Soulless, Gail Carriger

I’ll admit it, after reading The Maze Runner this past weekend, I was ready for something a little frothier. I needed to shake the horror of that story and get into vacation mode (I’m off to Munich shortly to visit my sister-in-law). I’ve already packed a couple of travel memoirs for my trip, and I have some sequels queued up on my Kindle that will be perfect for letting my brain completely unravel, but I wanted to get through at least one more of my new paperbacks before I hopped a plane. I’d like to say it was hard to choose, but really, Soulless has been gently nudging me for the last month, and this close to my trip, I couldn’t resist any longer.

Let me sum this book up for you by sharing its tagline: A novel of vampires, werewolves, and parasols – every time I glance over at the cover, I can’t help but do a little fist pump thanking whoever coined that wonderful line. After Monday’s foray into the nightmarish side of YA, I needed Jane Austen meets Charlaine Harris, and happily, that’s precisely what I got.

Feisty heroine? Check. A supernatural contingent? Check. Just enough “romance” that I feel slightly embarrassed that I’m passing this book onto my mother? Check. It’s like I petitioned the universe for the perfect novel to stay up way too late reading, and here it is, in all its sly British glory. Better yet, it has two sequels, which I hopefully will have time to squeeze in on my vacation.

Let me lay it out for you. This is not the book you read when you want to feel intellectually superior. It doesn’t have dozens of intricate layers to peel away in order to reveal the emotional climax of the story, or a plot that will completely floor you with its originality.  What it does have is the ability to make you remember how delightfully wicked reading under the covers with a flashlight was when you were a kid. It’ll remind you that sometimes a great book makes you laugh more than it makes you think, and that can be a real gift to a diehard book lover.

This book just made me cackle. Repeatedly. In a very unladylike fashion. I love books like that. I like reading to be fun, and as much as I also enjoy books with more substance, I don’t feel guilty recommending one like this, especially at the end of winter when the teenager in me needs to be released to have a little fun during these beautiful bright summer nights. If werewolves and British humor aren’t your cup of tea (I’m sorry – I couldn’t resist), that’s fine. Just promise me you’ll go out this week and try to have your own mini-holiday reading a book that brings out the sixteen year old in you.

Unless, of course, your sixteen year old self likes political biographies, in which case….no, I guess you can read those too (I suspect if you go that route, there will be a lot less giggling, but what do I know?).  As a little vacation treat for me, I would love to hear what books you choose, so feel free to let me know in the comments. After all, I’m always on the look-out for great reads…

To learn more about Gail Carriger, go here.