Review--Changeless

Alexia Maccon, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears--leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.

She might even find the time to track down her wayward husband--if she feels like it.

I meant to make Gail Carriger's latest, Changeless, last me until the weekend, but it didn't happen. It was too good!

It picks up right where Soulless --see my review of that here--left off more or less, like 3 months later, but still nothing BIG happened. But the action does happen right away. Alexia is awakened by her husband's chattering with a ghost at the beginning of Chapter 1 and thus the adventure begins!

Sooner than she thought Alexa wakes up alone in bed and must figure out where her husband went and to do that she must talk with his trusted second, but the she finds the other supernatural soldiers camped out on her lawn and gets into a "lovely" conversation with one of them who turns out to be someone of importance. Won't say what exactly, although you do find out rather quickly, but still won't say!

Before heading off to Scotland after her husband Alexia does a little shopping with her friend Ivy at a new hat shop that her husband recommended and she soon learns there's something other than hats at the shop and the owner knows a LOT more than she appears to.

With more turn of events Alexia is about to head out the door to go to Scotland when her mother arrives with a surprise. And really, after Soulless and knowing her relationship with her mother, you know that the surprise won't be pleasant. I literally guffawed out loud at her mother's audacity to act the way she does. I really feel Alexia's pain in family matters.

But the big mystery is there is someone or something doing something that is making supernaturals lose their powers and Alexia is determined to find out what it is and put a stop to it.

She has quite an entourage with her in Scotland as well. But I don't want to go further into that because each one is a surprise! But there are definitely a lot of surprises in this book. Each event leads to something new and interesting and definitely intriguing.

The characters in this series are so fresh, which I will admit is surprising almost because this is only the second historical paranormal romance series that I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. Alexia has wit and a smart mouth and that's what makes her lovable! Her friend Ivy is her polar opposite, a bit shy and meek yet she wears outlandish hats! Her family--half-sisters and mother--are outrageous and not in a positive way! Conall can be quite the romantic too. His love for Alexia and his protectiveness over her well-being is deeply touching as well.

While the series is a historical paranormal romance, the romance isn't as frequent as in other novels. Yes there is Conall making many flirtatious passes at his wife, but it is not done in a grotesque way. It is actually sweet and if Alexia gets annoyed by it, she makes her opinion known and then it's just funny!

The ending, which I will not divulge in too much, is to die for! Literally! Why I hate these kind of endings I love them all the same because then you know the next book is going to be just as good if not better! That being said, you can expect a cliffhanger ending with Changeless, but luckily Blameless still comes out this calendar year on September 1. So the wait won't be entirely agonizing and there are quite a few amazing books to read while I wait!

I must send out a thanks to Jess over at Book Reviews by Jess for making the recommendation of Soulless that led me to this amazing series! Thanks again Jess! Be sure to check out her blog too, she reads a lot of amazing books too and sometimes gets ARCs so you can possibly get a review even earlier than I can post!