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Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)
by Gail Carriger (Goodreads Author)
by Gail Carriger (Goodreads Author)
Catherine's review
bookshelves: england, fantasy-paranormal-sci-fi, excellent, ghosts, historical, read-2010, romance, scottish-irish-celtic, series, to-buy, vampire, were-shifter, soulless, steampunk, read-2011, audiobook
Aug 08, 11
bookshelves: england, fantasy-paranormal-sci-fi, excellent, ghosts, historical, read-2010, romance, scottish-irish-celtic, series, to-buy, vampire, were-shifter, soulless, steampunk, read-2011, audiobook
Recommended to Catherine by:
Alisha
Read from July 29 to August 07, 2011 — I own a copy
*Originally read 7/4/10 - 7/5/10*
This book was, quite simply, delightful! I finished it with a big smile on my face and giggled almost continually while reading it. My husband finally banished me to the bedroom because I was irritating him while he watched a movie.
The world that Gail Carriger created was so much fun and so interesting. I loved seeing a familiar government amid the new and exciting facets of it. I loved the set up of the supernatural creatures and the singular abilities of the preternatural. Who would have thought that having no soul would be so useful around vampires and werewolves? But my favorite part of the book had to be the interaction between Alexia and Lord Maccon. Hilarious!
Alexia inherited more than her Italian ancestry from her father, she also inherited her soulless state. Alexia is firmly on the shelf and not really bothered by the fact. She goes her own way and ignores her mother whenever she gets too overbearing. Alexia is quite unlike any other woman of her acquaintance. She's witty, opinionated, and pragmatic, but can also be quite fierce. I love how prim she can be about some things, but quite forward in others. Also, her absolute horror about her friend's ugly hats was hilarious.
I really loved how Alexia's soulless state was emphasized. She can dress well, but she never can achieve that extra pop. Her choices always reflect a lack of soul. I thought that was a rather clever point to bring up. I also liked that the soul wasn't necessarily a religious thing. Multiple people had too much soul, although few had as little as Alexia.
Alexia's friendship with the foppish Lord Akeldama was great! He was such an interesting character. His mincing around and speaking with great drama always got a smile from me. I also loved his devoted, little harem. Three cheers to the author for creating characters that I love to pieces! One part that was so sweet was when Alexia went to wake him up to keep her promise. I had a total Awwww! moment.
Lord Maccon was so gruff and sweet. He was the perfect balance to Alexia. I loved when he was ranting about her ignoring him. He kept talking about how it was "her turn" because he made the last move. It was very cute watching him have to be reminded that Alexia is not a werewolf so she doesn't understand what game he's playing.
The sexual tension and eventual culmination of said tension was very well done. It was delicious when they finally kissed.
I can't wait to try the next book! This is definitely a series to pay attention to.
*Updated: I listened to this in audiobook for my reread and absolutely adored it. The narrator was fabulous and really made the story come alive.*
This book was, quite simply, delightful! I finished it with a big smile on my face and giggled almost continually while reading it. My husband finally banished me to the bedroom because I was irritating him while he watched a movie.
The world that Gail Carriger created was so much fun and so interesting. I loved seeing a familiar government amid the new and exciting facets of it. I loved the set up of the supernatural creatures and the singular abilities of the preternatural. Who would have thought that having no soul would be so useful around vampires and werewolves? But my favorite part of the book had to be the interaction between Alexia and Lord Maccon. Hilarious!
Alexia inherited more than her Italian ancestry from her father, she also inherited her soulless state. Alexia is firmly on the shelf and not really bothered by the fact. She goes her own way and ignores her mother whenever she gets too overbearing. Alexia is quite unlike any other woman of her acquaintance. She's witty, opinionated, and pragmatic, but can also be quite fierce. I love how prim she can be about some things, but quite forward in others. Also, her absolute horror about her friend's ugly hats was hilarious.
I really loved how Alexia's soulless state was emphasized. She can dress well, but she never can achieve that extra pop. Her choices always reflect a lack of soul. I thought that was a rather clever point to bring up. I also liked that the soul wasn't necessarily a religious thing. Multiple people had too much soul, although few had as little as Alexia.
Alexia's friendship with the foppish Lord Akeldama was great! He was such an interesting character. His mincing around and speaking with great drama always got a smile from me. I also loved his devoted, little harem. Three cheers to the author for creating characters that I love to pieces! One part that was so sweet was when Alexia went to wake him up to keep her promise. I had a total Awwww! moment.
Lord Maccon was so gruff and sweet. He was the perfect balance to Alexia. I loved when he was ranting about her ignoring him. He kept talking about how it was "her turn" because he made the last move. It was very cute watching him have to be reminded that Alexia is not a werewolf so she doesn't understand what game he's playing.
The sexual tension and eventual culmination of said tension was very well done. It was delicious when they finally kissed.
I can't wait to try the next book! This is definitely a series to pay attention to.
