Review: Heartless - Gail Carriger

Hello there.

Heartless was called, by some, a passage novel. That it was there to fill the blank between Blameless and Timeless. I agree partially.

From here on, there will be spoilers of Soulless, Changeless and Blameless. Be warned!



So, after our beloved Alexia manages to get back with her Lord Maccon, they go back to England, she gets her position back and they end up with still more problems, of course.

Because the vampires that wanted her dead on the previous book, well, they still do. And they send undead porcupines to do the trick of luring her husband out while some vampire finishes her off. I mean, really, undead porcupines? How cool is that?

Either way, Professor Lyall, the genious on the bunch, finds a solution - one that Alexia doesn't exactly love, that Lord Maccon doesn't like at all, but that will have to do. Alexia and Conall's baby will have to be adopted out. The vampires are worried that such a powerful and important being will be dangerous if raised by werewolves. So the Woolsey Pack Beta believes that it can be countered if a vampire adopts the child - and who better than Lord Akeldama to do it? Trustworthy and not tied to any hive, a friend of the family and always well informed, with an army of dandy drones, he'll be perfect to raise the baby in all the niceties of England's society.

Of course, Lady and Lord Maccon want to keep up with the baby so they rent the house next door and end up living on Lord Akeldama's second best closet. Secretly, of course.

Biffy, who is now a werewolf, because of the "accidents" of the previous book is having a hard time to adapt, so he's taken to the city along with Lady Maccon, Floote and some others, so to make everyone more comfortable.

At the same time, we have Alexia's sister Felicity joining the sufragette movement (le gasp!) and showing up to live with Alexia, since she's been kicked out, aparently.

Madame Lefoux is a rare show on this book, but she has a great part and a great reason to be away. We find more about Professor Lyall's past and it's simply heartbreaking, we find out more about the Woolsey Pack's past, how was the previous Alpha, we find out more about the treason that made Maccon leave -specially since Alexia decides it is important for a current problem and she must find out. We also find out more about Madame Lefoux and Former Lefoux, Genevieve's late aunt and a thing or two about ghosts, who seem to form some sort of... Whispernet... To talk to people who are away from where they are thetered.

Back to my first statement, this book does feel like an in between thing - it's there to show Alexia pregnant and to hold space for Timeless - but, at the same time, it's got a decent story in it and it explains so much about the past that I just loved to hear, specially Lyall's story and a lot of Lord Akeldama.

There're the food talks, the dress and hat talks, the setting of the real Parasol Protectorate - finally! - where Ivy Tunstell is nominated a member of a secret society and reveals herself to be not as shallow and silly as we first thought.

There is that one moment where you are screaming at the book "don't do that you fool, don't you know vampires??" but then again, you must forgive Alexia, she's enormous, she's in pain and she's trying to help while her husband and the whole pack is, well, locked up.

All in all, another one of Gail Carriger's masterpieces. Totally worth it, even if not her best work, simply because it leads to Timeless.

Oh, and I must say, it is NOT my favorite cover, right along with Soulless. My favorites would be Blameless and Timeless, definitely.