Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Etiquette & Espionage

I have enjoyed the adult series by this author called The Parasol Protectorate which features vampires and werewolves in Victorian England. This book takes this already fun format and ramps up the steampunk aspect of it a few dozen notches!

Sophorina is the youngest in a family of girls and when a mysterious Mrs. Barnaclegoose shows up one day offering to take her to a finishing school, her mother is happy, if a bit perplexed, to let her go. Sophorina is such a tomboy, it's hard to imagine anyone could attempt to teach her manners. She packs up a few things and is off. They don't get very far when they are attacked by flywaymen in airdinghies. They are after a prototype and thinks it is in their carriage. They get away thanks to Sophorina's quick thinking and bravado.

The story continues and we learn about Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality which is suspended in the air by multiple inflated balloons. We meet the young people who surely will factor in future stories and learn about this wonderful steampunk setting.

I highly recommend this to lovers of action, steampunk, or just something completely different. 

My recommendation for this book:   

Soulless (2009)

I really hope that the action and humor in this book by Gail Carriger continue with the rest of her series because I really enjoyed it! Alexia Tarabotti is a pretenatural, she has no soul. She is the oldest of three girls, 26-years old, a spinster. The BUR (Bureau of Unnatural Registry) has tried to keep her existence quiet but her files were stolen by the Hypocras Club, an organization trying to learn how to create their own supernaturals. The head of the club, Mr. Siemons, explains why she is so special.

Mr. Siemons stopped blowing smoke in Miss Tarabotti's face and blew it instead at the American scientist. "This young lady is a preternatural: a Homo exanimus. We have been looking for her since we first deduced her existence here in London. Which, I might add, was only shortly after finding out that preternaturals existed at all. Of course, if you follow the couterbalance theorem, her kind seems perfectly logical. I am surprised we never before thought to look. And, of course, we knew the supernatural set had ancient legends pertaining to certain dangerous creatures that were born to hunt them. The werewolves have their curse-breakers, the vampires their soul-suckers, and the ghosts their exorcists. But we did not know they were all the same organism and that that organism was a scientific fact, not a myth. They are startingly uncommon, as it turns out. Miss Tarabotti here is a rare beast, indeed."

Alexia shares her attraction to the head werewolf, Lord Maccon, and he to her, much to the shock and amazement of her family who had given up on her getting married. In this excerpt one can see the humor that comes with the Victorian setting.

"Well, my love" said Alexia with prodigious daring to Lord Maccon, "shall we?"
The earl started to move forward and then stopped abruptly and looked down at her, not moving at all. "Am I?"
"Are you what?" She peeked up at him through her tangled hair, pretending confusion. There was no possible way she was going to make this easy for him.
"Your love?"
"Well, you are a werewolf, Scottish, naked, and covered in fbood, and I am still holding your hand."
He sighed in evident relief. "Good. That is settled, then."

I am looking forward for to reading the rest of this series with great relish.

My rating for this book: ++++

From Dead to Worse (2008)

Another Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris. Sookie has returned home after the disastrous attempt on the life of the Queen of Louisiana by blowing up the vampire hotel in New Orleans. She would like to just return to her job at Merlotte's and just be normal but this is not to be. Having just survived a vampire power struggle, now the weres are infighting.

Her current beau, Quinn, has not contacted her, and she doesn't know where he is. Bill is around and so is Eric who has regained his memory. All of it. Sookie also meets here great-grandfather and learns more about who and what she is. There are battles galore in this episode.

One more book and I will be caught up. I still love this series. Sookie is a brave, and sassy young woman who is totally loyal to her friends and family (until Jason screws up one time too many). She is admittedly not very educated but she visits her library weekly. One has to love that!

My rating for this book: ++++

Dead as a Doornail (2005)

Sookie Stackhouse's adventures with supernaturals continues in this book by Charlaine Harris. This time she meets her guardian fairy who saves her from a person who is trying to reduce the population of weres and shifters.

In the world I lived in, the world of human people, there were ties and debts and consequences and good deeds. That was what bound people to society; maybe that was what was what constituted society. And I tried to live in my little niche in it the best way I could.
Joining in the secret clans of the two-natured and the undead made my life in human society much more difficult and complicated.
And interesting.
And sometimes. . . fun.

Sookie is shot and her kitchen is torched but she is protected and saved by the supernaturals and she is embroiled in the new leadership of the weres. All through this book she is trying to understand her feelings for Bill, Eric, and Alcide. New men catch her eye, too, which makes things even more complicated.

Still a fun series.

