Heartless (Parasol Protectorate, #4) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jul 19, 2015 Joanne rated it really liked it

This one was so good!

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Oct 05, 2011 mussolet rated it it was amazing

Shelves: g-steampunk, read-notmine-sff

I will try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but if you're really interested in this series by Gail Carriger and haven't read it yet, you should start with Soulless and not read a review of book #4 ;).

I love the setting of these books, and "Heartless" certainly put Alexia into London society more often than "Changeless" or "Blameless" did. Always a plus, what with Gail Carriger's excellent depiction of the High Society, its rules, and its funny sides.

Due to Alexia being in her las I will try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but if you're really interested in this series by Gail Carriger and haven't read it yet, you should start with Soulless and not read a review of book #4 ;).

I love the setting of these books, and "Heartless" certainly put Alexia into London society more often than "Changeless" or "Blameless" did. Always a plus, what with Gail Carriger's excellent depiction of the High Society, its rules, and its funny sides.

Due to Alexia being in her last trimester, things get moving rather slowly. Alexia can't move around as easily as she used to, and this certainly elongates discussions somewhat. That being said, this book was perhaps more interesting than "Changeless" and "Blameless" put together, up to an extent where I started wondering what Gail Carriger could possibly have to write about in the fifth book, what with all those secrets being revealed a book early. I counted three huge ones (huge with all capital letters, mind you), and I have to say that while I didn't anticipate two of them, they make sense in hindsight, which marks some great storytelling.

Characterwise, "Heartless" sees some characters that might not be all that new, but certainly come into their own, or at least go from being mentioned to being important as a minor, in this book. Not many new names thankfully, the group of people around Alexia is getting rather complicated and crowded. Alexia tries to sort the relationships out in the last part of the book (which seems to work remarkably well. A bit too well, but by then you should be too engrossed in the story to notice such small things), and I have to say that I found that to be most helpful, thinking from where people had been at the beginning of the book to where they were now.

Ending-wise, I'm almost afraid of Timeless now, because "Heartless" had a near perfect ending, and was a near perfect story. I hope the fifth and last book can be as good as this, but if not, I can just pretend the series ended with this excellent installment :). ...more

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