Souless by Gail Carriger

Carriger’s debut, a combination of paranormal Victorian romance and a comedy of manners is a fast and fun read.

The setting is Victorian London. But this is not your ordinary London, England. In this 19th century London, werewolves, vampires and even ghosts are accepted as a normal part of the population.

Bluestocking Alexia Tarabotti is a 25 year old spinster who doesn’t quite fit into London society. And it’s not just because she’s half Italian (her swarthy complexion isn’t the sought after pale look), outspoken, and has a rather large nose. She really is something else. Alexia was born without a soul; which gives her the ability to disarm any paranormal creature just by touch.

After Alexia kills a vampire with her specially made parasol at a party, she is confronted by Lord Maccon, the handsome chief investigator of the Bureau of Unnatral Registry (BUR), who just happens to be a werewolf. They dislike each other immensely but agree that this particular vampire attack could be part of something more nefarious.

As they go about their separate investigations, we are introduced to an interesting cast of paranormal characters. Lord Akeldama is a foppish but influential vampire, and one of Alexia’s friends. Then there is the feared Countess Nadasky, the Queen of the London vampire hive, and the Professor Lyall, Lord Maccon’s second in command.

We also meet Alexia’s family; her stoic father, her hysterical mother who cares only for the family’s societal standing, and her two airheaded sisters. We also meet her best friend, Ivy Hisselpenny; whose goal in life appears to be wearing the ugliest hats ever created.

Over the last several months, loner vampires and paranormal creatures have gone missing, and no one can sort our why. As well, in London, a new club for scientists has opened recently called the Hyprocas Club, which has attracted scientists from as far away as the colonies.

An unlikely romance begins between Alexia and Maccon and heats up by degrees, leading them into some shocking situations.

On a visit to Lord Akeldama, on a full moon night, Alexia and Akeldama are kidnapped and imprisioned. Akeldama is taken to become part of a horrific experiment, a fate that Alexia will soon share. With no one to rescue her; since all werewolves are locked up on full moon night, her fate is sealed. Or is it?

This breezy, funny paperback novel is a great combination of steampunk and urban fantasy, and is geared to a young adult audience. This writer is looking forward to the sequel, Changeless, due out on March 30, 2010.

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan

I love thrillers, the mile a minute action wrapped up in intense characters and exciting plots. And if there's a vampire angle, I like it even better! This book just came out and I had to read it as soon as it hit the shelves. Enjoy!

When a plane lands at JFK Airport and goes dark, no one has any idea the horror that lies within. Expecting a hostage situation, investigators are stunned to discover all but 4 passengers dead when they board the plane. Suspecting that a disease caused the deaths and fearing a contagion, the authorities call in recently divorced Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, head of a Center for Disease Control team trained to deal with this type of emergency. Goodweather is spending a custody weekend with his son Zack, who he loves very much; a weekend cut short by the emergency call. After they board the plane, Goodweather and his colleague Nora Kelly determine that all the passengers died in the short time between it's touchdown to when the SWAT team arrived. Following standard protocol, the bodies are bagged and sent to morgues in and around Manhattan. And that’s where the trouble begins. For this is not a disease; but something darker, virulent and conscious; a thing that has crossed the ocean to replicate itself on our shores. Goodweather and Kelly note that each corpse has a small, slit like wound on the neck. Alarmed, they request that the survivors not be discharged, but are overruled. Then when they check on the bodies in the morgue, they find they've disappeared. They discover that the disease is a parasitic worm, transmitted by a stinger, whose bite transforms the victim into a blood craving vampire overnight. They team up with aged former professor and pawnshop owner Abraham Setrakian; a man with prior knowledge of the threat they are facing. Setrakian encountered a creature known as the Master while in Treblinka, one of Germany’s death camps; and watched it glut itself upon prisoners too ill to survive. Escaping the camp, he pursued the Master, but never was able to catch him before he slipped away. Now, Goodweather, Kelly and Setrakian try to contain the chaos caused by the rising multitudes of undead using Setrakian’s arsenal of antivampire armaments. But within just a day, the houses of the City begin to go dark. Will they be able to contain the vampires before they take over New York City and prevail against the Master? Full of horror, terror and a sense of pervasive doom, this excellent horror thriller should be read with the lights on. A great twist on the vampire mythos. First in the Strain trilogy.