*Updated: I listened to this in audiobook for my reread and absolutely adored it. The narrator was fabulous and really made the story come alive.*
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Reading Progress
| 07/04/2010 | page 2 |
|
1.0% | ""I say!" said Alexia to the vampire. "We have not even been introduced!" - I think that's the first time I've read a reaction like that to a vampire attack. :)" 7 comments |
| 07/04/2010 | page 131 |
|
37.0% | ""Be fair, my lord. You undertook to ignore her first." "Of course I ignored her! It is her responsibility to come to me at this juncture. I made my initial interest perfectly clear." Silence. "I kissed her," he explained, aggrieved." 3 comments |
| 07/05/2010 | page 357 |
|
100.0% | "Fabulous book!" |
| 07/29/2011 | "This is a reread for me. I've got the audiobook and am listening to it this time around!" | |||
| 07/30/2011 | "Chapter 4 - This reader is fabulous! Alexia is spot on and she does a great job of doing Lord Maccon's Scottish accent. She's really making the book come alive. I'm cleaning more than I planned to today, just to keep listening. :)" 4 comments | |||
| 07/31/2011 | "Chapter 9 - This narrator is sucking me back into the series. I think I'm going to have to get my hands on the second audiobook too. And I'm going to have to bite the bullet and finally read the third book!" |
Comments (showing 1-50 of 108) (108 new)
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Vered
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rated it 5 stars
Jul 05, 2010 01:14am
Love this book!! Hope you will too :)
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What? Oh no! I didn't know that! I was planning to start it after I finished the Eloisa James book I'm reading. The first book was a lot of fun. I was charmed by it.
It does??? Where have I been? LOL. I need to add that to my to-buy list!I know what you mean about cliffhangers, I can't stand them. I read the first book of that series and didn't like it, but everyone says it gets better so I'm going to try again. I'm waiting until the last book comes out though because I hear KMM is horrible in this series with the cliffhangers.
Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" wrote: "Great review, Catherine."Thanks! I finally got around to writing it. I just read yours too and it was great!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I laughed so much and was charmed by Alexia and Lord Maccon's romance. I'm going to read the second book in a week or two. I'm waiting for the third book to come out too.
Yay, Catherine! This is one of my favorite books to recommend. Glad you liked it!Be sure NOT TO READ the blurb for the third book until after you've read the second. Major spoilers!!
Really? That seems short sighted of whoever wrote the blurb. It's sure to piss off a lot of their readers. I haven't even read the second because I heard it ends on an awful cliffhanger. I own it, but I'm waiting until I get my hands on the third book so I can read them close together if I want to.Thanks for the warning!
Silly of them, yes. Gail herself posts warnings whenever she can. And my friend Laura changed the page on here to incorporate a spoiler warning. It's annoyed lots of folks, so I make sure to spread the word!
I could see Rupert Penry Jones playing Maccon in that scene: "Of course I ignored her!" Except Maccon's not blond, is he? LOL.
I loved that scene. He was so bothered and she was irritated because she thought he was ignoring her. Lol.
Noooo, Maccon is very brunette! I imagine him as much...gruffer and a representation of pure manly man. Penry Jones doesn't look uber-manly enough. Moreso, he doesn't look like he would bite me and ravage me on a darkened street. Rrrrroawrrr.Catherine, I saw Gail's post but I still managed to spoil myself when I went to add the book to my TBR. Hence Laura changing the blurb on goodreads!
Catherine wrote: "Laurie, it comes out on August 31st. Woohoo! Less than 2 weeks to go!"Indeed. Finally get to read 2 and 3, yay! ^_^ I'm just hoping beyond hope that book 3 doesn't have some painful cliffhanger, as well.
This book was so fun to read...I giggled and laughed, designed new and pretty hats and parasols in my head. I'm glad that third book is coming out at the end of the month, I have been holding off on the second book.
It seems like everyone has. That's why authors should stop doing cliffhangers. Once word gets around, most people will wait until the next book is out before reading the one with the cliffhanger.
I think the narrator is very good. I've listened to her before and she is excellent especially w/ accents. It's amazing how good some narrators are. ON the other hand, it is horrible when you get a bad narrator. The bad narrators are usually the male narrators who attempt a young female voice- usually sounds like a guy who has been kicked in the balls.
yup, one narrator usually does all the voices. Sometimes, you'll have more than one but that is rare. Usually, the female narrators are very good at imitating the male voices. In fact, I remember thinking to myself in a recent book that the main lead male character sounded hot, only then to remind myself that I was actually listening to a woman!
My husband finds reading boring, but he will listen to audio books. I remember years ago testing out sound clips of the Anita Blake series and the female narrator was horrible! She creeped me out with her version of Jean Claude. James Marsters does an excellent job narrating the Harry Dresden series.
yeah, did you ever see Enchanted? My kids love that movie, and I didn't realize that Cyclops from X-Men could sing! lol
I did! That was so cute! Even my husband liked it. I loved how it mocked some of the Disney tropes and brought up how odd it is to fall in love without even dating. When the cockroaches came in to help her clean...*gag*Was that his real voice?
Oh no....hate to burst yer bubble, gals...but you might have James Marsters and James Marsden mixed up. I do it all the time...fortunately, both are hotties and have pleasant voices. ^_^Marsters - Spike from BtVS
Marsden - Cyclops from X-Men
I didn't realize that was the Cyclops actor's real name! I just thought she went on a tangent. I do that all the time. :)Laurie, I was talking about the guy who played Spike!
Oh no!!!!!! I feel so embarrassed...I so just assumed Marsden because of his voice!Ooh, but Spike? definite voice hotness as well. He's American, it would be neat to hear what he sounds like narrating a Jim Butcher book.
When I was talking about his voice I just meant I liked the tone of it. :) The first time I heard his American voice I was really surprised! I like it now though.
