Changeless by Gail Carriger

Blurb: Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

Warning: Spoilers

 Changeless is the second in the Parasol Protectorate series. The first one was good, but this one is even better. We finally learn something more of werewolves in this world and why he left Scotland. Mostly Changless is better because of the ending. I never imagined this particular ending.

Changeless was as funny as the last one. Alexia decides to beat an impertinent soldier with her parasol; she gets hit on by a hat maker who, oddly, wears men’s clothing. Also funny was the image of her husband ending up human, stark naked, in the middle of London and meeting one of the gay vampire’s minions in that state.

The ending is without doubt my favorite part of the story. Oh, the other parts were good. Especially the part where she was pushed off the dirigible and nearly poisoned. But the best part was when he threw her out for cheating on him. Not that she really did, but he discovered she is pregnant and could not believe the child was his. He shouts and rants and throws her out. It was deliciously dramatic. Truly, he should have realized that she turns him human, with full human fertility. Idiot. I hope she beats him with her parasol in the next one.

Grade: B