Heartless / Gail Carriger

Heartless by Gail Carriger (book 4 of the Parasol Protectorate). 385 p.

I loved the first book in this series, then didn't care as much for the next two. This one was all kinds of fun, though. Lots of balls in the air as Alexia juggles her job, her personal life, and her person (she's 8 months pregnant when the book begins). The solution to stopping the vampire assassination attempts was unexpected but enjoyable. Alexia investigating by pretending to be a servant seeking a new position while heavily pregnant was hilarious. And we find out some interesting backstory about one of my favorite characters. I had a hard time buying one aspect of the grand finale--c'mon, there's no way Alexia wouldn't know those facts about vampires--but overall it was so much fun I was willing to handwave the stupidity. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

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Blameless / Gail Carriger

Blameless by Gail Carriger (book 3 in the Parasol Protectorate series). 355 p.

A fun entry in this light-hearted series. Alexia travels from England to Italy with some friends in an attempt to find out more about her strange preternatural condition. Along the way they deal with killer clockwork ladybugs, an ornithopter, and Templars. There's also a bunch of werewolf/vampire intrigue in England, which includes Alexia's husband being awesome despite the fact that he's drunk (and broken-hearted) for much of the book. The couple finally reunite at the end, although I think she should have made him grovel a bit more.... I was pleased that Alexia seemed less like a knock-off of Amelia Peabody (the Elizabeth Peters character) in this one. I look forward to seeing more stories in this setting.