Soulless by Gail Carriger

First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire - and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?






This is a book I have been wanting to read for some time and imagine the look on my face when I see that the publisher has all five books in the series available to purchase. I prefer to read a completed series because I get so impatient during releases and it allows me to read the whole series straight through.

This book is more of stemapunk with mystery. The plot was unpredictable, whenever I thought I had something figured out, something else would happen and throw it off the surface. It has a very unique take on the supernatural. I love the steampunk books because I am a huge fan of the Victorian era. The main character, Alexia, of the book has no soul and since she has no soul it neutralized supernatural creatures like wolves. I didn't really find a lot of wolf element. The book does deal with a lot of stereotype. I found this book to be a quick, entertaining, and interesting read with the mixture of fantasy,romance, humor, and steampunk! I really enjoyed how Carriger blended all of the elements to make one fantastic book.. It was a unique and enjoyable read. 

The Unnaturalist by Tiffany Trent

In an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in a museum, two teens find themselves caught in a web of intrigue, deception, and danger. Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large. Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals. As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.




The book is told in the point of view of Vespa and Syrus, and is written in third person limited. The world building in THE UNNATURALISTS is just incredible. I love the creatures, magic, and the consequences when it comes to using magic.The creatures, magic filled with choices when using it, all brought together with a unique story. I liked how the the society came around after the Telsa broke up and reclaimed London. New London began with the Victorian era never ending and steampunk progressed along with it. I found myself flipping through the pages eager to see what was going to happen next to the characters! I highly recommend this read!

The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch

When her free-spirited mother dies in a tragic accident, sixteen-year-old Alexandria Lee is forced to leave her West Coast home and move in with a wealthy grandmother she's never known in Savannah, Georgia. By birth, Alex is a rightful if unwilling member of the Magnolia League-Savannah's long-standing debutante society. But white gloves and silk gowns are a far cry from the vintage t-shirts and torn jeans shorts she's used to. Alex is the first in decades to question the Magnolia League's intentions, yet even she becomes entangled in their seductive world. The members enjoy youth, beauty and power...but at what cost? As Alex discovers a pact between the Magnolias and the Buzzards, a legendary hoodoo family, she discovers secrets-some deadly-hidden beneath the glossy Southern veneer.






I was very excited to read this book. I heard from a friend in my English class that is an absolute read for people who have read Castor Chronicles series, and I was recommended this book on Goodreads, and I saw it's has a dark, Southern mysterious essence to it, so I had to check it out. I'm a southern girl, and am always on the lookout for books dealing with the South. Crouch brings originality  to the traditional YA genre, but it mostly touches the some of the old tales in the South, like a Georgia society. It keeps you thinking a lot and wondering, like how the league is mysterious, what's hidden behind the locked doors, voodoo magic, it has a southern essence that makes you warm towards the book. I did like this book, it really did remind me of my favorite series the Castor Chronicles and it kept me not wanting to put the book down. The main character Alex represents everything society does to a young girl. I am currently considering buying the second book in the series.

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Hex Hall
Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters. By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire student on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect. As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

I read all three books in the series, and to be honest, they really are not that bad. In Hex Hall, the very first sentence that grabs you and makes you want to read the rest of the book, but you find yourself picking things that are from one very popular book series. Hex Hall to me was trying to imitate the Harry Potter books, only this time Harry is a girl named Sophie and when Sophie lost control of her powers in front of the public her father sends her to Hex Hall which is like a juvenile detention for supernatural creatures.

The books idea was intriguing which is why I chose to read it. Book two just had that typical love triangle that gets really annoying in books, and Sophie finds out she's a demon. Book three had to have been the one book in the series that got on my nerves. The plot just ended suddenly, and was too abrupt for example like how the whole war took five pages to write? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows used about 75% of the last book writing about the wizardry world war, wars can be written in books. Also the way Hawkins handled the love triangle within the characters was just torturous to those characters, I mean killing off the fiance? That's horrible, and the plot was too cliche. Hawkins also has releasing this year a spin-off series she is writing for this book series as well. I personally felt like the author was trying to copy the Harry Potter books along with the Vampire Academy, and the popular Disney movies played in the early 2000 the Halloweentown movies. I feel like I'm reading the movie because so many of the themes are so familiar.For example in Harry Potter, boarding school where they learn magic, courses to learn spells, powerful headmaster, relationship between headmaster and student, and student is chosen one? Then from the Vampire Academy, magic castle, vampires, courses learning how to fight, protagonist doesn't know their father, then learns the father is evil himself? 

It's feels like a lot of paranormal books are copying from the ones that are already popular, but try to make the story unique. Hawkins is not a bad writer, but there was too much hopping back and fourth between storylines, and I wish there were some more elements that she created herself than what was from other sources with the same source material.