Title: ChangelessAuthor: Gail Carriger
Series: Alexia Tarabotti, book 2
Genre: Steampunk
Published: 2010
Recommendation: An easy read for those who enjoyed the first book.
Rating: 6.5/10
Summary: Something strange is happening in London, where part of the city turns all supernatural creatures into humans. Alexia and Conall Maccon travel to investigate the strange occurrences.
Reactions: I imagine most readers who enjoyed the first book of the series would also enjoy this one. The atmosphere, humour, and characters are mostly unchanged and a few interesting additions have been made. There is adventure, Alexia solves a mystery (though a rather obvious one) and there is a resolution.
There were two things I disliked about the book. The first was that throughout the book Alexia and Conall call each other husband and wife as part of the dialogue. It's like they forgot each other's names upon getting married. There's plenty of: "What are you doing here, wife?" or "Husband, don't be alarmed" style dialogue that I found pretty irritating. My second gripe with this book is its ending. Firstly, I dislike that the author felt the need to start a new story at the end of the book. Secondly, Conall's reaction to the event is poor and there's quite an obvious explanation to the phenomenon that someone should have thought of pretty much immediately.
Changeless is a quick and entertaining read, but somewhat formulaic and predictable overall.
Although I like the look of these books I have not been wowed sufficiently by reviews to make me want to pick them up. Your review confirms what my feeling about these books was. It sounds as if they are entertaining and that there is something to them, but with all the books on the tbr pile the parts that need some polishing make me want to give them a pass.
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