When the unexpected dashes you upon the head

Heartless by Gail Carriger

Trying to make a complete review of this novel will be difficult. I have so many words for it and yet none of them are proper. The wit, the surprise, the freshness, all exceedingly wonderful. So apologies in advance for being short-winded from all the exertion and exurbance just uttering the brief exclamations in true Tunstell style.

What a comeback! Heartless completely revitalized the series. I was proceeding through the novel with increasing expectations for a make-up from Blameless when Alexia Maccon took her parasol straight to my head. I truly did not see the direction the plot was progressing. Very few authors can claim that honor. Now thinking over the original three, I can catch the subtle foreshadowing and building mystery. The allusive little shadows ducking down the alley just ahead of me have been caught and made sense of. Wonderful! So many characters being unexpected and undignified. Misplaced diaries. Giant octopus on the loose. Oh my!

As always, the new characters are vastly interesting in your love or hate for them. The metaphysical relation between all the supernatural of Ms. Carriger's steampunk universe has a fresh rendition to an overwhelmed fiction category.  This installment certainly makes the entire series worth the read!

Here is to the conclusion I never saw coming!