Alternate history, 19th century London. Steampunk. Supernatural beings (werewolves, vampires, ghosts) are an accepted part of society. There is also the rare preternatural being: a person without a soul (as supernatural beings have an excess of soul). Preternaturals are rare enough that there is only one in all of London: Alexia Tarabotti. She’s a mid-20s spinster whose dead father was Italian, and at the beginning of this book, she is surprisingly attacked by a vampire who is unaware of vampire/human/preternatural protocol.

This was a fun book. Fun, sexy, funny, all that. Only issue with it was the way it was written – in faux Jane Austen speak. I could have done without that. It would have been a brilliant book if not for that. But even with it, it was a fun book, and I’m sure I’ll have fun reading the sequels. Nothing much more to say than that.