gail carriger Archives - A Bookie's Books

Last Book of the Parasol Protectorate

And with that, the Parasol Protectorate book series is complete!

Book Review:

Timeless is an exquisite ending to an even better series. I am sad to be saying goodbye to Lady and Lord Maccon’s love story. Alexia has been one of my favorite characters because she is unapologetic and so witty. It is so sad to see her go.

Book Plot:

In my last review of the series for Heartless, I complained about the lack of going to new places. I thought the story was just filler text.

This story made up for that a lot. We learned so much about the characters and the preternatural state. I suffered so many emotions; happy, sad, depressed, and hopeful all at the same time. I love how this book tugged on my heart strings. Gail Carriger did some daring things at the end, a couple twists and turns, that really threw me for a loop. I won’t spoil anything, but she really made a fantastic ending to the series.

Book Characters:

Alexia, oh crazy Alexia, I am going to miss you. While writing this I have already started reading the next series, The Custard Protocol, and I know she is in the story a bit. But I am still going to miss her perspective on espionage and protocols.

Lord Maccon is also showing up in the next series, but I will miss him. He was always funny, and I loved the audiobook voice actor’s voice of him.

All the other characters in the book are fantastic. I hope to see some of them in future stories. I love how Carriger incorporates old characters. It excites me every time.

Book Setting:

One of my main complaints is that we never left London last book. Guess what? We leave London!

We went to Egypt. It was so cool seeing all the lore in real time that the characters hinted at.

Romance:

As usual, the romance was a bit subpar because the couple has been together for four books now. I still love Lord and Lady Maccon even though nothing new really happens in this book.

Quality of Writing:

Carriger writes in such a unique way. The prose is always so light and witty. I love it. I am glad to continue enjoying her writing.

What I Liked:

Completing the series
Ending
All questions answered
Writing style
Egypt!
Alexia Maccon

What I Didn’t:

Honestly? I don’t have any complaints

Read This If You Love:

Steampunk
Historical Fantasy
Uncomplicated romances
Pregnancy tropes
London
Travel

Star: 4

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Book:

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Title: Timeless

Series: Parasol Protectorate #5

Author: Gail Carriger

Published March 1st 2012 by Orbit

Genre: Steampunk, Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 407

“Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire’s second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell’s acting troupe’s latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a dampener on Alexia’s enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?”-Goodreads

Adequate Review of Heartless by Gail Carriger

Heartless is my first Gail Carriger book review that is not 100% percent positive.

The Book:

Heartless by Gail Carriger Cover, Gray building in the background in a gothic architecture way, A woman with a small top hat and a pink dress looks into the camera, Heartless and Gail Carriger are written in pink and purple, — Heartless cover pulled from Goodreads

Title: Heartless

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Parasol Protectorate

Published July 1st, 2011 by Orbit

Genre: Steampunk, Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 400

Synopsis: “Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband’s past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux’s latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf’s clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama’s second best closet?” –Goodreads

My Heartless Review:

I hate to say it, but this is probably my least favorite Gail Carriger novel I have read. I love her still so dearly, but Heartless felt like a filler novel, something to pass the time between the next two novels.

Also, I am trying a new book review blog format. Let me know what you think about this in the comments below. I have been needing to change up how I do reviews since they are all getting a little hard to manage.

Heartless Plot: I hate to say anything necessarily negative in a review about Carriger, but the plots are all kind of blending together. Nothing substantial really came out of the plot of Heartless. Everything blurred together until the end. The ending was good, but it wasn’t phenomenal.

Heartless Characters: As usual, Alexia is witty and talented, but she is becoming quite a bit predictable. Does that mean I don’t love her? No. I still love the character, I just wish we got a bit more from her sometimes.

I wish Lord Maccon had a bigger role in the books. Sometimes he is there and sometimes he isn’t. I wish there was more of my favorite Scotsman.

All the other background characters make me laugh and they are oh-so-charming. I love them all. Madame Lefoux plays an interesting role in this book. We don’t see much of her, again I wish we had seen more.

Book’s Setting: I don’t think we leave London at all in this book. We don’t get introduced to many new places, so I do not have much to say about this.

