Review--Blameless by Gail Carriger (Book 6 in Reading Challenge)

QUITTING HER HUSBAND'S HOUSE AND MOVING BACK IN WITH HER HORRIBLE FAMILY, LADY MACCON IS 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 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 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.

**SPOILERS FROM CHANGELESS**

How I LOVE his new series by Gail Carriger! I was a little skeptical at first, but when I kept reading good reviews on Soulless, I gave it a try. Best decision ever! Blameless was wonderful and so worth the ever long wait! And my thanks mostly goes over to Jess at The Cozy Reader, for it was her reviews and recommendation that led me to read it!

It picks up relatively where Changeless left off. A few weeks or so have gone by and poor Alexia has been suffering with her family for this time. If you're read the first two books then you know she really is suffering, if this series is new to you, you must know that Alexia truly does have horrid family members! They take the phrase "family drama" to new meanings!

Alas, Alexia does not stay long as she decides to leave England and all the cruelty she has been suffering from the newspapers and just about everyone else. Everyone in England, it seems, blames Alexia for the fallout of her marriage with Lord Maccon. No one cares about her side of the story, for newspapers never lie! (ha!)

But this is no vacation for Alexia. She is determined to find information to prove her husband wrong. That the "incident" was not her fault in the way he thinks it is. But her quest takes serious turns for the worse, such as mechanical ladybugs intent to kill, more vampires and a few unsavory characters that Alexia isn't quite too sure of. Luckily she has her friends, Madame Lefoux and Floote with her. They make quite the interesting traveling trio.

This is definitely one of the best series I've read this year. It is entirely different than my normal genre reading. It's a historical paranormal romance--usually both two things I don't read all that much--but it is just incredible. There are times I forget that the time is set sometime in the past. There are some technology items that get a little confusing when describing them and how they work, part of the steampunk flavor I guess, but it doesn't really detract from my enjoyment, once again, I just roll with it.

There are quite a few LOL moments in here as well. My teaser from yesterday was one and there are still a few more chuckle moments. Alexia and Lord Maccon together are just to die for! Especially when Alexia finally comes face to face with him in the book and gets to have her "say" with him as it has been building up for quite some time.

Luckily, this one did not end with such a cliffhanger as Changeless did. The book finished itself off nicely with one or two somewhat loose ends. Really they were just a thread of info that we learned that didn't come up again, so it will have to wait til Heartless which releases in July 2011.

Overall I give the book 4.5/5 stars! The technological stuff derailed me a bit, but not by much. The book was well paced as Alexia and her friends literally had to move from to place quite quickly with the enemy on their tails. And there was still more going on in England with Lord Maccon being somewhat indisposed, leaving poor Professor Lyall to clean up after him.

This is a very entertaining series and one I highly recommend! Don't let the historical setting throw you off! There is quite a bit of action in here, suspense, some romance, and a lot of wit! Alexia's mannerisms are very entertaining as well!

This was my 6th book I read for the September Spectacular Reading Challenge.