
Author: Gail Carriger
Pages: 384
Published: September 1st, 2010 by Orbit
Read: August 29th, 2010
Rating:




Synopsis: 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.
Alexia Maccon's parasol had been designed at prodigious expense, with considerable imagination and much attention to detail. It could emit a dart equipped with a numbing agent, a wooden spike for vampires, a silver spike for werewolves, a magnetic disruption field, and two kinds of toxic mist, and, of course, it possessed a plethora of hidden pockets. It had recently been entirely overhauled and refurbished with new ammunition, which, unfortunately, did little to improve its appearance. It was not a very prepossessing accessory, for all its serviceability, being both outlandish in design and indifferent in shape. It was a drab slate-gray color with cream ruffle trim, and it had a shaft in the new ancient Egyptian style that looked rather like an elongated pineapple.Finally at long last the fabulous 3rd in the Parasol Protectorate series is released. Technically the release date was to be September 1st, but mine came in early. YEAH!! I had been waiting an age for this book due to the rather horrible cliffhanger at the end of Changeless, and all I can say is "phew!" and Carriger you have done it again! Now, I'm going to try and do this review with no spoilers for the other novels, so I think you should be okay to read this if you haven't read the other 2.
Despite its many advance attributes, Lady Maccon's most common application of the parasol was through brute force enacted directly upon the cranium of an opponent. It was crude and perhaps undignified modus operandi to be certain, but it had worked so well for her in the past that she was loath to rely too heavily upon any of the newfangled aspects of her parasol's character.
I do so love Alexia Tarabotti and her somewhat crazy notions. She, in her soulless state, is one of my all time favorite characters. I most definitely wish it was a possibility to float on over to 1870's London and be a part of that world. It is such a fantastical place of mayhem and gorgeous dresses all surrounded by werewolves, vampires and ghosts.
My husband thinks I'm a bit off my rocker with the whole vampire and werewolf regime, but I don't have much of a defense to it, so maybe he is right.
But still, there is just so much to love. With Professor Lyall and his brilliant schematics for taking care of a rather soused alpha to Lord Akeldama and his most wonderful drones. I do have all sorts of love and affection for Biffy his very favorite. I tell you, that little dandy can do wonderful things with hair. All this brings me to Lord Maccon. Dear Lord Maccon. What on this wild Earth were you thinking?! I mean to think that Alexia could even remotely have done what you think. It's preposterous!!!
Why must you be so gorgeous and lickable?! There were so many times I wanted to just hurt you, and not in a good way. Werewolves!!! What will we do with them?!
Still, this book was a wonderful story of parasols and Templars. Although, there was many a time when I would have liked to kill all the Templars, but still.... Such an excellently woven story with twists and turns at every corner. Carriger really keeps you guessing in regards to many a thing, but then again she is usually pretty good at that.
Now, I must say, that I had waited so long on bended knee for this book and although it was very much what I was waiting for, I still think that there were some things I dreadfully missed. I would have loved to have seen so much more of the lovely Lord Akeldama. He just gives me the warm fuzzies that one. I also would have loved to have seen so much more of Lord Maccon, possibly off of the sauce. Oh, and speaking of sauce, I was cracking up every time they spoke of his choice of inebriation. Fabulous!! But, I did still miss him and his wonderful dialogue with Alexia. I think it's because I'm a sucker for love and romance.
Now, for my favorite characters. Of course, Alexia is always number one in my heart, but you all know that (see review of Soulless HERE and Changeless HERE). I love her wit and commentation and that she see everything through such a different light.
Then we have Madame Lefoux. I love her flirtatious comments to Alexia and her manly garb. She just seems to be a the perfect fit in the books with her outlandish appearance and dimples.
Then we have Floote. We get to see so much more of him in this book and it was such a fun turn of events. I've always had an affection for Floote with his fatherly ways and how he just always seemed to know what trouble was afoot. Butlers always do make good sub-characters it seems.
Lastly, there is Lord Maccon. I just canna help myself. He may be a drunk fool most of the time, but he is such a sexy beast. I don't want to go into too much detail of him for the story sake, but even though he may be wrong, he is still a most gorgeous part of the character cast.
Overall, I thought the book to be a wonderful piece of work and quite enchanting. There were so many wonderful scenes and the characters are always lovely. And, with killer ladybugs, quite a bit of tea, extremely well proportioned white wolves, swarming and Madame Lefoux in a mustache, I just do not know how I will pass the time until Heartless is released.
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Wordlessly the Templar signaled and, out of nowhere, a bread bowl full of pasta appeared, and a carrot carved to resemble a spoon was handed over by some unseen companion. The preceptor gave them to Alexia.
Alexia tried not to be pleased by the presence of the ubiquitous green sauce. "Pesto will keep you in my good graces for only so long, you understand?"
