Blameless

Blameless
by Gail Carriger
The Parasol Protectorate, book three

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto. (description taken from Amazon.com)

Another fantastic addition to the series! Alexia is such an amazing character...witty, adventurous, courageous...and generally full of vigor. I felt so bad for her when she became estranged from her furry husband. What develops when Alexia strikes out on her own, though, is the building of her own "parasol protectorate." Her friends and loyal allies rally around her...it was great!

I love Carriger's little additions, like how pesto was developed to combat both vampires and werewolves in Italy. These details really just make the story come alive. The storyline about the Templars was really intriguing, too. I can't wait to see if that is further developed. All in all, I can't wait to see what Alexia and her husband do about their little'un in the next book, Heartless.