Friday 7 June 2013

Book Review-Blameless by Gail Carriger

Title: Blameless
 Author: Gail Carriger
Series:  The Parasol Protectorate #3
Published:  September 1 2012 by Orbit
Length: 374 pages
Source: library
Other info: I have reviewed some other things by Gail! Soulless manga,  Changeless and Heartless.
Summary : Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.
Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.
While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.

Review: Alexia's life is really not looking good. Conall believes she's been cheating due to the fact werewolves can't procreate,  Victoria's chucked her off the Shadow Council, and Akeldama's left. Alexia has no choice other than going across Europe to find the Templars, who may or may not be useful.
Blameless is a perfect follow on from Changeless, starting with an upset Alexia and an even more upset Loontwill family. We soon see more of the Pack, Madame Lefoux, and everyone else. It gets going quickly, and is very fun to see develop.
Alexia's travels across Europe means she meets a lot of new people, each with their own funny things about them. It seems that every one of Carriger's characters have some little quirk about them that makes them likable, and the clock guy and  the German guy and the Templars are no exception.
The Steampunk technology in this is a little bit harder to understand. I like the flying things that crop up, but the train like things in the mountain-I really can't imagine them working.
What happened to Biffy. I won't say what happens, but him and Akeldama are really cute at the end, but I am a complete LyallxBiffy shipper. 
Conall's getting drunk is, put simply, hilarious. Formaldehyde isn't the usual method of getting intoxicated, but it works for him. Lyall's reaction to this, the challenger, and the whole mess that  his Alpha gets him into is why I like him.
Alexia shows off her independence a little more, as she isn't reliant on her werewolf husband. Yes, she's still with her butler and an inventor, but she does sort out things on her own a bit more than in Changeless.
The ending is really sudden. While the subplots are either resolved naturally or left to be resumed in Heartless, the driving plot line is cleared up within a couple of pages, which doesn't really do it justice.
However, by the end, you still want to carry on and see the further adventures of our preternatural heroine.
Overall:  Strength 4 tea to another instalment in a great steampunk series.


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Thanks for taking time to read this!
Comments are much loved.
Nina xxx

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