Parasol Protectorate

Parasol Protectorate, also known as the Alexia Tarabotti Novels, is an Urban Fantasy and Steampunk series with Cozy-Mystery & PNR elements written by Gail Carriger. This series has a prequel series, Finishing School, and a New Adult sequel series, the Custard Protocol.

Overview
The series is composed of five books chronicling the exploits of Alexia Tarabotti, a lady of considerable assets including large Scottish werewolf, battle-parasol, gossip, and treacle tart tenancies. Oh yes, and she has no soul.

Books

 * 1) Soulless (Oct. 1, 2009; 357 pgs)
 * 2) Changeless (2010)
 * 3) Blameless (2010)
 * 4) Heartless (2011)
 * 5) Timeless (2012)

Companion works

 * "The Curious Case" (#0.5; ebook; 32 pgs)

Publishing Information

 * Publisher: Orbit
 * The Parasol Protectorate Wiki
 * Parasol Protectorate ~ Author

Soulless
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?

Changeless
Alexia Maccon, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears; leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. So even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can. She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.

Blameless
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.

Heartless
Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?

Timeless
Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a dampener on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

Awards
2. Changeless 3. Blameless 4. Heartless 5. Timeless
 * ALA Alex Award (2010)
 * 2010 Goodreads Choice Awards
 * Finalist of the "Best Paranormal Fantasy" category
 * Nominee of the "Best Goodreads Author" category
 * Nominee of the 2010 Goodreads Choice Awards "Best Paranormal Fantasy" category
 * Nominee of the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards "Best Paranormal Fantasy" category
 * Finalist of the 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards "Best Paranormal Fantasy" category

Manga adaptation
Parasol Protectorate has a series of manga adaptation, Soulless: The Manga, using the title of the first novel, Soulless, with the second and third volume actually being adapted from the second and third books of the novels series, with no plans of adapting the fourth and fifth novels. 1. Soulless: The Manga, Vol. 1
 * Soulless: The Manga (with Rem)
 * Volume 1 (2012)
 * Volume 2 (2012; adapted from Changeless)
 * Volume 3 (2013; adapted from Blameless)
 * Awards
 * Finalist of the 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards "Best Graphic Novels & Comics" category