Soulless

By: Gail Carriger

Narrated by: Emily Gray

Buffy meets Jane Austen in the first book of this wickedly funny NYT bestselling series about a young woman whose brush with the supernatural leads to a deadly investigation of London's high society.

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

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

First enjoyable audible read - made me laugh & totally addicted

I started and restarted reading this series of books a year ago and could not get through this first one. I recently started the trial of Audible when I had to drive several hours to visit a friend. I chose this book as an experiment. I wanted to ascertain if the oral presentation of the story would make a difference. It did. The performance of the actress who gave voice to the characters was absolutely marvelous. The accents and emphasis she applied to help the listener get to know the characters and follow the story line was transformative. In general I do not like romance novels or what I consider ‘sappy’ girl meets boy plot formulas; however, the author provided enough content, included my favorite ‘monster lore’ & enhanced the lore with her own unique tweaks and gave the characters sufficient personalities & depth to keep me engaged through to the end. My biblio-addiction is now complete. Thank you Audible. Thank you Ms. Carriger. On to listening to book 2.

Enjoyable Storyline

My preferred reading is espionage, history, biographies, self help and mystery. My favorite authors include Janet Evanovich, Dan Brown, Vince Flynn, and David Baldacci. I stumbled upon this book series during an Audible sale and found it enjoyable. I was surprised by the incorporation of supernatural characters. The heroine is strong and intelligent without her strength being attributed to a condition. She is a strong, independent character without being losing her femininity.
I have purchased more books in this series and I hope the characters continue to evolve.

Very entertaining

What's not to love...it has vampires, werewolves, and intrigue all wrapped up in a harlequin-steampunk novel.

surprisingly good!

I wasn't sure if I would like this book, but I really enjoyed it! It was light hearted, but not overly silly. It kept my attention without being too intense. I found it very enjoyable.

Fantastic World-Building and Characters

I read Soulless back in 2010 and loved it . When when "discovering" it became a series and is available in Audible I literally jumped in happiness.

I so enjoyed revisiting this fun , sexy and entertaining story , its original cast of characters and the phenomenal world-built around it.

As for Emily Gray 's narration , her voices for females are fine but her male voices aren't very good.