I'd heard some fairly good things about Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate on the YouTube community, especially in the wake of her releasing her debut Young Adult novel. When Soulless was featured in one of the ridiculous Kindle sales, I felt like I should probably check it out.Carriger transports the reader to Victorian London, though not the recognisable one; this London features werewolfs and vampires and other supernatural creatures living alongside ordinary civilians. Alexia lives within the upper echelons of society with her mother, stepfather and two beautiful stepsisters; and she's a preternatural-she lacks a soul and thus can disarm the abilities of the supernatural-which is how she accidentally kills the vampire mentioned in the description.I felt that the world-building was solidly done, and Carriger's tongue-in-cheek writing style really worked in tying together a historical setting with a fantasy elements. Although at times I felt that we were thrown into the world without much guidance, so it was occasionally difficult to remember who exactly the characters were.Speaking of which, Alexia is a good female lead even if she does fall into the cliche of believing herself to be unattractive but of course actually isn't. My probable favourite character is Lord Akeldama, whose flamboyance literally lept off the pages.Aside from the world-building and Carriger's fine writing style, Soulless isn't really anything too new. The threat did not really kick in until the last third of the book, and the relationship between Alexia and Lord Maccon was pretty predictable (could they go from hating each other to loving each other?). However, it was a fast read and I was fairly entertained by the story. If the sequel, Changeless, pops up in a sale, I may be tempted to pick it up.
