loud far too often).

"Changeless" is probably one of my favourite books of 2010 so far, and needless to say I'm more than a little anxious to get my hands on "Blameless". In case my boundless enthusiasm for this book isn't already clear, I completely encourage anyone who isn't already as hooked on this series as I am to go remedy that immediately and get themselves a copy.