Tea Time with Alexia

Everyone who has been within earshot of me in person or on Twitter in the last month or so knows how crazy I am about the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger. Soulless is the first book, Changeless the second; the third, Blameless, comes out in September. Carriger writes in a sharp, witty style that hearkens back to Jane Austen. It's a comedy of manners filled with supernatural mystery and romance. I haven't read a series this well written in quite some time. It's also a very enjoyable read; I smiled and laughed throughout both books.

The series is based in steampunked Victorian England where dirigibles transportation is ubiquitous, and the telegraph has proven not as reliable as the aethographor for communications. Vampires and werewolves are not only out of the coffin and kennels, they are partly responsible for the successful war campaigns of the 18th and 19th centuries that resulted in the sun never setting on the British Empire. Queen Victoria, to say the least, is most pleased.

Alexia Tarabotti is a 26 year-old bookish and outspoken spinster. Her deceased father was Italian, thus the cause of her tan skin, dark hair and eyes, and Roman nose. Her mother and two half sisters consider her a lost cause. They have no idea that she is a preternatural, considered soulless, whose touch plagues any supernatural with a bout of humanity for the duration of the contact. This ability of Alexia's comes in handy at times, as you can imagine. Lord Maccon, Earl of Woolsey, is gorgeous and a werewolf. He is head of investigations for the supernatural counterpart to Scotland Yard. Alexia thinks her frequent run-ins and angry outbursts with Lord Maccon are simply an annoyance for them both. Little does she know what these encounters really engender.

Carriger introduces side characters like the dandy vampire Lord Akeldama and his gang of merry drones, and Madame Lefoux, a secretive inventor who dresses in men's clothes, who add many funny and interesting moments in the books. For example, Akeldama terms of endearment to his friend Alexia made me giggle each time: my little sugar plum, my dearest petunia blossom, my dear daffodil. Carriger has created a world that you want to linger in well-past tea time.

My incredible Brazilian friend, Vamp Angel, made the Blameless Count Down widget on the right. Isn't it awesome? I can't wait until September!