Soulless by Gail Carriger

Alexia is a 26 year old spinster in Victorian London. She is unmarried because her social life suffers because she loves to read and that she has Italian heritage. Alexia doesn’t mind her spinster lifestyle. It gives her plenty of time to study further and talk to her vampire and werewolf friends who are an integral part of society in England.

However one evening, while chaperoning her eligible younger sisters at a party,  Alexia encounter a very hungry vampire who actually tries to feed off of her. It is just socially unacceptable and downright rude for a vampire to just try to feed on anybody. But to make matters worse the vampire doesn’t seem to know who Alexia is, or what she can do. She happens to be the only preternatural in all of Great Britain. She has the ability to nullify any supernatural traits by just a mere touch. So if a vampire tried to bite her, he would suddenly find himself without fangs and totally human.

Alexia must assume that the young vampire is ignorant of her standing amongst supernaturals. When he fails to stop his attempts of biting her she must must fight back. She winds up staking the vampire with her parasol and a wooden hair pin. Now she has a dead vampire on her hands and has unconsciously thrust herself in a supernatural mystery. It turns out that rove vampire are being created but not by any of the local vampire hives. She must help the Queen’s supernatural task force in uncovering the perpetrators.

Unfortunately this means she must work with Lord Maccon, a werewolf of the aristocracy, and someone she finds very attractive. The feeling is surprisingly mutual. How can she do her job and navigate the social rituals of courtship at the same time? She won’t have to worry for long because the villains have found a better test subject for experimentation then rove vampires, namely Alexia and her preternatural powers.

Soulless is a delightful, witty, and quick read. I recommend it for fans of urban fantasy and Jane Austen. It is appropriate for ages 16 and up due to one sex scene towards the end of the book.