Review of Romance: As I said in my review of Blameless, the romance is really dying out in this series. I think this one has less than Blameless. I don’t even want to label this as romance anymore.

Carriger’s Quality of Writing: Gail Carriger always writes well. Her writing style is so unique! She makes me laugh. She finds the best names, the best puns, and the best phrases.

What I Liked:

The Wit
The Unwavering Love between Alexia and Lord Maccon

What I Didn’t:

That this plot is pretty much indistinguishable from the rest
We never left London
No real questions were answered about the stuff we learned from the last book

Rating:

Plot: 2

Characters: 4

Setting: 3

Quality of Writing: 5

Ease of Reading: 5

I hoped you like this review of Heartless by Gail Carriger. Let me know what you think of the format.

Read This If You Love/Need:

Steampunk
Werewolves/Vampires
Victorian age
Ridiculously easy-to-follow humor
Something easy to follow along to
Gail Carriger

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 3

I Am A Broken Record: A Gail Carriger Novel Review

The Book:

Title: Blameless

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Parasol Protectorate #3

Published September 1st, 2010 by Orbit

Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk, Romance

Pages: 355

“Quitting her husband’s house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season in the third book of the NYT bestselling Parasol Protectorate series.

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.” –Goodreads

My Review:

After a heartbreaking, and utterly shocking, twist at the end of the second book, I almost was nervous to pick this up. I won’t go too much into it but Changeless had some crazy stuff happen at the end.

I was excited to see where Carriger went with this novel, and she served up a steaming plate of the best vegetarian meatloaf you have ever had. Doesn’t sound appealing? It does to me, so we are going with it.

I loved this book. I mean this is a moot point now since I always love her books. She cannot fail me.

The romance was like the last book, a little so-so but it did have a good tension aspect that carried over from the events of the last book.

We get to see so much more lore about preternatural and the supernatural set in this book. I love the worldbuilding and the new places she goes in this book. She is AMAZING!

I am keeping this short again because I have another review to do for this series right after and I just did one and they are all going to be the same!

Please read Gail Carriger, I will die on this hill. She is amazing and deserves all the love!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

Check out my latest posts here:

Another Gail Carriger Review?! Here Is My Changeless Review

The Book:

Gray background made of clouds, gradient London skyline near bottom, blimp at the top of the cover, female in blue dress and steampunk style hat holding onto a railing, title and author name written in blue — Changeless cover pulled from Goodreads.com

Title: Changeless

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Parasol Protectorate #2

Published April 1st, 2010 by Hatchette Book Group

Genre: Steampunk, Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 389

“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. So 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 time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

CHANGELESS is the second book of the Parasol Protectorate series: a comedy of manners set in Victorian London, full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.” –Goodreads

My Review:

I am going to keep this short since, at the time of writing, I have read the next book and am onto the next.

I love Gail Carriger, but damn she writes A LOT.

All of these reviews are going to sound the same because I love her books and they are all similar. They are all really well done and have the same sort of plot line.

That being said, a lot of her books seem to blend together, so I am not 100% on all the events in this book, hence why I am keeping this short.

The saddest part of this book for me was how we slowly got away from the romance portion of the book. There was no more slow-burn like the first. The characters are happily together. That is always great, but there is not a huge extent of books anymore. There is no waiting to get together tension, there is just them being loving.

We got introduced to beloved characters from the prequel series Etiquette and Espionage in this book. I was so excited to see familiar characters again.

I wonder who else she will bring in.

Carriger is so witty and fun. Her writing is always amazing and she definitely deserves the read. Check out my review of Soulless, the first book in this series if you are interested in starting.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

For more check out my latest posts:

Waistcoats & Weaponry Review

My Book:

Title: Waistcoats and Weaponry

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Finishing School #3

Published November 4th 2014 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: Steampunk, YA, Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 298

“Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style—with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey stowaway on a train to return their classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland.

No one suspected what—or who—they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all.” –Goodreads

My Review:

Like I said last post, this is going to be short. Most of these books are similar but still so good!

Literally amazing. While the plot and the endings end up being near the same, this one was probably my favorite in terms of plot. I think we got to see a lot more of the side characters in action. We also got a super dramatic end. I loved it.

