Review: Blameless by Gail Carriger

Series: The Parasol Protectorate Book #3

Format: Paperback

Pages: 356

Rating: 4.5

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Romance

Publisher: Orbit

Synopsis (from 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.

BLAMELESS is the third book of the Parasol Protectorate series: a comedy of manners set in Victorian London, full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

Review

This one was definitely a (little) step down for me. I liked getting more information about the world and the players but one of my least favorite relationship story lines happened. It was definitely an enjoyable and fast-paced read but I liked the previous book more.

I think my favorite thing was Floote. I really liked him in the first book but he didn't have much of a presence in the second. It's like he and Ivy can't be in the same story because she had less of a role in this one. Floote is just so funny and I want more of him. I believe their is a prequel novella about Alexia's dad and I assume Floote is in that so hopefully I'll get more then.

And I think I've made a decision on how I feel about Madame Lefoux. I don't think I mentioned this in my previous review but I wasn't sure if I liked her or not. She's definitely an enigma and her motives are slightly questionable but I think I like her. And maybe I trust her.

Alexia is still herself. She's very funny and I love the way she talks either to herself or the people around her. It's very biting and she doesn't suffer fools...except maybe Ivy. Along with that, Ms. Carriger's writing is the same funny and engaging style as the previous books. I'm definitely going to buy her other books when I finish this series.

Like I said before I liked that more of the world was explored. Both physically and with people. Both physically and with actual people. Lord Akeldama and Lyell become more flushed out by being separated from Alexia and Lord Maccon. And since Alexia travels to France and Italy there are more scientists and views on supernatural creatures. Like Alexia I took it for granted that England was so open but other countries treat vampires and werewolves differently. It definitely makes the world feel more real. I would like more on the Order of the Brass Octopus but I'm starting to wonder if they will ever be anything other than a secret organization.

I'm glad this one ended on less of a cliffhanger. I want to keep reading because I love the characters and writing so much but I have other books I need to read first. We'll see if that actually happens.

Thanks for reading!