Loved it! Loved it, loved it, loved it.
I always get really nervous when I write reviews for books that I have such positive reactions to, especially ones like this one that have such strong personalities. This book knows who it is and what it’s trying to do and does its thing with aplomb. I happened to love it immediately after reading the first sentence, but I can understand how if the humor in the writing or the language she uses, or if you don’t like romances, or stories with their tongues firmly in cheek, or stories set in Victorian England, or dirigibles, or spinsters . . . or whatever else this story has that I shoved into my brain as fast as I could, if none of that works for you, or pieces don’t . . . I could see how you might not like this book.
Of course, if that’s the case, I also reserve the right to think you are wrong, so so very wrong. Please go marinate yourself in your wrongness. This book was a goddamn delight from start to finish.
I don’t even know what else to say. This book was such a perfect mash-up of things I love, put together in such a very appealing way. I haven’t read very many steampunk books, and I usually avoid books about werewolves and vampires unless they are heavily recommended, but the slightly skewed Victorian setting, proceeding form an alternate history where after the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, the world’s vampires and werewolves came out of the shadows to live among polite society, immediately caught my imagination. The narrator had this sassy and perfect attitude, and our main character Alexia herself, not to mention the werewolf Lord Maccon, were instantly lovable. I’m not usually into werewolves, but DAMN SON.
It’s just, it feels like this book is mine. I can see myself becoming quite obsessed with it. It’s honestly not even that great! I mean, it’s great. Lies. What I mean is that nothing it does hasn’t been done before, but the way it’s all put together made it seem like I’d never read anything like it before. I was giggling through half of it and swooning through more, and then being super creeped out, and then back to swooning. Literally the only complaint I have is that the narrator was a bit unidentifiable. It was a closed third person, yet also seemed to be omniscient, and switched from character to character depending on the paragraph. But I was willing to forgive it that slight misstep because SO MUCH FUN.
If you like any of the following things, read this book immediately:
- Sass.
- A story about vampires and werewolves that doesn’t make you want to rip your hair out.
- A satisfying romance between two stubborn, opinionated people.
- Good sexy times.
- Dirigibles, clockwork items, bustles, parasols, carriages and other such items.
- Really creepy bad guys.
- Seriously though the kissing.
I loved, loved, loved this book! And I met the author last year at a book signing. She’s super cool and signed my outfit. The next two in the series are good as well, but I found the 4th one a little out there.
I met her last year at the Tucson Festival of Books, which is why I ended up finally wanting to read this series. She’s so fun! My copy is signed :) There’s no way you can go to a signing with an author that fun and not walk out of there having purchased at least the first book.
Oh yeah, she’s awesome. She’s totally the type of author you’d want to go out for coffee with.
I’d forgotten to bring my book to the signing, but I was at a Steampunk Con, so I asked her to sign my costume instead. I thought she’d be weird about it, but she was totally cool with it :)
I’d imagine that authors get asked to sign a lot weirder things than your costume!
LOVED this book! The rest of the series has some ups and downs, but obviously worth the read.
She also did a YA series, set in the same world, but 25 years before the events of Soulless. It continues the trend of sass and excellent descriptions of food, clothes and machinery.
Oh, I fully intend to now read all the YA books and the Custard Protocol books that follow these ones. I’m totally in for this author now.
So glad you liked it. I was very taken with the first book, but thought the rest of the series varied wildly in quality. I’ve read and very much enjoyed two of the books in her YA series (a sort of prequel to these) and now that that series is finished, I really should read the last two. I suspect I am going to have to read the Custard Protocol books as well. The author sounds like so much fun. I bet she won’t come to any signings in Norway, though.
This is such a great series! Such fun, such sass, such imagination!
I feel weird about this book. I really enjoyed reading it but don’t feel much of a pull to read more? What is that?
I don’t know! I saw you only rated it three stars, so you can’t have liked it that much. I’m writing my review of the second book right now and currently pulling my hair out. I was almost finished with it and my browser crashed. Never write your reviews at GR.
Idk, I think of three stars as “liked it but didn’t love it.” Four stars is “LOVED IT,” and five stars is “loved it so much I can’t be rational about it.”
(Also browsers crashing is like your entire printed out novel being blown into a lake full of eels.)
I’m seriously so mad. Also, I even copy and pasted it in case that happened, but then like a dummy I forgot and copy and pasted something else afterwards.