Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Review: Blameless (The Parasol Protectorate #3) by Gail Carriger

Synopsis (Goodreads):
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.
My Thoughts:  Give me a second here, guys. I need to cuddle this book close and bask in the wonders of pesto and bloomers and mechanical ladybugs.  *pets book*  I can't remember the last time I read an entire series that was so consistently fun and light hearted and still managed to give the characters such big (yet oddly subtle) emotions.  I might have to break my no bloomers rule and go dress in vintage clothing while walking the streets with my trusty parasol.  I'm just kidding.  I don't have a no bloomers rule.  Yep.  Bloomers are totally fair game in my house.  Totally.

But enough about me, how good was this book?  Oh, guys, it was FABULOUS!  Alexia was furiously heartbroken at Conall's actions at the end of book 2.  Being soulless and highly logical, she had a tough time working through the pain he caused her.  Conall goes on an epic bender as he tries to assuage his guilt over his careless words to her.  Watching him flounder through mortal mating rituals is my newest favorite pasttime.  The poor guy is so clueless sometimes.  I love that Professor Lyall had to prompt him to think through the particulars of Alexia's situation and prod him into apologizing.

The secondary cast of characters really shine in this book.  Ivy (along with her dreadful hats) gets an opportunity that calls to her.  Lyall, while covering for his inebriated Alpha, shows us why he's Beta.  Major Channing Channing of the Chesterfield Channings.... oh, heck.  If I'm honest here, I just like saying his name.  Oh, I just adore them all.  Even the bad guys are ridiculously fun.  Yappy dogs and all.

Outstanding worldbuilding and a strong-willed main character that can't help but find herself in the most unseemly of situations, have rocketed this entire series onto my favorites pile.  Gail Carriger's attention to detail had made this world come alive and I, for one, am glad to be caught in its orbit.

Other reviews in this series:
Book 1: Soulless
Book 2: Changeless

More books by Gail Carriger

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2 comments:

  1. This is such a fun series! I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying them as much as I have :)

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  2. samantha: Oh, I am enjoying them. I can't wait for the final book in the series!

    ReplyDelete