The series at this point gets very repetitive. There is one overarching theme and they all follow the same structure.

This one does have a bigger focus on the romance and how Sophronia negotiates a love triangle. I loved seeing her fall more in love with my top choice (I won’t spoil anything).

I love love love this series so much. This book was probably my favorite out of all four. I highly recommend this series and this book!

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4.5

Curtsies & Conspiracies: A Review

The Book:

Title: Curtsies & Conspiracies

Author: Gail Carriger

Series: Finishing School #2

Genre: Steampunk, YA, Fantasy

Pages: 310

“Does one need four fully grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully grown guests?

Sophronia’s first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has certainly been rousing! For one thing, finishing school is training her to be a spy–won’t Mumsy be surprised? Furthermore, Sophronia got mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and had a cheese pie thrown at her in a most horrid display of poor manners.

Now, as she sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers’ quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship’s boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a field trip to London than is apparent at first. A conspiracy is afoot–one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card.

In this sequel to New York Times bestselling Etiquette & Espionage, class is back in session with more petticoats and poison, tea trays and treason. Gail’s distinctive voice, signature humor, and lush steampunk setting are sure to be the height of fashion this season.” –Goodreads

My Review:

This review is going to be pretty short because a lot of the things I said in the review about the first book still hold true for this book.

I loved it. I do think it gets a little repetitive, but each little adventure they have is different. This time they go to London.

This time we get a little bit more of the romance between Sophronia and Soap. It makes me so happy whenever I heard them interacting. He literally was so charming.

Felix, the other love interest, was also really charming. I think it could go either way and I would be happy with the outcome. But, I definitely would prefer Soap since he is such a kind person.

I love how Sophronia is not concerned with the romance that was budding up between the two men. She is not bothered but is developing feelings. She is more concerned with learning how to be good at espionage and about her friends thethan she is about the men in her life.

The names get even more ridiculous and its just so fun. This book series is just so fun!

It says YA but I honestly think this is for anyone. I think everyone should check these out.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4

Etiquette and Espionage: A Review

The Book:

Title: Etiquette & Espionage

Author: Gail Carrier

Series: Finishing School #1

Published February 5th 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: Steampunk, YA, Fantasy

“It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners–and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine’s, young ladies learn to finish…everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage–in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year’s education.” -Goodreads

My Review:

Wow!

This book was fantastic. I could not stop listening to it.

I have become fully entrenched in this world. I finished the series within a week and I loved it. I thought it was so amazing.

My grandmother tried to have me read these book for the past seven years. Everytime I asked for a book recommendation, she would suggest this book. I always turned her down and now I really regret it.

I had picked this up back in high school and I didn’t like it. But I decided to try it out since it was available on my library app. I am in shock at how good it way.

It was so funny and light-hearted. The series takes us through the whole schooling of finishing school, which I love books about school, and then introduces the act of “finishing” meaning murder and espionage. How cool!

This Victorian age novel immediately trapped me in this world. As I said in my review of Stalking Jack the Ripper, I have been getting so into these Victorianesque novels. I would like to blame Bridgerton, since I have been into that Regency era, and this is similar.

I loved Saphronia so much. She was spunky and loved all things espionage. She was a strong female character, but I don’t think she goes through a lot of growth in the book. Sometimes that is okay, like in the case of this book. That just is a thing I like to see. I like the see characters becoming more. Her growth lies in her skills but not in her personality or character in this book.

All of the other girls in the series were awesome and I loved Soap and the other sooties. They are all so unique and I cant wait to see where they go in the series.

I loved all the funky names in this series. They are all so interesting like Frowbritcher the butler.

It also has vampires and werewolves which was just amazing. Carriger makes her own rules for these individuals. The world-building just with the use of these two species alone is amazing.

This book is such a nice fun light reading. I believe the narration probably made this book 100% better. The narrator is literally so fun and makes wonderful voices for all the characters.

I recommend this to anyone literally. I apologize to my grandmother who I said was wrong for liking this book. Grandma, you were right and thank you for introducing me into Carriger’s novels.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie

Star Rating: 4.5