cornerofmadness 's review for:

Changeless by Gail Carriger

2.0

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They always talk about the sophomore curse when it comes to music albums and book series and this definitely suffered from that. Book two in the series wasn’t horrible but it just didn’t grab me like the first book did. For one, I got very tired of the romance-styled descriptors in the beginning. It was starting to read like bad fanfiction. Also, them having sex every night? Boring. And she’s worrying about touching him making him human (and there for aging) when they sleep but not during sex? With this much sex she’s aged him a decade in a few months of marriage. Once we get past endless descriptions of eye/hair/clothing coloration and just HOW Italian Alexia is (we get the point, she’s swarthy in a sea of milk white Englishwomen), the plot isn’t bad. It just needed tightening. Also the Lady Maccon, Lady Woolsey, Alexia interchangeablity in the exposition gets tiring too.

Alexia and Conall get caught up investigating a wave of magic that turns the supernaturals like vampires and werewolves turn mortal again and ghosts get zapped permanently. Conall takes off for Scotland without telling Alexia whom he has sent to meet Madame Lefoux, a daring designer/spy/lesbian who has built her an awesome parasol to protect herself in battle. Ivy, Alexia’s friend gets roped into this and later Ivy, Lefoux and Alexia’s sister whom her mother has dumped on her all go after Conall via airship (which runs with aether. Why? To randomly add steampunk elements? Dirigibles float without any special steamy additions).

Only when they get to Scotland, Alexia knows someone is trying to kill her and learns that her husband had abandoned the pack in Scotland, now run by one of his family minus any real alpha. She doesn’t know why there is bad blood but it’s looking like this wave of humanity is being caused by the pack.

There are elements in this that might make some people uncomfortable, like mummy unwrapping parties or Alexia’s reaction when she finally figures out Lefoux is a lesbian and has been coming on to her but they are appropriate for the Victorian time frame. What I personally had problems with is Ivy (not to mention Ivy’s boring romance subplot) and how Alexia thinks about her. There is seems to be nothing Ivy says/does/dresses that Alexia approves of. I have no idea why they are friends and why this person is in the story. Alexia just seems petty in regards to her.

One last thing that truly bothered me was the end. Stop reading now to avoid a spoiler.

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Okay, the ending didn’t work for me at all. We just spent the last 300 words going on and on about how Alexia’s touch turns Conall and all supernaturals into normal mortal humans (this is why they mostly hate her). WHY is no one thinking that he was mortal while having sex with her, and therefore her condition should not be so surprising. I might buy they’re acting out of emotional states and not thinking but if this isn’t resolved almost immediately in book three I’ll be disappointed. I got book three for the holidays and it’s about the only reason I’m reading on. I was that unimpressed with this book.