My rating for this book: +++

Shiver (2009)

It tore my heart out, because I heard his voice. The wolves sang slowly behind him, bitterweet harmony, but all I heard was Sam. His howl trembled, rose, fell in anguish.
I listened for a long time. I prayed for them to stop, to leave me alone, but at the same time I was desperately afraid that they would. Long after the other voices had dropped away, Sam kept howling, very soft and slow.
When he finally fell silent, the night felt dead.

Grace had watched the wolf watching her from the woods and had been mesmerized by his gold eyes. Sam had watched the girl watching him from the house and had been mesmerized by her. Until one day a boy with golden eyes showed up on her porch, totally nude and suffering from a gunshot wound.

He looked nothing like a wolf, but everything like my wolf. Even now, without his familiar eyes open, a little part of me kept jumping with irrational glee, reminding myself -- it's him.

There are many parallels to Twilight such as the love they feel for each other seemingly impossible to continue, the head wolf who teaches and takes care of new wolves, the jealous she-wolf threatening Grace with harm, and the theme of a sensitive sense of smell. I tried my hardest to not let Twilight influence my appreciation of this book but it was hard.

Fantasy romance readers will love this story by Maggie Stiefvater.

My rating for this book: +++ 1/2

Breaking Dawn (2008)

I have finally been able to finish the last book in this series by Stephenie Meyer and I am not at all disappointed with the ending. I can't talk too much about this book without spoiling the story so I will just say that Ms. Meyer has left the possibility open for a spinoff series featuring Jacob. There was a discussion about the difference between shape shifters and werewolves that seemed to come from nowhere and which gave me the feeling that we would see more on that topic!
This series was all about love between two very different people and the sacrifices we sometimes have to make for the success of the relationship. Of course, the sacrifices made for this relationship could be considered much greater than most of us would have to make but we are just ordinary humans after all, right?
It is a great pleasure to have a series of books that introduce new characters and situations. When you have finished one book you can look forward to the next. It's almost like reading one humongous book!
I am now looking forward to seeing Twilight, the movie.
My rating for this book: +++++

Links for Twilight

Fans of Twilight are eager to learn who will be cast in the upcoming movie and when will the next book be released. All of these tidbits can be picked up in the author's official website

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/index.html

and the official fan site

www.twilightlexicon.com/.

You will want to put these sites with your favorite links.

Eclipse

The third book in the series by Stephenie Meyer is just as exciting as the first two. When I was reading this book, I was transported back to when I was a teenager reading a romance book and I relived that giddy feeling gotten from fantasizing that two gorgeous guys were in love with me and protecting me against evil. Wow! In this book, Bella graduates from high school, realizes that her wish to become a vampire to be with Edward will cause incredible grief to her father, and is being hunted by Victoria, the evil vampire. The werewolves and vampires join forces to protect Bella and destroy Victoria and her band of young, out-of-control vampires. Everyone who has read this book is eagerly awaiting the fourth installment.

My rating: ++++

New Moon

Well, if having a boyfriend who is a vampire isn't enough, Bella's best friend turned out to be a werewolf, sworn enemy of vampires. Could she pick them or what?

At the end of Twilight, Edward and his "family" left the town of Forks, Washington, leaving behind a totally distraught Bella. She reconnected with Jacob, her Spokane Indian friend in order to satisfy her father's wish to socialize again. She discovered that if she involved herself with dangerous activities she heard Edward's voice, so she put herself in peril just to hear his voice again. When she decided to dive off a cliff for a thrill Alice, one of the vampires who has a not completely reliable talent to foresee events, reported to Edward that she made the dive, but not that she almost drowned and was rescued by Jacob. Edward, in true Romeo and Juliet fashion, decided that he could not exist without Bella in the world and went to Florence, Italy, where the only beings that could bring about his demise lived. And the chase was on!

When I read these books, I couldn't help but think of people with HIV/Aids who have a relationship with a non-infected person. On one hand, you want to have a physical relationship, but on the other hand you are totally aware that losing control could mean accidentally infecting your partner. Edward loved Bella so much he held back so that he wouldn't lose control and risk biting her and damning her to immortality even though she loved him so much that the idea of eternally being a teenager in love appealled to her. What a dilemma!

Now I have to wait for the last book, Eclipse, to be returned so I can read it. Definitely something I look forward to.

I would not recommend reading this book unless you have read Twilight first. Bella's emotional turmoil in the first 200 pages would be quite hard to plow through if you don't have the background to help make it relevant.

My rating for this book: +++++